Location: United States
Date: January 29, 2021

A town hall meeting was held by U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in Dalton, Georgia. Meredith was asked to leave the premises after trying to pose her question to the Representative. Security escorted Meredith from the meeting hall and threatened to arrest the journalist and her crew for criminal trespassing if they did not leave the property. CFWIJ condemns the mistreatment of Meredith and asks authorities to allow journalists to report freely without intimidation.

Meredith shared on her Twitter account that the media was invited by Greene’s office to attend the meeting, instructed not to ask any questions. When Meredith, a correspondent for Channel 3, tried to ask a question, Representative Greene responded that she would only be speaking to her constituents.

Rep. Greene’s staff then approached the journalist and asked her to leave the meeting. They also called for security to escort Meredith and her crew member out of the building. The journalist shared the details of the incident on her Twitter account, “I tried to ask a question during the Town Hall meeting and was threatened to be arrested by Whitfield County Sheriff’s Deputies and was escorted out.’’

Meredith and her crew had the proper press credentials yet they were not allowed to do their job. The journalist was accused of causing disruption after prompting Rep. Green with questions about her social media posts. Mark Albert, the chief national investigative correspondent for Hearst TV, also shared the incident via Twitter, calling attention to the unjustified threats.

Callie Starnes, news director for WRCB, shared a video of the incident captioned, “This is the moment Rep. Greene’s office says our team ‘caused a disturbance’ by asking a question, just as others who were attending the town hall had done previously. You can hear the deputy say my team would be charged with ‘criminal trespass’ if they didn’t leave.”

The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the mistreatment of journalist Meredith Aldis and offers our full support. We believe in the freedom of expression and the right for journalists to report freely without intimidation. We hope the town hall authorities will be more respectful in their treatment of journalists.

The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.

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