Yesterday, Aug. 28, more than a dozen press organizations sent a letter to Mayor Kaarin Knudson and Eugene Police Department’s Chief Chris Skinner admonishing Public Information Program Coordinator Michael Rea’s use of press markers during an Aug. 12 incident caught on video by filmmaker Tim Lewis.
The letter—authored by Freedom of the Press Foundation Director of Advocacy Seth Stern and signed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation; ACLU of Oregon; Defending Rights & Dissent; Electronic Frontier Foundation; Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression; Los Angeles Press Club; National Press Photographers Association; PEN America; Radio Television Digital News Association; Reporters Without Borders; Society of Environmental Journalists; Society of Professional Journalists; The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents, USA; The Coalition For Women In Journalism; and The Media and Democracy Project—was sent to Mayor Knudson and Chief Skinner along with the National Information Officers Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, PIO Section.
At the time of Double Sided Media’s initial reporting, the EPD said that Rea was “capturing video” to share “post-operation footage” with local media. To explain why the department identified Rea as press, EPD Public Information Director Melinda McLaughlin said, “people don’t always know what ‘PIO’ stands for, so ‘Press’ identifies him as someone not involved in making arrests and not a police officer.” In the days since, the Eugene Weekly and The Register-Guard have also reported on the incident…