Freedom of the Press: Filmmaker Faces 45 Years in Prison for Reporting on Dakota Indigenous Protests against Tar Sands Pipeline | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization
In an ominous sign for press freedom, documentary filmmaker and
journalist Deia Schlosberg was arrested and charged with felonies
carrying a whopping maximum sentence of up to 45 years in prison—simply
for reporting on the ongoing Indigenous protests against fossil fuel
infrastructure.
Schlosberg was arrested in Walhalla, North Dakota on Tuesday for filming activists shutting down a tar sands pipeline, part of a nationwide solidarity action organized on behalf of those battling the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“The actions of the North Dakota Police force are not just a violation of the climate, but a violation of the constitution.”
—Josh Fox, Gasland filmmaker
The filmmaker was held without access to a lawyer for 48 hours, her colleague Josh Fox wrote in the Nation, and her footage was confiscated by the police.
Schlosberg was then charged Friday with three felonies, the Huffington Post reported: ”conspiracy
to theft of property, conspiracy to theft of services and conspiracy to
tampering with or damaging a public service. Together, the charges
carry 45 years in maximum prison sentences.”
“They have in my view violated the First Amendment,” Fox told the Huffington Post,
referring to the state’s Pembina County Sheriff’s Department. “It’s
fucking scary, it knocks the wind of your sails, it throws you for a
loop. They threw the book at Deia for being a journalist.”
