Stephanie Sugars / CPJ North America Program Intern

Stephanie Sugars is CPJ's North America research assistant. Her freelance work has been published in several international outlets, including Al Jazeera and Open Democracy. Sugars graduated from New York University with Masters degrees in journalism and international relations in May 2018.

In a photo taken by St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Christian Gooden, Black Lives Matter protesters and others burn U.S. flags during a protest in September 2017. Gooden was hit by pepper spray while covering the protests. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Non-white journalists describe risks and repercussions of covering protests in the US

“I was just another in a sea of black faces on the other side of a police line,” said Christian Gooden, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer who was hit by pepper spray while covering a protest on September 29, last year. Gooden said that he turned his head when police sprayed indiscriminately, then resumed photographing…

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Police arrest St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk in September 2017. Faulk is one of at least 10 journalists detained in the city late last year when police used the tactic of kettling during protests. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Journalists covering protests in US risk getting caught up in police kettling tactic

On September 17 last year, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk was covering protests over the acquittal of a former police officer in the killing in 2011 of man named Anthony Lamar Smith. At about 11 p.m., officers formed a line across Washington Avenue near Tucker Boulevard in downtown St. Louis, and officers in full…

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