i think a picture is worth a thousand words how many words is this one video of police violently cupper spraying peaceful student protesters at u.c. davis so what's next now will these students become the new faces of the with. journalists and protesters aren't the only ones feeling the burn of police pepper spray and occupy wall street rallies one after another journalists are being arrested and meet in the for doing their jobs so in a country that prides itself on the freedom of the press why are so many

journalists being silenced and. back to square one seems the more things change the more we stay the same at least that appears to be the case in cairo where protesters are once again rising up and as the death toll mounts with police brutality is it possible the police in cairo are taking cues from the police here in the u.s. . it's monday november twenty first five pm in washington d.c. and christine for russian r.t. . well it's being this evening with one of the many ways in which the occupy wall street movement continues to evolve this change though not necessarily a good thing for those who have been following it closely reading articles about it and watching reports about events unfolding there because some of the very people trying to get the story to report on it are being kept far away from it in some

cases being arrested by police even though many of them are wearing police issued press credentials are to correspond honest looks deeper into the question of whether the first amendment to the constitution could be taking a beating. freedom of the press forces approach the press a new reality for journalists reporting in the u.s. being broadcast arrested and blocked from coverage exactly on that development something that we. read right now on freedom and. a warning that t twenty one year old anna lekas miller was here gassed by police it tasted pretty disgusting and really hurts your eyes a lot another journalist chris didn't win hands caught while text messaging then held for several hours i was dragged down across the bridge knocked over a great rock then there's the brutal detention of st lucie county by

a colleague and one can't really came out from behind the rapture occurs in the ground. an estimated twenty the journalists have so far been arrested covering occupy wall street protests the majority are members of alternative media the media is there to be a watchdog to report the news not to give you jobs or soundbites the don't hurt your millionaire years not hurting millionaire ears or the corporate media often covering the action from behind the barricades are relaxed but in the crowd many journalists have been blocked regardless of their proper passive you're up which means army are just too much to be processed. and were even threatened to have their media credentials taken away. the day taking prescott press passes is unprecedented behavior it's shocking to me you know it's just that our liberties as individuals and as journalists are getting rolled back bayley not long ago

a journalist in america used to be respected but now being a journalist you have absolutely no credential that will keep you from getting arrested here just as much at risk of getting arrested as everyone else times are different and some rights simply gone out the window the united states has changed . twenty years ago when i got into this job if you had press credentials you could go anywhere and it really was a free pass to police brutality and occupy wall street protest to speak recently and some officials have even attempted to keep it under wraps. that. they could be like what. excuses for blocking the press given by authorities of barry that many are just not buying it and media journalists don't have the right to videotape police activities. it almost sounds a lot like when bush invaded iraq and he said well you're not allowed to see things because god hurts our freedoms the us has always prided itself impressing freedom

it has tried to be right ground i like hearing other countries would be occupy wall street protests and willing all sorts of skeletons in america's closet the concept would be right on its way to becoming a thing of the past as if you're going to partied new york so for the last two months we have seen countless examples of people wanting to ass or size the freedom of speech and of the press and of their right of the people to peacefully assemble and to petition their government for a redress of grievances if the occupy wall street movement isn't in fact the embodiment of the first amendment i don't know what else except it seems on all of those levels is being violated and we just showed you the stories of a few people but i want to talk now about someone who's been documenting us tracking various attempts by police and other officials to suppress the press josh stearns and is an associate program director at fine press free press rather he is in northampton massachusetts and spoke to us

a little bit earlier about just how many examples. i wish i could count but the number of total press suppression is almost impossible to count this point right now we look at twenty six journalists have been arrested and thirteen of those which have been just in the last week in new york while and i want to talk to you about why you've seen in terms of the methods in which journalists are being prevented from covering occupy wall street across the country of course their arrest as you mentioned they're also journalists i read being put in chokeholds but it seems like so many are simply just blocked access talk a little bit about that that's right and that's one of the most staggering things here is the fundamental and direct meaningful way in which new york city conspired to keep journalists out of the picture they really kept them you know four or five blocks back from where the raid on zuccotti park was happening and then you can literally if you do get close who are stuck in the mix who is there on the ground trying to cover this had things like their cameras were broken they were because on

the republished braid so it's a range of activities as much as trying to ground helicopters news helicopters to places like c.b.s. couldn't cover the newtons so interesting i remember that the airspace being blocked. i want to talk though about some of these discussions about police issued a press credentials i know in many cities that it seemed at least that police officers don't consider you a journalist unless you have you know the official city issued press pass that didn't necessarily prevent them from arresting i know at least five people with official and y.p. presence as were arrested i also want to show you a photo we have a photo a journalist susie cagle i think we're looking for right now susie actually is going to be on our show this evening at eight pm but if we don't have it that's fine but basically this is a photo of her and shows her in hand has there she has and you can see clearly around her neck she has a press pass on she's been handcuffed on the other hand you know from what police

are. hey everyone's a journalist these days you know anyone can start a blog and call themselves a number of the press so i guess i want to get your take what's the bigger picture here i mean should press credentials even matter well let's start with those press credentials that were there as you saw in the video that introduce a segment police were actually tearing press credentials off of people's neck they were ignoring press credentials and they were saying they don't count and yet their defense later on afterwards the mayor's office actually said well more people should get press credentials we had people calling the police department to find out what that took and the police departments and they don't give press credentials road of us events so we're getting these conflicting messages and i think the fundamental answer is that the press credential system is broken especially at a time when mainstream media is you know pulling for their father away from the daily coverage of these important events and we need alternative media and citizen to get to be in there i think if you're committing an act of journalism you should

be protected i think that's a really interesting point you know here we are in two thousand and eleven it's not just you know the new york times and the wall street journal and you see a.b.c. c.b.s. i mean there are countless networks out there international networks countless websites that are widely read by a lot of people around the world with journalists who might find that they have a little bit of a hard time getting credentials so i guess i'm just wondering your take on this can i police that you know they can't credential everybody that everybody can't necessarily be a journalist well the first amendment wasn't written to only apply to people with press credentials so the first amendment is a fundamental doctrine it's the it's a theory and a principle that our nation was built upon it's what helps our democracy run we need to have news and information that meets the needs of communities and we need people there covering it and if press credentials are the only way to do that and we're limiting those voices dramatically and i think that again the first amendment

has to apply to all people. well you know as you probably know. he has been covering occupy wall street since the first day and you know we've been out there and this is a story that we've really been focused on just the treatment of journalists there and i know that we recently ran a story last week and there was a comment on our you tube page that basically said you know i don't hear any of these imbedded journalists in the war saying stop the shooting i can get hurt you know so basically this person saying why should they get special privileges here what do you have to say to that mentality i've heard that from a few different people saying you know what they're unless you have to follow the same rules and laws that everybody else does well i mean it's an interesting question if we need journalists to cover our rules and our laws and the breaking of those rules and laws we need to be able to go in and be part of the mix to actually witness that we need people to bear witness and if they can't do that then what we

need journalists to do what we what can we rely on them to do i think that's you know short sighted say that shows need to obey the laws i think it misses the whole point that many of these just were doing exactly what they're supposed to do you know is a journalist who's going to cover a breaking news story on a private property can you blame him for trespassing if you try to cover the story we need to have a nuanced understanding of the responsibilities of journalism and we have to hold journalist high standards absolutely but we also have to protect and as i know you mentioned just a little earlier that from your accounting at least twenty six people members of the present arrested i want to put up just for our viewers some of the names. and affiliations of those people these are people who have been arrested people who have legitimate jobs with you know legitimate news sources and these people have been arrested simply by for doing their job so we wanted to put these names just to show that you know this is real they're actually. names and faces that go with with

this story and finally i just kind of want to talk to you a little bit about what you think is coming next a lot of people very concerned when they're seeing not just in new york not just in oakland is seeing journalists freedoms are being really really trampled on could this be part of a larger trend that is going to start to be accepted well you know in fact in two thousand and eight at that aren't national convention the republican national convention there was fifty journalists arrested in under four days and people it amy goodman from democracy now had her press credentials ripped off her neck at that point so this isn't something brand new and that's the troubling thing if you look at the statements from the society for freshman journalists the. reporters commuter from the press and these other press organizations they all say this is a growing trend we we must speak out now we must get involved in this fight now because we're going into an election year and this election is going to be covered

differently than any other election because we're going to have more citizen journalists we're going to have more new independent alternative and nonprofit journalists and we need to make sure that they can get the stories they need to get to keep us informed yeah i think it seems like the police departments and some of these city officials really need to understand you know the age of technology has arrived there's nothing you're going to be able to do to stop it so you might as well figure out a better way to deal with it as a program director at free press and josh stern's want to thank you so much for weighing in on everything you've gotten us. well it is the video seen around the world and tell the important chapter of the occupy wall street story that even when the protesters are peaceful the police don't necessarily care now you may have seen this video over the weekend but it bears showing again this is video from the university of california at davis.

right you see just how close these police officers are standing and spraying these students some of whom are trying to cover their faces with their clothing there are reports that some police officers actually forced open their mouths and pepper sprayed it down their throats students and professors at davis are now calling for their chancellor to step down especially as these pictures continue to draw criticism and skepticism of the way this was all handled. now in our maker is one of the people that was in that video he's a graduate of u.c. davis and is in davis right now they are not i want first before we talk to put up some photos that we have of you and your interactions with police we have this photo here of you on the ground being arrested by police i think that was on friday and another photo as well this is you and in the holding cell with a couple of other fellows there. through that day friday afternoon what was the mood like after seeing some of these things happen up close and how that happened to you. well to be honest i was on the front line.

protesters who were leaking arms. it had been very weak for me the right police approached us. very quickly. to the. cops on me and then threw me in a police car i was probably in a jail cell already when the. so i didn't get to release a lot of it first. it was i got to see along. you know it seems to me that during occupy wall street police have sort of been rewriting the rules here i mean we do know that two of the officers that we saw in this pepper spray video have been placed on administrative leave paid administrative leave but apparently you know if this happened in california prison if a prison guard use pepper spray on

a seated prisoner and that prison guard would be disciplined for using excessive force do you think that that peaceful protesters are being treated more harshly than prisoners. i mean i think it's absolutely disgusting and it's a symptom of a greater systemic problem. public universities. sort of thing ok. we're on the front line you were one of the first people arrested what did your friend say you said when you got out of. being detained you spoke to some of your friends and other people who were pepper sprayed. tell me what the mood is like and what everyone how i was reacting to what happened at your school. i mean it's an interesting dichotomy. there were very. few of my friends were hospitalized. this damage as a result of being thrown on the ground. some of them still have to agree

this is a result of the spray. on the other hand the incident galvanized. you know trying to you just a thought for a while no as we speak there's a general assembly taking place and you see you hundred feet away with over five thousand people participating in the census process. and you know i for those who don't know i'm from california also and u.c. davis is here for school i know you guys have a lot of good agriculture programs a great sense of marian program u.c. davis is in a very rural part of california this is not downtown oakland this is not new york city were you surprised about just how police officers there were trained and some of the tactics they used and given the location of their school. ok. you know i wasn't exactly surprised i know that

a lot of the police departments throughout the season even in cities in california have contingency plans and we use the same protocol i also think that chancellor linda could say he. she police units. are trying to follow with the other global occupy movements in trying to keep people off in the same manner similar to and i mentioned i just saw earlier it's not just unfair or several professor is that you seem to have us that are calling for the chancellor to step down what do you know from what i understand there's going to be a rally on monday i don't know if that's the rally is taking place right now or if there's another one next week but a lot of people are putting are blaming the chancellor for what happened and. yeah well she. while we were occupying space he's going to talk about the problems are taking place in university we received several

letters directly from chancellor. and she is the chancellor so job to manage affairs and universities so she has to. own up to the chipper thoughts she did i should mention the general assembly and spoke about an hour ago apologized for. mistakes but did not concede to your best. interests and i want to show our viewers a new another video that came out over the weekend this was an incident that actually took place on november third now we've all heard of scott olsen veteran who was in critical condition for days after his skull was fractured when a tear gas canister him and i had but this is video of another veteran take a look at how police are treating cave on saturday.

all right so this pattern about who went both to iraq and afghanistan here he is in the streets of oakland actually not going to the hospital with a. bruise or a ruptured spleen i'm wondering here we actually now that you've witnessed not joe you know you haven't just seen this in the videos you've seen firsthand some of the methods that police use. let's talk about this in a broader sense though i mean this is as you say happening all over the country absolutely. reason price to see this video. i mean not the sort of thing that's been happening in occupy movements or. thank you it's as well as you can use. more economically and racially marginalized. streets and old. u.c.

davis graduate in notch maker certainly appreciate you giving us that firsthand look at what it was like there on the ground on friday and u.c. davis. and of course it's not just on the streets of cities in the u.s. that we're seeing police in riot gear used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to exert power and control over large groups of people and happening now on the streets of cairo as well we're nine months after the revolution there and also their leader hosni mubarak people are rising up once again they're demanding that the military hand over power to a civilian government that has been extremely violent there for the last three days with thirty three people reported dead more than a thousand injured thousands have now come out to protest as a side note there are dozens of tweets and even discussions on state t.v. there are people saying well you know in the west they suppress protests so why can't we do it here in egypt they're using similar methods in egypt that they've

seen on t.v. being used in the occupy wall street movement and might be taking notes it seems from oakland police and y p d officers were godless the situation is extremely tense and our own policy here is on the ground and gives us a look at what is happening in cairo. well tens of thousands of protesters have gathered here is you can see behind me the mood is incredibly upbeat but people here are very very angry very very frustrated and they say they going no way they paid to sit what's a way to being called a second revolution out many of the protesters i've been talking to say that they need to time for the polls that we just heard reports that if you keep all have been badly injured possibly killed there are school radek out some violence amongst protesters and security forces it's very difficult to tell exactly what's going on inside this crowd and certainly people are afraid they frighten people saying that they really have a real sense of making history and making sure that this time the tougher demonstrations will push the violence that we've seen over the past few days has

been the worst violence witnessed in egypt son was this the last this and think it will have the army and the police force to be activists with many people saying that this violence points to the way jails and the way they operate the army what the sixty's that would feel that the army and the chief that they did want to say that is the main reason why the files on the streets despite the fact that they are part of a street actions constituent monday the first such elections it was the right most people to say that they could offer anything to see which will be a fair and that they would think that if the intention to remain in power most people here in fact all the people that are still there has been any change of anything the only thing that's changed is that back in february when we saw this first civilization there was a real sense of hope a real sense of wanting to make

a different country in a sense that it could be achieved there's a lot of despondency here there's a lot of disappointment and that's why we're witnessing this outburst of anger and frustration on the streets of toughness where it's also raised the question of the . viability of those elections and i spoke to you about those elections that are supposed to happen on monday over eighty six of all political parties as well as independent candidates say that they will be suspending their image from their forms the irony of all of this is that egyptians are mourning that the violence we are witnessing here might be a good enough excuse for the military council empowered to postpone those elections so you could see this kind of violence and this kind of outpouring of anger that fire on the people but again speaking to protesters and to be listening to the slogans the slogans pointing on the military to step down the so-called saying that time has been retaken all of this is an inspiration to people that this revolution

perhaps in the way that the first revolution failed they are insisting that this revolution will succeed i was artie's policy player in cairo the london police are rewriting one of the golden rules going on next door to the while the neighbor spy on the neighbor specially if there are plenty of protests public networking sites but not all brits are liking that cup of tea that story coming up next.

what drives the world but the great news by politicians who make decisions. who can you cross no one. you. see where are we heading state controlled capital city school. when nobody dares to ask you r t question more. story. and then something else. and realize. there's a big. well

something here is a bit it seems the british government has blamed social networking sites for spreading unrest during the august riots across england in an attempt to prevent similar trouble in the future one part of london is now proposing to monitor online activity. that is argued laura smith reports it's a risky game may breach the vital bond of trust between young people and social workers. the reality of life in east london young teens take part in a workshop on gang violence but the government laid the blame for all guests riot

firmly at the door of gangs one london council is talking about making youth workers spied on their members and monitor their social network activities anything suspicious would be passed to a special anti gang unit but the m.p. for hackney where some of the worst on rest took place says it's not the technology to play but you had rights in this country the plot when there was no internet and those no. text message so it is not so it's. a real causes of riots rather than blaming the messenger and that's the real possibility it will backfire for some young people being used as a safe haven in the world and message monitoring could undermine the relationship between. vulnerable teen making it less likely to turn to them in a crisis and more susceptible to get overtures and ultimately crime and violence

during the riots social networks like twitter and blackberry messenger were used by rioters to pinpoint the next location in march for destruction the government went as far as proposing shutting down the services while two men were jailed for four years each but inciting writing on facebook but teens say spying risks isolating the very people they're trying to help if that happens. but you. think there are undoubtedly social issues and solving them requires walking a fine line between coming down hard on troublemakers and preserving civil liberties for everyone but it's clear that this measure which would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to enforce could also cost the trust and goodwill of the same at risk new york or a jesus so concerned about laura smith r.t. london. and i thought that for now.