Outlaw journalists

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Two of the journalists arrested at the anarchist demo in Westmount on May 1--ICI's Yves Schaeffner and Valérie Remise--have recently had the charges against them dropped. But the others will have to go before a judge, MUC Police revealed today.

According to MUC Police assistant-director Michel Beaudoin, "Our investigation examined the cases of 11 people claiming to be journalists. Only two of them--Schaeffner and Remise--met the criteria. So we asked that the charges against the others be maintained."

Beaudoin says that the police examined whether the self-declared journalists had accreditation, or if someone in the media would confirm that they had been assigned to cover the event.

Andrew Dobrowlskyj--who has sent photos on spec to the Mirror and ICI on several occasions--says, "I've been published in the Journal de Montréal and the Gazette. I don't do any work outside photography. And I'm not a member of any activist groups. I was there simply to take photographs so I could sell them to the media."

But covering the demo on spec without an official press card will get Dobrowlskyj a date at Westmount Municipal Court on June 21, to answer a charge of "illegal assembly."

And even for those who are accredited, Beaudoin had a warning: "The fact that they are members of the press does not entitle them to be at the heart of a demonstration. They must respect the security perimeter." : --John Edmonds

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