Media Coalition Protests Charges Against Huffington Post And Washington Post Reporters

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in a letter signed by 38 news outlets and media organizations, called for St. Louis County officials to drop charges against The Huffington Post’s Ryan J. Reilly and The Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery. The two journalists were arrested in a McDonald’s while covering demonstrations in Ferguson (MO) on Aug. 13, 2014. Though Reilly and Lowery were quickly released without any charges, press freedom organizations widely criticized police for arresting them in the first place. The incident seemed to be over, but recently, just under the wire of a one-year statute of limitations, St. Louis County officials charged Reilly and Lowery with trespassing in the McDonald’s and interfering with police.

"The fact that these journalists were kept from doing their jobs was troublesome enough. But the fact that your office -- after having had time to reflect on police actions for a full year -- has chosen to pursue criminal prosecution now is astonishing," the letter says. The Reporters Committee-led coalition wrote that "the best way for Ferguson to show that it will respect the First Amendment rights of journalists covering the continuing controversy there is to rescind these charges immediately."