Can journalists be prosecuted for covering a protest?

“Ten years in prison for being on the ground at a protest… It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd.”

The arrest of two journalists who were covering a Minneapolis protest is sparking concerns around how far the Trump administration will go to prosecute reporters and target coverage it sees as hostile.

Former CNN host Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort were arrested January 30 in connection with their reporting on a protest that disrupted a church service. Both were released soon after, but they face charges under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a Reconstruction-era law meant to protect civil rights; and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a statute originally intended to prevent intimidation at medical facilities and religious services. If convicted, they could face up to ten years in prison.

Senior Digital Editor David Ritsher spoke with Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists about what these arrests signal for press freedom in the US and why the implications go way beyond this one case.

Jacobsen notes the striking irony: laws meant to protect the First Amendment are now being used to stifle free speech. “If you can arrest a journalist, what value is the First Amendment anymore?” she said. “It really strains credulity to think that this is what the Founding Fathers intended when enshrining those rights.”