Halifax Live

09/07/05

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about police violence against journalists covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, especially about the attacks on reporters and photographers that took place on September 1. ... Reporter Tim Harper and photographer Lucas Oleniuk of the Canadian Toronto Star daily were the victims of police violence while covering a clash between police and looters. The police threatened them several times at gunpoint and, when they realized Oleniuk had photographed them hitting looters, they hurled him to the ground, grabbed his two cameras and removed memory cards containing around 350 pictures. His press card was also torn from him. When he asked for his pictures back, the police insulted him and threatened to hit him. Harper said in a report about the police violence in the Toronto Star that, given the situation in New Orleans, there was no doubt that the police saw journalists as an obstacle to their efforts to regain control of the city...

http://tinyurl.com/9z7bp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp