Opinion: Charges dropped against Amy Goodman, others arrested at GOP confab

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Journalists arrested on misdemeanor charges while reporting on protests outside of the Republican National Convention earlier this month will not be prosecuted, the mayor of St. Paul has announced.

Dozens of reporters and other media members -- including, as The Ticket noted, Amy Goodman, the main host of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! program -- were arrested, along with with more than 800 protesters. But the charges against the journalists have been dropped.

Goodman was charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer after, she said, she inquired about the status of two of her colleagues, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, following their arrest. The pair, like most journalists arrested, were held on rioting charges.

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi, in a release issued last Friday, asserted that the arrests of the journalists were not improper. But the decision to not press ahead with prosecutions ‘reflects the values we have in St. Paul to protect and promote our 1st Amendment rights to freedom of the press,’ he said.

-- Kate Linthicum