Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Date: June 2, 2020

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Susan Ormiston was hit with a gas canister in Minnesota. Journalists were tear gassed while covering the protests, despite clear depiction of their press credentials. CFWIJ urges US authorities and especially the police department to stop attacks against journalists. We are deeply concerned about the constant targeting of women journalists.

CBC senior correspondent Susan Ormiston was shot in the shoulder with a rubber bullet. According to her colleague, "She reports she and her camera operator were in a parking lot that had been cleared of protesters when she was shot.”

Susan was shot while she was standing in a parking lot that was already cleared of protestors. “The thing is, we were in that parking lot all by ourselves. The police “fired at us to clear us away but we clearly had our camera equipment visible” she said in the broadcast which Natasha Farah interviewed with Susan while she was reporting on the frontlines.

She describes the atmosphere from the front of a burned out building in Minneapolis here.  She explains that Minneapolis police are ready for more protests on the roof of 5th precinct.

Demonstrations sparked across the United States after murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, in the pursuit of justice. With numerous police forces are deployed to protest sites, journalists face constant threat of violence, arrest and censorship. Hundreds of journalists have reported to have faced attempts at censorship, verbal attacks, blatant threats and police violence. Hundreds of journalists have been arrested while on duty and black journalists who take the civil unrest very personal are especially targeted. CFWIJ follows the events closely with great concern.

CFWIJ condemns police attacks against women journalists who are covering protests against racism. Many women journalists were attacked by the police while reporting on protests sweeping across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death.

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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