Bad news travels fast — especially when one of your own gets arrested downtown.
That was the case on Oct. 29 when Brett Flener was arrested along with 26 others at Legislative Plaza as a part of Occupy Nashville. One of the others arrested was Nashville Scene reporter Jonathan Meador.
Meador was on the scene covering the protests, an assignment given to him by his editor. Once the Tennessee Highway Patrol started approaching, they did not recognize Meador as a member of the media…even though he was exclaiming the fact as they pushed him to the ground before cuffing his wrists.
You’ve heard that story, though. Everyone in Nashville has. When the Middle Tennessee Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists learned of the story, they decided to take action against the governor and the Department of Safety and Homeland Security.
On Saturday, SPJ learned of his arrest, prompting a chain of emails sent by the society’s president Deb Fisher and the other 11 members on the board.
One of those members is Lipscomb Associate Professor of Communication Dr. Jimmy McCollum.
“The deck was stacked against [Meador],” McCollum said. “It was dark, there were people all around and the troopers probably lumped everyone together.”
McCollum says the board feels that the troopers should have paused when Meador said he was a member of the media and tried to verify that.
The reports say that Meador never produced any press credentials during the time of his arrest. However, the THP never asked for credentials either, sparking outrage from the journalism community.
The THP’s report says they smelled alcohol on Meador and “did not take his claim seriously.”
When the SPJ learned of the public intoxication charge that was filed against the reporter, the board “took a step back” to reevaluate things.
The Belmont Journal says that is when several members of the board, including Fisher and Belmont’s chair of media studies, held a closed-door meeting with Meador and Chris Ferrell, the publisher of the Scene and the City Paper.
“Throughout Saturday and Sunday, [the board] was just trying to get all the facts together,” McCollum said. He says the first issue they wanted to get out of the way was if Meador was at Legislative Plaza on assignment or on his own right.
The Scene editors confirmed with SPJ that Meador was at the Plaza that night on assignment.
With the conclusion of the meeting, the board decided that all of Meador’s claims were true, and they would write a letter to the governor’s office disputing his arrest.
The board stands behind the First Amendment’s guarantee of free press. Luckily for journalists in Nashville, the First Amendment Center is located on Vanderbilt’s campus. Gene Policinski, the center’s senior vice president and executive director, is also a member of the SPJ board.
“I think journalists have to be present at news events in order to represent the rest of the public,” Policinski said.
Policinski says that the arrest made it impossible for Meador to report what was going on. “Once he’s under arrest, he’s in handcuffs and he’s taken away from the event,” he said.
“I think it is incumbent on authorities to recognize that the right of the free press to publish requires that they also be able to freely gather the news, and you can’t have one without the other,” he said.
In its letter, the board says they feel that the THP “interfered with legitimate newsgathering and clearly violated Mr. Meador’s rights as a journalist under the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions.”
The letter goes on, requesting that all of Meadors’s charges be withdrawn and that he receive an apology from the Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The board is also seeking an independent investigation of the officers’ conduct and for the THP personnel to receive training on the constitutional rights of the media.
While Policinski wants to make sure that journalists’ rights are protected within the First Amendment, he also believes that the protesters have their own rights as well.
“We’re a nation sort of born out of protests if you think about it,” he said. “Through our history, there have been protests over taxes, women’s rights, civil rights, child safety laws – there’s been a whole range of demonstrations. It’s one of the ways Americans really self-correct government, if you will. One way is through the ballot box, and the other way is through the right to assembly and petition, so while this is the demonstration of the moment, like the Tea Party not long ago and all these other historical examples, Americans have this tremendous right to take to the public square to voice their dissatisfaction or support for government, and I think that’s what we’re seeing here.”
Since then, Bill Gibbons, the commissioner of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security has given Chris Ferrell an informal statement regarding the matter but nothing more. The governor’s office has also been silent.
McCollum believes there could be a silver lining to the entire situation, though.
“The local professional chapter has made strong efforts this year to boost involvement and activity among local journalists…this issue could reenergize journalists in this area.”
The rest of the series can be found here:
- A Lipscomb student’s arrest at Occupy Nashville [Lumination Network]
- Belmont professor Thom Storey’s involvement in a formal SPJ complaint to the governor [Belmont Journal]
- Reaction from Nashville’s journalism community to Nashville Scene reporter’s arrest [Lumination Network]
- Interview with Gene Policinski, executive director of Nashville’s First Amendment Center [Belmont Journal]