NarcoNews Reporter Among Many Press Arrested in NYC

August 31, 2004
Please Distribute Widely

Dear Colleague,

Any aid given to our reporter and the effort to free her will be
considered
a personal favor to me and all members of the Narco News team...

To comment on the Narcosphere, and read this urgent alert with links,
see:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/8/31/22233/1377

AUGUST 31, 2004: Three Narco News reporters, in New York City's Union
Square
tonight, covering the protests in favor of regime change in the United
States during the Republican National Convention, exercizing their
right and
duty to report the news, were encircled by the New York Police
Department on
East 16th Street: Teo Ballvé, Jennifer Whitney, and managing editor Dan
Feder.

Feder and Ballvé managed to escape from the police blockade on East
16th
Street, but Authentic Journalist Jennifer Whitney - cordoned in with
the
Infernal Noise Brigade marching band - was taken into custody along
with the
members of that musical group.

Narco News issues the following statement...

PRIMERO: The detention of journalist Whitney is a violation of the
December
5, 2001, order from the New York Supreme Court, which declared that
Narco
News journalists are "entitled to heightened protection under the First
Amendment (New York Times Co. v Sullivan, supra, 376 US, at 270-280)."

Source:

http://www.eff.org/Censorship/SLAPP/Forum_shopping_BNM_v_Narco_News/20011205_decision.html

For more background on that landmark decison, follow:

http://www.narconews.com/docs/ontrial.html

SEGUNDO: As we communicated to the National Lawyers Guild this evening,
and
we communicate to the national and international press and public
tonight,
the journalists at Narco News offer to pay the bail of our colleague,
if
bail is required.

TERCERO: We demand not only the immediate freedom of journalist
Whitney, but
also that of all members of the musical group Infernal Noise Brigade,
who
are also protected by the laws pertaining to freedom of speech and
freedom
of the press in New York State.

CUARTO: It has come to our attention that the New York City
authorities, and
possibly federal authorities with the U.S. Secret Service, among
possible
other agencies, in blatant violation of the 2001 New York Supreme Court
decision, refused to recognize Indymedia.org press passes as proof that
those journalists are legitimate press in New York State, and that
various
credential-carrying Indymedia reporters, videographers, radio
journalists,
and online journalists, have also been detained tonight and this week.

This is an absolute violation of the will of the New York Supreme
Court,
which extended rights under the First Amendment of the United States
Constitution and the 14th Amendment of the New York State constitution
to
Internet journalists.

QUINTO: We plead to any legal observers or future arrestees who can get
word
inside the pier where our reporter Jennifer Whitney and members of the
Infernal Noise Brigade, are illegally detained, that the entire
international Narco News team, and our attorneys, will not rest until
they
are released.

SEXTO: We will exercise our rights under New York law to the ultimate
consequences, including, if necessary, an expensive Civil Lawsuit, to
gain
the freedom of our reporter, and will join in coalition with Indymedia
or
any other media organization that wishes to do the same on behalf of
its
reporters, who were all detained, and many arrested, in violation of
New
York case law.

SEPTIMO: If anybody has information on the whereabouts or status of our
reporter, please contact me immediately at publisher-at-narconews.com

ULTIMAMENTE: The refusal of New York City and federal authorities to
recognize the protections afforded by the New York Supreme Court to all
Internet journalists in the illegal detentions of reporters from Narco
News,
Indymedia, Guerrilla News, and other online news organizations places
those
agents and agencies that participated in this illegal act as culpable
for a
crime under New York law. We hereby hold Mayor Michael Bloomberg and
any and
all of his functionaries involved in this violation of law as
responsible,
both as citizens, and as public officials, for this gross attack on the
First Amendment rights of Internet journalists, and for the personal
safety
and freedom of journalist Whitney and all others illegally detained
today.

From somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Publisher, Narco News
http://www.narconews.com/
(and native New Yorker)