The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) said it has tallied more than 60 incidents in which journalists covering demonstrations over death of George Floyd during the course of his arrest by Minneapolis police were attacked, arrested or harassed by protesters or police in the past 48 hours alone.
RTDNA Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Dan Shelley called the situation “calamitous” and “harming the public at large.”
“Journalists shouldn’t be the story,” Shelley said. “It is calamitous to see all of these journalists who are merely serving the public by covering these incidents of civil unrest being wantonly attacked. … Journalists are representatives of the public and are there to serve the public and to tell the stories of the protesters and of the elected and other public officials trying to deal with the situation.”
