Occupy Wall Street: NYPD Orders Officers Not To Interfere With Press

By COLLEEN LONG 

NEW YORK -- The New York Police Department's commissioner on Wednesday sent an internal message to officers ordering them not to unreasonably interfere with media access during news coverage and warning those who do will be subject to disciplinary action, after several journalists were arrested covering Occupy Wall Street demonstrations last week.

The message by Commissioner Raymond Kelly was being read at police precincts citywide.

A reporter and a photographer with The Associated Press were among those arrested while on private property covering a rally by protesters Nov. 15 in Manhattan. Police made the arrests after the demonstrators clipped a chain-link fence and entered a vacant lot owned by a nearby church.

The police department message notes that officers should not restrict media access on private property "to the extent it is feasible to do so."

"When incidents spill over or occur on private property, members of the media will not be arrested for criminal trespass, unless an owner or representative expressly indicates that the press is not to be permitted," according to the section of the Patrol Guide sent to officers.

A coalition of media outlets, including the AP, sent police a letter protesting the treatment after at least half a dozen journalists were arrested. The media also argued police wrongly blocked reporters from seeing when authorities cleared out the Occupy camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. The letter suggested the police roughed up some journalists.

"The police actions ... have been more hostile to the press than any other event in recent memory," read the media letter to the police department.

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