OPC Forum: Who Is a Journalist?
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
MetroFocus Web Editor John Farley, kneeling, was arrested while reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protest. Farley was working on a story about citizen journalism at the time.
Like the Arab Spring uprisings and the ongoing repression of free speech in China, the current Occupy Wall Street protests again raise the issue: Who should be recognized as a journalist? OPC members: log in and tell us your views on this issue, which expands along with all the new means of communication.
Several reporters and photographers have been roughed up and arrested while trying to cover the OWS demonstrations. Many Internet bloggers and posters for social networks have been prevented from acting as journalists on the ground that they lack a New York Police Department press card.
The police have said it was "inadvertent" that cameraman Roy Isen of a Fox TV crew was pepper-sprayed in the eyes, while his partner, reporter Dick Brennan, was punched in the stomach with a police baton. They had their press cards. But Kristen Gwynne of the AlterNet webmagazine and freelancer Natasha Lennard, who contributes to a New York Times blog, both were among the 700 people arrested on the OWS march across the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1, and were held for five hours, according to Reporters Without Borders. A week earlier, RWB said, John Farley, a journalist with MetroFocus magazine, was held for eight hours. None of these three had the NYPD credentials.
The OPC's Freedom of the Press Committee has always supported Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says unequivocally that "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Taken literally, this means that anyone qualifies as a journalist. RWB, without going that far, says the police have no right to their own definition.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, on the other hand, says it has no rigid definition of journalists and applies a common-sense, case-by-case approach. "We try to be as inclusive as possible," says executive director Joel Simon, "particularly in repressive countries where the mainstream media is closed to critical views." CPJ has defended numerous bloggers with dissenting political views.
Among the questions that the Freedom of the Press Committee sees as important:
- Is a person without any affiliation with a recognized journalistic organization a journalist? Does this apply to people with periodic blogs, those with Facebook followers, and Twitter posters?
- Should journalists have any privileges not granted to ordinary citizens? What do these rights include?
- Does any organization (for instance, the NYPD, a political campaign, the White House) have the right to issue credentials to journalists and exclude from events people without those cards?
- Does journalistic status imply any obligation to fairness or objectivity? Does a journalist forfeit this status by taking sides or joining a demonstration s/he is covering?
- Are there other questions that bear on this issue?
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One way to look at the issue is this: What would you look for if you were hiring a journalist? If I were writing a job offer it might look like this: “Wanted: adult dedicated to sharing information with a public eager to know more about a story in the news, or to learn unknowns.. Must bave honed skills in communicating, clear and concise narrative style, endless curiosity, learned and intuitive awareness of newsworthiness, above all, both courage and integrity Quick wit, humour, and healthy skepticism (stopping short of cynicism) are essential as well. Life experience should include varied jobs since ‘writing school paper single handed at age 15’. Training in journalism or a graduates degree in politics or history are positives.
I do know, have known, admired such men and women. If someone with all those features showed up,or even someone who could only score 50 percent in some of those categories, he or she would get the job. If only I had one to offer.
Until this forum forced me to think about it, I hadn't realized how complicated it is to define a journalist, although I had been one all my life. Of course, it never was easy to identify a journalist, since it is not a profession and does not require academic certification or a license. But the proliferation of new kinds of journalists and the various drafts of the Shield Law that has languished in Congress now for several years have created much of the complication. In the latest draft of the Shield Law, introduced by Rep. Mike Pence in September, you find a "covered person" (i.e. a journalist) defined as:
"a person who regularly gathers, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports or publishes news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain and includes a supervisor, employer, parent, subsidiary, or affiliates of such covered person."
That's fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. What about a blogger or the owner of a website? They may be thoroughly competent and serious, but if they are not paid, does that mean they aren't covered? What about a retired journalist who writes pro bono stuff? Or a politician or a minister who contributes op-ed articles? What about all those celebrity publications, writers, and photographers who never touch a matter of public interest? (Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind if the latter weren't covered.) What about a freelancer who works for less than "substantial financial gain?"
The Shield Law, as just drafted by Pence, would define a journalist according to his or her employment (the status basis). The other way to define a journalist would be by function -- was the person engaged in an act of reporting, photographing, etc., an event of public interest? That would seem to be a better definition. But then would a casual bystander who uses his cell phone camera to take pictures of a newsworthy event and then disseminates the picture be covered? So even with a functional definition, you run into difficulties in deciding who is a journalist.
By the nature of the trade, being open to almost anyone with talent and luck, journalism is hard to define. I don't think any act of Congress will make a clear and useful definition. It might come about by the gradual accumulation of case law. But in any case, I think the functional approach is better than the status basis.
Thanks, Jeremy. Status/function is a useful distinction, and I agree with you.
Since the forum was posted, there have been a series of events at Occupy demonstrations across the country that bear on our discussion:
* In the last week of October, police in Oakland, Calif., fired a rubber bullet at video reporter Scott Campbell as he was covering a confrontation with protesters. When the incident was reported on Nov. 7, embarrassed officials conceded an "unprovoked and inappropriate show of force."
* In Atlanta, two student journalists, Alisen Redmond, news editor of the Kennesaw State University Sentinel, and Judith Kim, a photographer for the Georgia State Signal, were arrested while covering protests on Nov. 6. They were held for 14 hours before being released and charged with "obstruction of traffic." However, police had already closed the street to traffic. Kim was wearing a Signal T-shirt, but did not have her press pass with her; Redmond had and showed her press credentials.
* A week earlier, police in Nashville arrested Malina Chavez-Shannon, a photojournalist at Middle Tennessee State University, covering the Occupy Nashville protest. John Meador of the Nashville Scene Reporter was also arrested, in spite of twice showing his press pass, and has been charged with "criminal trespass" and "public intoxication."
* In Milwaukee, Krystina Wentz-Graff, a photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was arrested on Nov. 2 and released without charge. Susie Cagle, a freelance journalist and cartoonist, was held for 14 hours and charged with illegal assembly.
It seems clear that the police in several cities are trying to suppress coverage of these events. Posssession of a press pass is no protection, but undocumented journalists seem to be fair game for harassment, and bloggers and other online journalists may be equated with the protesters. All this underscores the questions posed by the forum.