Media Outlets Challenge Curfew Orders

Many cities across the country have issued curfew orders for their residents to try and help quell the violence.

But, only one city is telling the media that the curfew includes the media.

The Cleveland Police says that the curfew not only applies to residents, but it also applies to the media as well.

In other words, the cops are trying to stop the media from doing their job.

Needless to say, the media is not a fan of this plan and a number of outlets in Cleveland are fighting against the media curfew.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson did step up and reversed the cops decision to apply the curfew to news media.

The Mayor said during a teleconference at approximately 10:00 p.m. on Sunday night, “If you’re credentialed, and you’re a reporter, and you’re credentialed, and particularly if we know who you are, then you can come in and report, report on whatever you see. We have not disallowed that in the past, and we’re not disallowing that going forward.”

WOIO General Manager Erik Schrader was one of those that was fighting for his crews to be able to do their jobs and he wrote this letter to the Cleveland Police:

First off, I would like to thank the police department for their work during this unprecedented time.

While WOIO respects the work they are doing, we do have grave concerns about the restrictions on media movement that have been communicated to us throughout the day.

We’ve been told our crews cannot be outside our own building in downtown Cleveland. While we do not want to present a threat to public safety, it is our first amendment right – our duty – to chronicle the events of these trying times. To leave the entire downtown area without any journalistic presence doesn’t just hurt the freedom of the press, it damages the public’s right to know and the transparency of both the police department and anyone who might be out tonight.

I respectfully ask that the city – as the police departments in Los Angeles, Omaha, Minneapolis, Phoenix and a number of other cities have – to add a media exemption to tonight’s curfew effective immediately. Failing that, we’d like to embed with the police for the night. If the concern is the police won’t know where we are, we are willing to be with them throughout the night.

I hope you will strongly consider both/either of these options. Alternatives like this have been negotiated in cities from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in recent days.

Again, thank you for your work in the past few days. You are doing your jobs. Please allow us to do ours.

Erik Schrader
VP/GM, WOIO-TV

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