Caught shooting

>> Photojournalists risk arrest when the police crack down on demonstrators
by RINA CALABRESE

Journalists take note: when covering demos you can no longer hide behind the protective lens of your camera--or your notepad. Encircling protesters has become a standard tactic for police and if you're unlucky enough to be caught in the circle, you will get arrested along with everybody else.

This was the lesson learnt by Valerie Remise, Guillaume Simoneau and Andrew Dobrowolskyj. The three photojournalists were arrested at last week's May Day demonstration in Westmount on May 1. Remise, on assignment for the publication IciMontreal, was arrested along with Ici news editor Yves Schaeffner. Two days after the incident, Remise was still shaken up. "I'm still having trouble believing it," she says.

Soon after arriving at the site of the demonstration on Belvedere in Upper Westmount, Remise was surrounded by riot police. "It took not even 10 seconds for us to be encircled. We had no time to get out of the way," she says.

The journalists were forced to wait in the circle for two hours, standing in the rain. When Remise tried to negotiate her way out, police rebuffed her because she didn't have the requisite press pass. (Schaeffner did have an official press pass on him, but was arrested anyway.) Despite evidence of her profession literally dangling from her neck in the form of four cameras, two lenses, several rolls of film and a flash, the police refused to release her.

Instead, Remise was handcuffed, thrust into the paddy wagon, carted off to jail and charged with illegal assembly. After spending the night in a cell where she was obliged to urinate in full view of fellow detainees, Remise was released at 6 a.m. with more than just a battered ego. The plastic tie wraps the police had used on her wrists left welts and bruises. "They have no respect for people; we were really treated like animals," she says.

But Remise was most shocked by what she considered to be a blatant violation of freedom of the press. "I've covered other demonstrations and I could move freely in and out of the circle. But this time I was caught and there was no way to get out," she says. "We tried everything and the police didn't want to hear it, they even refused to talk to us after a while. We said we were journalists and they just looked right, left and in the air but they wouldn't even look at us."

Trapped in the net

Freelance photojournalist Dobrowolskyj knows from experience that he should steer clear when police are charging demonstrators. But he still found himself being jettisoned into the crowd by riot police at the May Day demo. "As soon as I saw them charging I said 'Oops' and I went off to the side to make sure I wouldn't get arrested. That was my first reflex," he says.

But the police spotted him and snared him in their net, pushing him back into the crowd of demonstrators and forcing him to the ground. "I've never seen anything like that. Boom, they charged and that was it. It took less than five minutes to be on the floor."

On March 15, freelancer Sean Perry had set out to cover an anti-police brutality demonstration in downtown Montreal that rapidly turned violent. By the time it was all over, a police station on Prince Arthur, a bank, three McDonald's and several police cruisers were sporting smashed windows. Over 100 arrests were made that day and Perry was among them.

When the riot squad moved in to encircle the protesters, Perry tried to keep aside but an unidentified officer from the riot squad--who Perry describes as "pumped up on adrenaline"--grabbed him by the arm and threw him into the circle.

"I told him I was a journalist," says Perry, "at which point he tightened up his grip and I realized I'm going into the circle with all the other protesters. So in I went." Perry was later handcuffed with plastic tie wraps, carted off to the paddy wagon with the other protesters and arrested for mischief. The charge has since been dropped.

Journalists' association angry

On May 2, the Federation professionnelle des journalistes du Quebec (FPJQ) issued an angry press release about the Westmount May Day demo, asking MUC police for an apology, an internal investigation, stricter rules with respect to the treatment of journalists and the reversal of all charges against the four journalists arrested.

"We were very surprised and quite disgusted to realize that they were arresting journalists," says Helene Pichette, president of the FPJQ. Pichette maintains that the arrests were clearly an abuse of power on the part of the police.

According to Michel Beaudoin, assistant director for MUC Corporate Affairs, the police and the press have an understanding which allows reporters and photographers to do their job as long as they don't step on police toes. "But on the other hand," he says, "it shouldn't be interpreted as any immunity with respect to conduct or to derogatory acts."

The MUC police have launched an internal investigation to determine the validity of the allegation of police repression made by the FPJQ, says Beaudoin, who admits there are no written rules regarding the treatment of journalists.

"I don't know if they have rules," says Helene Pichette of the FPJQ. "But obviously their rules are not so clear if they have them because they arrested those journalists. So we want clear rules."

No rules in riot

"There are no rules in a riot," says Reuters photographer Andy Clarke. "If you're in there with the rioters, you don't have immunity because it's the heat of the moment. Police are not going to take time to check your press credentials."

Clarke says journalism is a risky profession and when journalists set out to cover a demonstration they should view it like war. Police are not going to bother finding out who you are, he says. If trouble starts, "they're going to drag you to the ground, pull you, throw you in the van and possibly arrest you."

Andy Clarke, a veteran photojournalist and president of the Eastern Canadian News Photographers Association, advises journalists to stay out of the police circle at all costs. "You can get inside it," he adds. "As long as it doesn't close on you. If it's in a horseshoe or in a V-shape you can get in there and shoot your pictures and the police won't bother you. But as soon as it closes on you, you're toast."

"I try to get in close but I watch when the cops are moving," said Gazette photojournalist Alan McInnis. "When the cops are moving in I try to stay out of their way. That's the key--to stay out of their way."

McInnis agreed that police tactics are making photojournalists more leery with the lens because it's become increasingly difficult to get in tight to get the shot without risking getting caught in the middle of a bad situation. "Before things got bad [with riot police]," he says, "you'd be in a situation where a guy's getting busted and you'd be in there pushing the cop back to get a picture. You don't do that now. You're going to jail if you do that."

Francois Houle of the MUC Police riot squad admits it makes them nervous when a photojournalist is hovering around. "When somebody is in the middle of a crowd and we're moving forward and we've got to step aside to let him pass through, yes it does make us nervous. Because we don't know if the person is a real press person." Houle advises the journalists to just relax until everybody's encircled and then the police can take them out of the circle.

But clearly this didn't happen at the Westmount demo, where the photographers were arrested along with the rest. MUC Police didn't respond before press time to the Mirror's queries about whether charges against the four would be dropped, now that it has been established that they were in fact journalists. But even if charges are dropped, the recent arrests will make even gutsy journalists think twice.

"When we are dealing with protesters, we arrest the people that are inside the police circle first," says Sylvie Latour, an MUC police spokesperson. "So when we decide to encircle the people, if the journalist is there, he's there--so too bad for him." :

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