More than 60 Deadline Club members and their guests packed the main art gallery of the Salmagundi Club on January 11 to hear our distinguished panel of journalists who have made the leap to published mystery novelists. The event was co-hosted by the Mystery Writers of America and the Salmagundi Club.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Society of Professional Journalists’ Legal Defense Fund has granted New York photojournalist Douglas Higginbotham $1,000 to challenge his arrest by the New York Police Department while covering the Occupy Wall Street protest in Manhattan. Higgingbotham reached out for help from The Deadline Club, which is the New York Chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists, after he was arrested while covering the police raid of the protesters’ encampment in Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011. The club immediately put him in touch with SPJ’s Legal Defense Fund, which provides aid to journalists facing litigation stemming from their work while reporting the news and defending the public’s right to know. During the November raid, Higginbotham, a freelance cameraman working for TV New Zealand, climbed atop a telephone booth to get a better shot of events. Video of the incident shows that riot police told him to climb down. As he was doing so, police pulled him to the sidewalk, forcefully took his camera, handcuffed him and held him in jail for several hours. In the process, his cell phone and camera, which he describes as his “livelihood,” were broken. Higginbotham, who has been charged with disorderly
Ray Kelly, after meeting with representatives of the city's leading media organizations, has ordered officers not to "unreasonably interfere" with journalists at breaking news events, according to the Associated Press.
The Deadline Club and the Deadline Club Foundation has joined the New York Press Club and other journalism organizations in sending a message to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly that future police conduct will be monitored.
The Deadline Club condemns the actions of the New York Police Department in detaining journalists who were covering the Occupy Wall Street protests on Nov. 15 and Nov. 17, 2011. As the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Deadline Club believes that a free press is a cornerstone of our democracy and opposes any police interference with journalists in the lawful pursuance of their reporting.We urge that any journalists who are in custody be released and that any charges against the journalists detained today be dropped immediately.
More than 50 people helped The Deadline Club celebrate the season at the Salmagundi Club on Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village during its annual holiday party Dec. 9. Unable to attend? Then don't miss out on our next event! Go to the events page for details.