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Three German reporters and an American journalist are suing police in the Missouri town of Ferguson over their treatment during racially charged riots last year, a press watchdog confirmed Wednesday.
Reporters Without Borders said it “fully supports” the legal action against the Ferguson Police Department by the journalists who allege battery, false arrest and unreasonable search and seizure.
Ferguson police were sharply criticized for their heavy-handed actions in August during unrest triggered by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer.
“Arrests of journalists while gathering information and covering demonstrations are inadmissible in the country of the First Amendment,” said Delphine Halgand, director of Reporters Without Borders USA.
“We urge the US authorities to not leave police abuses unpunished and to do everything possible to guarantee the safety of journalists during protests,” she added.
The four journalists are American reporter Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept and Germans Ansgar Graw (Die Welt), Frank Herrmann (Der Standard) and Lukas Hermsmeier (Bild).
The four filed suit on Monday, with two alleging police shot at them with rubber bullets before detaining them in jail for a night.
“It may sound naive, but I never assumed the possibility of police officers shooting at journalists in a manageable situation like this,” Hermsmeier told The Intercept, which published the full complaint.