Let Journalists Work, City Police Are Ordered

From NYTimes.com

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has issued an internal message ordering officers in New York City not to interfere unreasonably with journalists’ access during news media coverage and warning that those who do will be subject to disciplinary action.

The message was being read at police precinct station houses around New York on Wednesday. It came after journalists, including two from The Associated Press, were arrested covering Occupy Wall Street protests.

A coalition of news organizations had sent a letter complaining about the treatment. The news media argued that the police wrongly blocked journalists from observing last week when the authorities cleared out the protesters’ encampment in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.

The A.P. and representatives of The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post and the National Press Photographers Association met with Mr. Kelly on Wednesday.