Journalist Released After Being Jailed For Covering Dakota Access Pipeline Protests

Photo: Diego G Diaz / Shutterstock.com

The Dakota Access Pipeline faces a lot of opposition from environmentalists and Native American groups which say that the pipeline will destroy sacred burial sites and be a threat to their drinking water. The response, from the North Dakota state government and local police, has been resoundingly un-American.

In addition to claims of excessive violence in stopping the protests, reporter and activist Amy Goodman, was arrested for covering the protest, accused of trespassing and participating in a riot. A judge dismissed these charges, as they were obviously trumped up in order to punish a reporter for doing her job.

Goodman is not the first reporter that has been attacked in this way, and won’t be the last, as the state of North Dakota has made it clear that they do not respect freedom of the press or the rights of Americans, Native or otherwise. The project has received a lot of bad press, and videos of security personal attacking protestors with dogs quickly made the rounds of the Internet, surpassing 14 millions views in a matter of days.

This adds to the disturbing trend of militarized police reacting violently to peaceful protestors, and the unsubtle desires of the state to use laws as a club against the free press. A press which cannot report on events without fear of being punished for it is one of, if not the, gravest violations of the Constitution and the entire spirit of the American experiment.

Jailing journalists is something that other states, like Russia, Iran, or China, do regularly, and which receive worldwide condemnation, not the least of which come form American pundits and politicians. That those same pundits and politicians seem to be pretty quiet on the issue when it happens in their own country is a troubling sign, and one which could have grave consequences for all Americans, not just journalists.