Carlos Miller Arrested At Occupy Miami Eviction

February 2, 2012 by Free Concord · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Free Concord, Free Press, National, News, Police

Photo journalism activist Carlos Miller was arrested Tuesday evening while he was attempting to cover the police’s eviction of Occupy Miami. Carlos is no stranger to arrest for photography. He has beaten two separate prior charges for photographing police. This most recent arrest sounds very similar to what occurred during the Chalking 8 incident in Manchester, in which the police criminalize a group and then arrest all those they associate with the group. In my case, though it came up at one point, I did not need to address whether I was acting as press at the time of my arrest to demonstrate that the seizure was unfounded. In this case, protesters were ordered away from an area where press were allowed to remained. Carlos was swept up after the protesters had already been cleared despite identifying himself as press when addressed and being near other reporters.

Photo: Carlos Miller

The police have deleted the footage he had taken in the moments leading up to his arrest. Another journalist is believed to have captured footage of Read more

In Defense of Amateur Journalists

January 27, 2012 by Free Concord · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Free Concord, Free Press, New Hampshire, News, Politics, Response, Video

Since it was posted the day following the New Hampshire primary, a video by a watchdog group showcasing exploits of election security has reached over 350,000 views. I remember seeing several friends sharing the video on Facebook, and although I didn’t find it stimulating enough to watch from start to finish (it needed more editing for my taste), I found it to be an interesting piece of investigative journalism bound to start some heated debate over election security.

The video is briefly prefaced with text stating, “If a person walked in to vote in the 2012 New Hampshire Primary, and said the names of multiple DEAD people…Could he receive a ballot to vote without showing any ID?” “© Project Veritas” is watermarked on the screen. If you watch for the entire ten minutes, you’ll see the same scene repeated multiple times. A man walks into a polling location wearing an inconspicuous camera on his person. He says, “Do you have a (name) on your list?” When asked to confirm the address and party registration, he says, Read more

Blackout Reverses Support for SOPA

January 19, 2012 by Free Concord · 3 Comments
Filed under: Corruption, Democrats, Free Concord, Free Press, International, Issues, National, New Hampshire, News, Politics

Google as it appeared during the Jan 18 blackout.

Much abuzz online yesterday had to deal with the congressional threat to the internet known as SOPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act is a federal bill which would create a blacklist of websites which internet service providers would be required to maintain and enforce. The blacklist would allegedly include websites which either host or link to data which, per its existence, is violating copyright laws. The very concept of ‘piracy’ is on its face hyperbolic. It is laughable Newspeak to equate data sharing with the practice of pillaging vessels at sea. PIPA, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, is the senate version of the dinosaur recording industry’s legislative attempt to thwart the free exchange of information. Also lobbying very strongly with the MPAA is the pharmaceutical industry, which profits heavily from onerous intellectual property regulation.

Reddit was the first eminent domain of the internet to announce January 18 as its blackout date to protest SOPA. Wikipedia announced its participation with similar measures. Google demonstrated its solidarity by featuring a black stripped homepage with a subheader requesting that people contact their so-called representatives and ask for a rejection of state control over the internet.

Heavy traffic to government servers hosting contact information for congress and the senate caused many pages to be inaccessible for the day.

Slovenian Digital Media Paywalled

January 16, 2012 by Free Concord · 9 Comments
Filed under: Court, Free Concord, Free Press, International, News

In the eastern European nation of Slovenia earlier today, a paywall was erected engrossing many of the most prolific digital media distributors. Piano Media, a Slovakian paywall service corporation, has convinced nine publishers and twelve websites to adopt a shared paywall, which will cost subscribers €2 for a weekly pass.

The model for Piano’s cartelization of media is similar to that of television subscriptions. At present, more people are abandoning cable and satellite live programming for the boundless information frontier provided by the internet. Few subscription services have fared well in the purge caused by the internet, with a notable exception being the growth seen by Netflix. Piano’s model divides subscription profits with the companies participating in the paywall, giving 70% of the revenue to media distributors and keeping thirty cents on the dollar for itself. It measures traffic among clients and based on where more traffic is channeled, Piano compensates the company.

Delo, Slovenia’s largest publication, plans to put about 10% of its content behind the wall, keeping the remaining content free so as to keep constant its web traffic. In Slovakia, media giant SME has approximately 5% of its content paywalled at the moment. Read more

Journalist Arrested at Romney Event for Trespassing

January 11, 2012 by Free Concord · 4 Comments
Filed under: Free Concord, Free Press, National, New Hampshire, News, Occupy NH, Police, Politics

Harvard student blogger Matt Bieber has written yesterday that he was baselessly arrested by Hudson police while at a Mitt Romney event on January 9. Police said that he was identified by campaign staff as someone who was present at a previous protest which Bieber claims to have not attended. His experience is published at his blog here.

The previous protest that he was alleged to have been at could have possibly been one which I had attended in a journalistic capacity. Occupy New Hampshire participants had gathered outside of Romney’s campaign headquarters on Elm Street in Manchester. Some protesters waived signs over the windows while the presidential candidate talked to supporters inside. This occurred during the initial occupation of Veterans Park back in October.

The facts in Bieber’s case are vaguely similar to the circumstances that resulted in the arrest of Dave Ridley at the Radisson in Nashua on May 25.

Multiple First Amendment Blocks at Concord District Court

December 27, 2011 by Free Concord · 9 Comments
Filed under: Court, Free Concord, Free Press, Laugh at the Aggressors, New Hampshire, News, Noncooperation, Photos, Video

Today at Concord District Court, I had attempted to audio and video record a hearing at the defendant’s request. I was given last minute notice, and ended up missing the brief hearing by the time I had arrived. When I entered the courthouse, I did not appreciate that security had disarmed me of my harmless accountability mechanism, the camera. They also took my tripod, and would give me back none of my equipment until a judge gave me permission to act as the press.

To protest the violation of my first amendment right, I exercised different first amendment rights outside. Utilizing my speech, I chalked out against the press restrictions practiced by the monopolist court officers. I was almost finished when the head of court security exited the building and asked me to stop chalking and leave. He implied that I was doing something illegal, but never spelled out exactly what. He even identified himself as a police officer. Due to some NH court’s crackdowns on press freedom, in the more restrictive venues it is rare to see a court security officer in action, especially outside of his normal domain inside the building.

Will NH Courts Continue to Censor?

December 20, 2011 by Pete Eyre · 3 Comments
Filed under: Copblock, Free Press, Free State Project, New Hampshire, Video

Should NH courts be open and accessible or will they remain censored?

Censorship, even if done for the best of intentions, subsumes the initiation of force – something experienced by individuals seeking transparency at Keene district court and Cheshire Co. superior court. On Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 at the NH supreme court the “rules committee” took comment to determine whether they will “allow” you and me to film their actions.

Ademo’s Arraignment on Wiretapping Charges

December 17, 2011 by Ademo · 32 Comments
Filed under: Copblock, Free Press, Manchester, New Hampshire, News, Police, Politics

Yesterday I was arraigned on three counts of felony wiretapping – click here to read about Pete’s and my year long fight on MA wiretapping charges. If convicted I face anywhere from 11.5 to 21 years in prison and up to $12,000 in fines. I say IF because the only way I’ll be convicted is if the state (the system itself) protects it’s own. The three people claiming that I wire tapped them are public officials, whom I recorded while acting in their “public” capacities, but we’ll get more into that as we approach trial. Read more

Bradley Manning Live Pretrial Coverage

December 16, 2011 by Free Concord · 5 Comments
Filed under: Corruption, Court, Free Press, International, National, News

Bradley Manning’s first pretrial hearing is happening now. Continuously updated live coverage comes from UK’s The Guardian.

http://guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/dec/16/bradley-manning-hearing-live-updates

A Visit to Occupy Boston

December 1, 2011 by Free Concord · 15 Comments
Filed under: Free Concord, Free Press, National, News, Video

I recently had the opportunity to visit Occupy Boston on a relatively quiet day. A brief summary is posted at Free Concord, and video footage from the scene is featured below.