Once upon a time, I was knocked to the ground by overzealous bodyguards at a Freetown stadium. It was for an official event and, partly because Ernest Bai Koroma, then Sierra Leone’s president, saw it happen, I was immediately helped up and given space to carry on reporting.
No such luck for the Australian news crew who were battered by riot police in Washington DC on Donald Trump’s watch this week. The US president claims he is an ally of all peaceful protesters, but critics say his threats and actions have incited violence, militarised the nation, targeted media and put the hallowed First Amendment — the right to free speech, peaceable assembly and to petition the government to redress grievances — under strain.
As Amelia Brace, a 33-year-old reporter, covered the protests this week, a sudden police surge cleared out peaceful protesters (some of whom were kneeling with their arms up) from outside the White House before a 7pm DC-wide curfew. Tucked away to one side, and clearly identifiable as media, she thought she was safe. Instead, a line of police came “straight, straight at such a pace that you couldn’t get out of the way . . . I was screaming ‘media media media’,” she told me. Footage shows a police officer punch her colleague with his shield and slam his camera into his face. As the pair turned to run, another thumped her with a baton in the back. Rubber bullets gave her red welts. “All my injuries are on my back; it just shows that we were trying to get away,” she says. “We were desperately trying to get away from the police, which is a terrifying experience.”