Doc filmmaker facing 45 year prison time over pipeline coverage!

[Brian Merlen]

This is wrong

https://trofire.com/2016/10/13/docu...es-45-years-prison-covering-pipeline-protest/

please help get involved I'm not part of the crew and I don't even know her but this is the death of social justice film making if we don't stand together on this issue! Please help guys, this community has done some powerful things and I believe we can continue in any direction we want. Bogus charges are just as important as crew safety and these charges must be dropped. Protect the first ammendment while we still can! This isn't about politics this is about keeping other film makers out of prison and stopping this precedent now before your project is next and your freedom!

 

[Chad Lancaster]

It's really sad, hopefully they get her out soon.

 

[Nicholas Austin Skinner]

This is wrong

https://trofire.com/2016/10/13/docu...es-45-years-prison-covering-pipeline-protest/

please help get involved I'm not part of the crew and I don't even know her but this is the death of social justice film making if we don't stand together on this issue! Please help guys, this community has down some powerful things and I believe we can continue in any direction we want. Bogus charges are just as important as crew safety and these charges must be dropped. Protect the first ammendment while we still can! This isn't about politics this is about keeping other film makers out of prison and stopping this precedent now before your project is next and your freedom!

If true, this is incredibly sad and f'd up. It's not just a harbinger of the "death of social justice film making;" it's yet another example of the erosion of our freedom of speech and growing intolerance in the USA for dissenting views. Living in The People's Republic of China, where this sort of thing is not news at all because the state controls the press and regularly cracks down on dissenters, it's tragic for me to watch the same thing becoming more accepted back in the USA.

This news only underlines the importance of further democratizing the means of producing content, something RED has done more than any other company in the world in my opinion.

Peace from the far East -NAS

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I have mixed feelings on this one. She placed herself on location with a group intending to commit several criminal acts. Knowing full well that she would herself be breaking the law to even be there. While I feel these pipeline protesters are fighting for a good cause, they still need to follow the rule of law. And by and large, most of them do. Criminal trespassing, sabotage and theft are not the proper way to go about this. And while she may have had no intention of participating in the sabotage or theft, she was a conspirator and did trespass. Being a documentary filmmaker or member of the press does not absolve anyone of legal responsibility. Neither grants permission to enter private property, nor conspire with perpetrators in order to be present while a crime is being committed.

Hopefully she has competent legal council and the rest of the group will testify to the facts in her favor.

 

[Michael J Brennan]

Yes,in general it is a restriction of freedom of speech, but criminal damage is a crime and the filmmaker was a conspirator if she did not inform police.
Did she think she wouldn't be arrested when the doc was released?
Presumably the identity of all those she was filming were hidden but her own identity was not.


Whilst it could be in the public interest to film and be part of a criminal act, it is a risky defence to rely on in court.
Let the activists do the filming of the crime. Don't help them by paying their gas or supplying a camera.


From the police's perspective they are not in a great position to make a judgement of who is a bystander and who is part of the act.
If you are an unaffiliated freelancer, police could think it's a cover to keep yourself from being arrested.
At a recent law and media course I attended, a filmmaker explained how he was arrested whilst making a documentary about graffiti artists. He was charged with something akin to aiding them. The police caught the graffiti artists in the act and since he was clearly privy to the planning of a crime and did not notify police they were able to charge him.


I recall making a doc about young offenders, we followed a kid the day he left prison, he was given a train fare home but had no other cash. He was planning to meet with mates and so was going to break into cars to fund the celebration.
Not only was there no way we would film it, we were morally at least, complicit ourselves, had we not supported him because we knew of his situation and had the means to help him.
Because he was a contributor to the documentary it could have appeared as if he committed an offence for our benifit.

So we gave him cash for his meal (a common practice to pay subsistence for contributor) filmed his celebration and he broke into cars the following day.
Laws and how they are interpreted vary between countries, mileage may vary.

Ignorance and nativity is not a defence.

Mike Brennan

 

[ericyoung]

While a documentary filmmaker could be on shakier First Amendment grounds, although there's nothing I saw in that article link to prove that she directly conspired with the protestors or knew exactly what they intended to do, it's obvious the local authorities are intent on discouraging reporting on the situation as evidenced by the arrest warrant for Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! based on the ridiculous claim that she's not a journalist!

https://www.thenation.com/article/a...ota-access-pipeline-that-should-scare-us-all/

 

[Curran Giddens]

This is a horrible precedent.

While a documentary filmmaker could be on shakier First Amendment grounds, although there's nothing I saw in that article link to prove that she directly conspired with the protestors or knew exactly what they intended to do, it's obvious the local authorities are intent on discouraging reporting on the situation as evidenced by the arrest warrant for Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! based on the ridiculous claim that she's not a journalist!

https://www.thenation.com/article/a...ota-access-pipeline-that-should-scare-us-all/

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Yes, this does not say much. It does not implicate her in doing anything just that they alledge she is involved. Something one should have reasonable grounds to allege and arrest, or be arrested and imprisoned themselves for wating people's time and life. I have an old Scottish freind and they were able to arrest the police over there. So, not such a completely far fetched idea. The law should be applied rightly and rightly applied.

If she had fresh knowledge they were comiting an act in from of her, she is only a witness. If prior had prior knowledge it was going to happen or that she was at the planning meetings, in the capacity of s reporter, that is not much. But if she was involved in actual planning criminal acts, tresspassing, willfully damaging, actual theiving, hindering investigstion outside of reporting duties to do with confidential sources or retention of copy of footage, etc that is absolutely an entirely another thing.

You can always stand away and film remotely. People can take their own cameras on premises and hand you a copy of what they did. You don't have to act like you have to be their to make your Hollywood epic. Once you non trivially deliberately cross the line, it is tresspassing (not that the extent of trespassing laws are not allways necessarily entirely just and not a contravention of human rigjts).

What is really unjust is when you can be arrested for just taking a photograph of a public view of a private facility from a public road. In that case, if legal to do so, people should find out who is behind a bill their links, and post it to wokileaks for the press.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Frankly, I hope she is innocent and all charges are chucked out. However, if there is undue influence against justice in any case in history that is another thing.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

While a documentary filmmaker could be on shakier First Amendment grounds, although there's nothing I saw in that article link to prove that she directly conspired with the protestors or knew exactly what they intended to do, it's obvious the local authorities are intent on discouraging reporting on the situation as evidenced by the arrest warrant for Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! based on the ridiculous claim that she's not a journalist!

Amy Goodman is a different matter. This is a travesty. Apparently she's agreed to turn herself in as she's going to attempt to challenge the charges against her. Hopefully she has a couple good lawyers on her side. Personally, if it were me, I'd be dragging the state of ND and their DA and attorneys to federal court over charges like that. ...violation of the first amendment, wrongful prosecution, etc..

 

[Wayne Morellini]

The journalist thing is going to bite them in the but (industry and government). Its been a problem for years. Anybody with a blog, even if you publish articles on your website, then claim to be a journalist. Now you get issues where conferences can be clogged with them. So, all sorts can claim to be a journalist, wuth privsleges. I'm not saying she is'nt a journalist, but those sorts of people will make life difficult when people with real journalistic intent come up against a situation and claim to be a journalist.

Maybe I should become one and see if I can get free tickets and accommodation to cover somebody at CES?

 

[Aaron michaels]

When you cross the line with the government and cause a greater issue what do you expect. Didn't she join the movement and spray paint on a bull dozer or something like that. it's one thing to film with out permissions or permit but when you join the movement based on your feelings they will treat you like the fire starter. How can Indians protest their prison land that they don't own anyway. A government reservation belongs to the government, land and people. if they want to run a pipeline through a prison ground who can stop them? Did we stop them from foreclosing on all of these homes in America??? NO. You get what you get.

 

[ericyoung]

Amy Goodman is a different matter. This is a travesty. Apparently she's agreed to turn herself in as she's going to attempt to challenge the charges against her. Hopefully she has a couple good lawyers on her side. Personally, if it were me, I'd be dragging the state of ND and their DA and attorneys to federal court over charges like that. ...violation of the first amendment, wrongful prosecution, etc..

Judge correctly dismissed this frivolous, trumped up charge against Goodman.
http://m.democracynow.org/web_exclusives/3038

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Yes, frivolous threat and intimidation there should be sanctions against professionals ever using this. It is a common tactic to get victims of crime in business cases to fold, as even seeing a lawyer gets too much money, let alone fighting a case before you can ever see justice. They should have laws for a process to investigate where ever a legal threat is reasonably valid before getting to trial or even a lawyer, with jail time, disbarment and sanctions as an option. Would extensively clean up the legal profession virtually overnight.