Arrested Journalist Warns of Chilling Effect on Press (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: You captured video of your own arrest, federal agents outside your home. Can you just talk about that experience?

[00:00:08] Speaker 2: As journalists, we never want to be the story, but unfortunately, I did find myself in a predicament where I felt that I needed to be able to tell my own story, that I needed the world to see that journalism is on trial, that we are at a state in our nation where if you are documenting what's happening, you may be criminalized for it. You may be arrested. And so I think what is happening in Minnesota overall should be quite alarming to the entire nation. I think what happened to me today as an independent journalist, what happened to Don Lemon being arrested for reporting what's happening, I think people should be alarmed. And I think mainstream media should also be really concerned because if they can criminalize a journalist here in Minnesota, whether you're independent or not, I think that we've seen a track record where this is just going to continue to escalate.

[00:01:13] Speaker 1: You have no doubt that this is meant to intimidate not just yourself and Don Lemon and the others who were charged, but journalists everywhere.

[00:01:22] Speaker 2: I would ask you, how does it feel to you to see a journalist arrested? For simply reporting the news, I would challenge every journalist in America to ask themselves how it felt to them today to see their colleagues be arrested for reporting the news. And if any of them say that it made them fearful, it made them concerned, it made them second guess going out tomorrow and covering what's happening in their communities, then yeah, I would say that that was probably the intent. It does send a chilling message to our entire industry.