6 more journalists arrested in Ferguson protests [View all]

[villager]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Six journalists were taken into custody while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday and early Tuesday, aggravating what one press freedom group has called a "concerted, top-down effort to restrict the fundamental First Amendment rights of the public and the press."

The incidents bring the total number of journalists arrested during the mid-August protests to 11.

Other journalists reported being threatened with arrest and affected by tear-gas on Monday night. Authorities tried to restrict members of the news media to a designated area away from the protests, sometimes nicknamed a "press pen."

The latest arrests came on the same day that President Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for journalists on the ground in Ferguson. "Let me also be clear that our constitutional rights to speak freely, to assemble, and to report in the press must be vigilantly safeguarded, especially in moments like these," the President said at a Monday afternoon news conference.

A couple of hours later, Getty Images photographer Scott Olson was arrested. Getty, one of the main suppliers of photos to news outlets around the world, immediately condemned the police action.

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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/ferguson-journalists-arrested/