The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) issued a strongly-worded statement on Friday, following the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort by federal agents over their coverage of an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.
NABJ said the U.S. Department of Justice is singling out “messengers” who were at the protest “to do their jobs.”
“As journalists, our first obligation is to bear witness and to inform,” said NABJ President Errin Haines. “When those obligations are met with detention or prosecution instead of protection, we must ask: what message are we sending about who gets to report and who gets silenced? A free press, not a penalized one, is essential to democracy; especially, when coverage intersects with contentious public issues.”
Lemon is a former CNN anchor who now works as an independent journalist and leads a digital media empire.
The New York-based journalist was arrested on Thursday, Jan. 29, by federal agents in Los Angeles, while on the West Coast to cover this weekend’s Grammy Awards.
After making his first court appearance in downtown L.A. on Friday afternoon, he was released from custody.
“I want to thank everyone for their support — it means the world to me,” Lemon said in a statement following his release. “I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now. In fact, there is no more important time than this very moment for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”
He added, “I will not be silenced.”
The DOJ had vowed to pursue charges against Lemon for entering the Cities Church in St. Paul during a protest on Jan. 18, and reporting live on his YouTube channel.
Protesters descended on the church because the pastor is an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement on the X platform Friday, saying a total of four people were arrested in connection with the church protest.
“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi tweeted.
Crews is a former candidate for St. Paul mayor and the state House of Representatives, and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, according to Minneapolis news station KARE 11. Lundy is a lobbyist for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and a candidate for Minnesota Senate District 65.
All four of the people arrested were Black, The Nation reported.
NABJ criticized the Trump administration for what it called “selective targeting of journalists — especially, Black and LGBTQIA journalists.”
“NABJ calls on federal authorities to immediately clarify the legal justification for these arrests and to halt all retaliatory posture toward journalists that undermine constitutional press protections,” the organization said.
The group’s statement was signed in solidarity by the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, GLAAD, and other organizations.
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