Prosecutors Changing Charges Against Reporter To 'Rioting' Because Her Coverage Was Sympathetic To Protestors

from the can-we-teach-you-a-little-about-the-first-amendment? dept

On Friday, we wrote about the ridiculous arrest warrant for reporter Amy Goodman for reporting on the protests over the North Dakota oil pipeline. At the time, the charges against Goodman were apparently for trespassing, but late on Friday, the state's attorney alerted Goodman's lawyer that they were now actually trying to charge her with rioting. Say what?

“I came back to North Dakota to fight a trespass charge. They saw that they could never make that charge stick, so now they want to charge me with rioting, " said Goodman. "I wasn’t trespassing, I wasn’t engaging in a riot, I was doing my job as a journalist by covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

Apparently, the state's attorney, Ladd Erickson, figured out enough about the law to realize that trespassing charges would never stick because there needs to be notice before it's trespassing, and no notice was presented. But Erickson is still really, really confused about how the First Amendment works. He told a local newspaper that Goodman's reporting was illegal because it was sympathetic to the protestors. Really.

“She’s a protester, basically. Everything she reported on was from the position of justifying the protest actions,” said Erickson

That's uh, not how the First Amendment works. And it will be fascinating to see Erickson try to now justify the "riot" claims when the complaint itself admits that Goodman was interviewing protestors. Apparently the judge will decide later today if the riot charges will stand. One hopes that he understands the First Amendment more than the state's attorney.

Filed Under: amy goodman, first amendment, free speech, journalism, ladd erickson, north dakota, pipeline, protests, rioting, trespassing

Why Is North Dakota Arresting Journalists For Doing Journalism?

from the this-won't-end-well dept

Two years ago, we wrote about the ridiculousness of police arresting reporters for reporting in Ferguson, Missouri, even though courts had told police to knock it off. Even more ridiculous is that those reporters were eventually charged, leading to a ridiculous settlement earlier this year.

And yet... arresting journalists for doing journalism continues to be a thing. As you probably know, there have been a bunch of protests in North Dakota lately concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline. Back in September, after covering the protests and having some of her videos of an attack on the protestors go viral, famed Democracy Now reporter Amy Goodman found out an arrest warrant had been issued for her. It's pretty clear that this arrest warrant was solely because of the coverage reflecting poorly on officials.

On Thursday, Goodman said that she'll surrender to authorities next week. As Democracy Now points out, the criminal complaint against her is so transparently unconstitutional and so transparently about intimidating reporters, that it actually notes that "Amy Goodman can be seen on the video identifying herself and interviewing protesters about their involvement in the protest." Right. That's called journalism. Goodman was basically arrested for doing journalism that the powers-that-be dislike.

Organizations that fight for free speech for journalists are condemning all of this. The Committee to Protect Journalists notes that this is "a transparent attempt to intimidate reporters from covering protests of significant public interest" while the Freedom of the Press Foundation is demanding that North Dakota drop the charges.

And they may want to seriously consider dropping the charges and walking away. After all, Goodman was also arrested for covering protests back in 2008, and that eventually ended with the police and local governments having to pay her $100,000 for violating her civil rights.

Filed Under: amy goodman, arrest, first amendment, journalism, north dakota, pipeline, trespassing

Another Boost For Generics: Brazilian Judge Annuls Patent On Key AIDS Drug

from the keep-taking-the-medicine dept

Last week Techdirt reported on an important decision in India to allow the production of a generic version of a kidney and liver cancer drug, with huge savings for the Indian health system, and major effects in terms of lives likely to be saved. Now Intellectual Property Watch has news of a court case in Brazil that could have equally important consequences for the local use of generics:

Word is spreading of a recent decision by a Brazilian judge to annul a patent on a key AIDS drug, effectively allowing less expensive generic versions into the country, and calling into question other such patents.

Here's why the case is setting a precedent:

A leading feature of the case is that the patent was granted under the "pipeline" process, which allowed "revalidation" of patents granted in other countries while Brazil was modifying its patent law for certain new areas including pharmaceuticals.

The judge in this case ruled that the pipeline process was unconstitutional, according to sources.

The "pipeline" process refers to a mechanism for granting patents in technological fields that had earlier been excluded under Brazilian law, using the date of the first filing for patents elsewhere. This allowed companies to extend the reach of patent monopolies already obtained outside Brazil without needing to go through that country's patent application process.

Lack of constitutionality had been raised back in 2008 because of the way that pipeline patents diminished the public domain:

"The concession of pipeline patents also violates the acquired right of the collectivity by removing from the public domain knowledge belonging to everyone, which once again goes against society’s interest," said Renata Reis, an attorney at the non-governmental Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Organization.

Among the drugs that were removed from the public domain by the pipeline process is the ritonavir/lopinavir combination, the subject of the judge's order annulling Abbott Laboratories' patent. Not surprisingly, the company has said that it will appeal the decision. But if the ruling is upheld it may lead to other patents granted to drugs through the pipeline process being invalidated too.

Taken together with the Indian decision, this latest ruling emphasizes the increasingly important role of generics in global healthcare. That's another reason why both ACTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement are problematic.

ACTA, for example, allows generics to be seized in transit on the basis of complaints about names that are "confusingly similar" to a brand-name drug. TPP, meanwhile, would bring in a range of measures to make it substantially harder for companies to produce generic versions of patented drugs in signatory nations. The divergence between what the BRICS countries are doing in this area, and what plurilateral treaties like ACTA and TPP seek to mandate, is another reason why it is unlikely the former will ever sign up to the latter.

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Filed Under: access to medicines, aids, brazil, generics, healthcare, patents, pipeline
Companies: abbott labs