Journalism

Billy Binion | 9.27.2024 2:59 PM

A citizen journalist who was excluded from a press conference because the police deemed him not "media" had his constitutional rights violated and can sue, a judge ruled this month. The decision serves as a reminder that a job in legacy media does not entitle you to a stronger set of free speech protections.

Justin Pulliam—whose YouTube channel Corruption Report does not shy away from criticizing law enforcement—was removed from a Texas press conference in July 2021 at the behest of Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan, who told a deputy to keep Pulliam away under threat of arrest. That violated the First Amendment, concluded U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison, in such a clear way that Fagan should not receive qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that dooms federal lawsuits against state and local government employees if the way those public........

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