Journalist Cleared of Riot Charges in South Dakota (nbcnews.com)

Her video went viral, viewed more than 14 million times, and triggering concerns online when she was threatened with prison. But a North Dakota judge "refused to authorize riot charges against award-winning journalist Amy Goodman for her reporting on an attack against Native American-led anti-pipeline protesters." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes NBC News: Goodman described the victory as a "great vindication of the First Amendment," although McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson told The New York Times that additional charges were possible. "I believe they want to keep the investigation open and see if there is any evidence in the unedited and unpublished videos that we could better detail in an affidavit for the judge," Erickson told the newspaper.
The native Americans "were attempting to block the destruction of sacred sites, including ancestral burial grounds," according to a new article co-authored by Goodman about her experiences, which argues that "Attempts to criminalize nonviolent land and water defenders, humiliate them and arrest journalists should not pave the way for this pipeline."

Comments

s/South Dakota/North Dakota/

[Anonymous Coward]

As a North Dakotan, I've always suspected no one knows the difference.

Re: Is malicious prosecution ever treated as a fel

[Anonymous Coward]

This might have happened decades ago, when things like Watergate were possible. But now the media are fully beholden to the Ruling Elite, and the Patriot Act is there to punish those who think otherwise. Things will go as the Caste decide.

Let's get the other journalists cleared as well

[Rademir]

By all means, celebrate Amy Goodman's charges being dropped. But did you know there are many other journalists also facing charges for covering the pipeline resistance?

Two documentarians facing decades in prison.

Four Unicorn riot journalists facing charges in North Dakota and Iowa, and another was arrested on Saturday as part of the largest set of arrests in one incident to date.

Follow /r/NoDAPL for more.