An RT news crew has been freed on bail after spending around 32 hours in a US jail.
They were taken into custody in the state of Georgia while filming an annual rally near a military base nicknamed the School of Assassins.RT’s correspondent Kaelyn Forde who, with cameraman Jon Conway, was at the center of the story, shared her experience with RT.“Organizers this year have said the police presence was much stronger and the police strategy of just sort of grabbing innocent by-standers, including members of the press, including one minor, who is only 17 years old, who was also put in jail, including myself and my cameraman, this is something new, this is something unexpected, and of course, this is something very unacceptable,” she told RT.“More than 200 people gathered outside the jail once we got arrested, those people basically stayed the entire time until the hearing, showing solidarity and support,” Kaelyn recalled. “When we walked in the court room was full of activists, of people in solidarity, of people who believed in our innocence, especially as members of the press, and our right to tell the truth about what happened there.”“As a person who has reported from Honduras, it was amazing to me. That sort of police action that we saw yesterday was something that you don’t typically see in the United States. You don’t typically see the repression of journalists as something that the US is known for, as opposed to the rest of the world! We saw many of the same tactics that you see in countries that have been really repressive to the press,” she continued.“It was very stressful; we were treated like any other inmates. Of course, we were not getting any special treatment, any special privileges,” the journalist said. “However, you don’t expect the same sort of repression of freedom of expression [in the US]. There was very distinctive impression that the police were going after people who were filming and documenting what happened there. We were covering human rights in Latin American when our human rights were not very much respected here in the United States.”