Australia Asks for Investigation After Police Attack 2 Journalists in U.S.

The Australian prime minister has called for an investigation into how police officers treated two Australian journalists who were covering a protest outside the White House on Monday.

The two journalists, on assignment for Australia’s Channel 7, one of the nation’s major networks, were among the members of the news media covering the demonstration as President Trump threatened a crackdown on protests in a speech delivered from the Rose Garden starting at 6:43 p.m.

Shortly before a 7 p.m. curfew went into effect in Washington, officers in riot gear and National Guard soldiers started to disperse the crowd. An officer slammed into an Australian camera operator, Tim Myers, with a riot shield, knocking his camera to the ground. As Mr. Myers and his colleague, the reporter Amelia Brace, started to run, another officer appeared to swing a baton at Ms. Brace’s back.

Mr. Myers was standing still and filming as the officer slammed into him, with the footage airing live on Australian television. When Ms. Brace came back into view, she said: “You heard us yelling there that we were media, but they, they don’t care.” Washington’s ABC affiliate captured the incident from another angle and also aired it live.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/business/media/australia-reporters-police-protest.html