"Both Lemon and Fort had livestreamed the Jan. 18 protest, where activists disrupted a service at Cities Church in St. Paul in protest of a pastor there who also worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In an X post announcing Lemon's and Fort's arrests, Bondi characterized their involvement as part of a "coordinated attack" on the church. Both Lemon and Fort have said they were at the event as journalists documenting a newsworthy event, not as protesters."
""This is not a matter of being cited or detained on the scene. This is a matter of their opening an investigation (and) actively pursuing him weeks after the fact," Freedom of the Press Foundation chief of advocacy Seth Stern said. "It's... more of an escalation than an officer on the street ticketing or arresting somebody. These aren't low level officers from a municipal police force. This is coming from the highest level of government.""
Two journalists livestreamed a Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul targeting a pastor who also worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Authorities announced arrests and characterized the journalists' involvement as part of a "coordinated attack," while the journalists say they were documenting a newsworthy event as reporters rather than protesting. Press freedom groups and media leaders condemned the arrests as escalatory and possibly retaliatory, citing lack of transparency in the charges. The Freedom of the Press Foundation called the investigation an escalation coming from high-level government. Poynter warned against using criminal charges to intimidate journalists.
Read at Poynter
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