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Police pose as reporter to arrest protester
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by ricknight | May 20, 2007 at 07:04 pm
963 views | 35 Recommendations | 8 comments
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Vancouver police acted inappropriately by impersonating a reporter from the newspaper 24 Hours in order to arrest anti-Olympics protester David Cunningham, says the editor-in-chief of the free daily commuter paper.“We find it unacceptable,” Dean Broughton said Sunday in an interview. “It's inappropriate to use any media in any investigation.”
The news media have a special role in society – to deliver credible news, he said. Impersonating a reporter attacks the credibility of the industry, he said.
“It affects our ability to do our job,” Mr. Broughton said, adding that the newspaper may ask the Police Complaints Commission to look into the incident.
Vancouver Police Department Constable Tim Fanning confirmed Sunday that a police officer lured Mr. Cunningham to a public mall on Saturday afternoon by posing as a 24 Hours reporter.
When the police start to impersonate the press, I think a line is crossed.
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ricknight
Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 19:12 on May 20th, 2007
ricknight, thank you for bringing this to light. Good stuff.
at 19:26 on May 20th, 2007
ricknight, thanks for brining this story out into the light. Good stuff. --Bill Adler
at 18:59 on May 20th, 2007
The penultimate paragraph in the article describes the group he belongs to in lower-case, i.e. "the anti-poverty committee", three times no less. I wonder if that was an editorial oversight.
at 20:57 on May 20th, 2007
You know, they have serious offences for impersonating a police officer, yet I guess there is no charge for impersonating a reporter, though there should be, as one does let their guard down when talking to a reporter, knowing like a Clergyman, a Reporter will be bound not to reveal sources, if that person wishes to remain unknown.
at 04:15 on May 21st, 2007
While not agaisnt the law "per se", it does smell like a "cheat", and an extremely distasteful one at that. In a free society we expect things to be done in the open and above board. For some reason this reminds me of Soviet Bloc "like" activity where no one knows who the polivce are.
at 05:12 on May 21st, 2007
Ricknight, this is good stuff. Contacting anyone and luring them to a location, under the ruse of being a reporter to do an interview, is indeed crossing some sort of line for any law enforcement official. This type of practice could severely jeopardize the press' ability to obtain news with those with a story fearing they may not truly be speaking to a journalist!
at 06:30 on May 21st, 2007
ricknight, I like this story. It's good stuff. That is crossing the line. Is this Vienna in the later 1800's?
Good work.
at 20:01 on September 10th, 2007
Obviously there is much history of events like this. Here is one from Spokane, Washington 10 years ago which deals with the FBI informant posing as a journalist. It is posted at a blog that deals with the current situation in the same town, Spokane, with the police.
http://spokanepoliceabuses.wordpress.com/2007/07/29/fbi-in-spokane-informant-posed-as-the-valley-herald-journalist/
Keep up the good work. David