Press freedom in Connecticut took a step forward this week along with a step back.
The step back occurred Thursday night. Bridgeport police detained and handcuffed Connecticut Post newspaper reporter Tara O’Neill as she was doing her job — covering a protest (an anti-police protest).
The Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists issued this statement afterward: “The fact that Bridgeport police found it appropriate to arrest a reporter is disturbing. Tara O’Neill was reporting on Thursday’s protest to write a news story. She was not a participant, and identified herself as a reporter when an officer handcuffed her. The fact that someone can be arrested in Bridgeport for the lawful exercise of a First Amendment right is chilling.
The New England First Amendment Coalition issued this statement decrying the arrest and demanding a response from Bridgeport officials.
(Among the protesters arrested was New Haven organizer Kerry Ellington.)
Meanwhile, a Norwalk politico has failed in his quest to try to shut up a local reporter and make her pay for reporting on a drunk-driving request.
The politico, unsuccessful State Senate candidate Marc D’Ameilo, Monday withdrew an intimidation suit he filed against the reporter, Nancy Chapman of the crusading news site Nancy on Norwalk. He did so after Chapman got help from Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic (MFIA).
Her team fought back against the suit by drawing on a new Connecticut Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law aimed at stopping retaliatory lawsuits like D’Ameilo’s, which threaten the First Amendment. Under the new law, the target of a frivolous suit can file a motion to have the case dismissed quickly — and then force the person responsible for filing the suit to pay the target’s legal expenses.
SLAPP suits developed as a tool for business owners or public figures to seek to prevent news outlets or citizen groups from criticizing them or revealing information that could complicate their plans, because it can cost thousands of dollars 9at a minimum) for an activist or a news organization to defend against even meritless lawsuits.
Chapman’s team filed such a motion, and D’Ameilo caved.
There goes the First Amendment. If elected, this will never happen here.