Guild Freelancers

At least six journalists were plastic-shackled for hours or hauled off to jail while on assignment during Saturday’s Occupy Oakland melee with police.

National and local leaders of the Guild, NABET and the Society of Professional Journalists sent a letter to East Bay authorities demanding better treatment.

Jon Brooks spooled some of the “dramatic tweets” from reporters on the KQED blog, news Fix. One of the journalists, Susie Cagle, a member of the Guild Freelancers, was collared for the second time while covering Occupy. She wrote about her experience for the UK Guardian:

“I heard no dispersal order – only an announcement to “submit to the arrest.”

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By Gavin Aronsen| Mother Jones

Police round up OO protesters: Spencer Mills (@OakFoSho)

On Saturday, Occupy Oakland re-entered the national spotlight during a day-long effort to take over an empty building and transform it into a social center. Oakland police thwarted the efforts, arresting more than 400 people in the process, primarily during a mass nighttime arrest outside a downtown YMCA. That number included at least six journalists, myself included, in direct violation of OPD media relations policy that states, “Even after a dispersal order has been given, clearly identified media shall be permitted to carry out their professional duties in any area where arrests are being made unless their presence would unduly interfere with the enforcement action.”*

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Net trounces film industry

Cheezburger's Ben Huh debated NBC v.p. Rick Cotton on the PBS NewsHour.

This morning,  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  delayed a scheduled Jan. 24 vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA).  Also this morning, House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith announced he is indefinitely postponing any consideration of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved,”  said Reid in scuttling the vote.

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