(FPJQ/IFEX) – On 23 October 2000, journalists covering the demonstration against the G-20 Summit once again had a brush with police. The G-20 brings together finance ministers from twenty countries representing sixty-five percent of the world’s population. As the anti-riot squad moved to surround demonstrators, police on horseback began driving back members of the press […]
(FPJQ/IFEX) – On 23 October 2000, journalists covering the demonstration against the G-20 Summit once again had a brush with police. The G-20 brings together finance ministers from twenty countries representing sixty-five percent of the world’s population. As the anti-riot squad moved to surround demonstrators, police on horseback began driving back members of the press who were covering the event.
Without warning, journalists, photographers and cameramen were forced to leave the site of the demonstration, and were herded into an empty parking lot on the pretext that they were interfering. When one of the journalists protested, making reference to freedom of the press, one of the police officers replied: “I don’t care!”. Another police officer on horseback said that she had had enough of journalists, that she was angry and that “you will see what I can do once I decide to act.”
Although he showed his FPJQ press card and his accreditation for the G-20 Summit, an accredited photographer was detained. When the police wagon arrived, he was released but told not to return unless he wanted to suffer the same treatment as the demonstrators.
The FPJQ is concerned about the arrogance of the Montreal police with regard to journalists who choose to cover events themselves rather than relying on official police reports. With only a few weeks remaining before the FPJQ’s annual convention, where one of the workshops will focus on the relations between police and journalists, this new incident augers badly for freedom of the press in Quebec.
