USA TODAY Network correspondents arrested and released

Two USA TODAY Network reporters were arrested Wednesday night while covering a protest in Elizabeth, North Carolina.

Ayanu Nagayishi and Alison Cutler, the reporters in charge of government censorship of a newspaper Staunton News Leader, Was talking about a small protest by Andrew Brown Jr., an unarmed black man shot dead by MPs in Elizabeth City. About 50 people gathered to demand transparency and release body camera footage.

It was Nagashi Live video shooting on Twitter When the police approached she and Cutler for the “ladies in jackets” request.

Nagaishi and Cutler, who were released at 10:30 p.m., told USA TODAY later that they were no more than a foot from the sidewalk, in the footpath, when filming the scene across the street.

Ngayishi was filming a female protester being arrested on the other side of the street when she was arrested.

In the video, Cutler is heard repeatedly asking the officers why they had been arrested. An officer can be heard answering: “To stand in the middle of the street on the road.”

Nagashi and Cutler wore their media jackets. They were repeatedly identified as being from the media while handcuffed.

A citizen was holding a Ngaiishi phone to film the arrest, then the officer confiscated the phone and put it in Ngaiishi pocket.

Cutler was placed in the front of the truck with two other people, while Nagayishi was placed in the back with six others.

The video is over 40 minutes long, as Nagishi was filming other parts of the protest. It is unclear if any of the reporters will be charged.

In a statement, Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of USA TODAY network and publisher of USA TODAY, said, “We are grateful for Alison and Iano’s release.”

“The two clearly identified journalists should not have been arrested and were doing their work in the first place,” she said. “These foolish attacks must stop on freedom of the press.”

Important victory of the First Amendment:Iowa state journalist Andrea Sahouri is acquitted in the rare trial of a reporter

Interim Dean Christine Gilger said in a statement that Nagaishi and Kotler recently graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Media.

Gilger said: “It seems that this is another example of targeting reporters to do their jobs, and in this case, it is about the two of us, who graduated only months ago.” “These kinds of incidents, which are happening with an increasing frequency, pose a threat not only to our profession but to everyone who appreciates the role a free press plays in our democracy.”

In March, Iowa journalist Andrea Sahouri, who was arrested while covering racial justice protests last summer, was found guilty of innocence on the charges from the protest. She drew her case Widespread condemnation by the press and free press organizations.

The arrests took place on Wednesday night, about five minutes after the police and protesters dispersed from a tense scene on a larger main street just before 9:00 PM, and the police threatened to arrest the protesters over a law prohibiting, according to their announcement, standing, sitting or lying. On a street or road.

The protesters walked on several streets on the sidewalk and reached a street where there were two white police prisoner buses. Those buses had extra police inside.

The police declared the illegal gathering shortly before 8:30 pm

Brown, 42, was shot dead on April 21 when county deputies tried to file arrest warrants for him for “selling uncontrolled substances,” county Attorney Andrew Wumble said.

Bascotank County Attorney General announced Tuesday that A. State investigations found Brown endangering lawmakers Using his car as a lethal weapon while resisting arrest last month. Participating Representatives – Detective Daniel Meads, Robert Morgan Deputy and Corporal. Aaron Loylin – He was justified in his actions and wouldn’t face criminal charges, Wumble said.