In a shocking press freedom violation, San Francisco police raided journalist Bryan Carmody’s home as part of an investigation into his confidential sources last weekend. The officers handcuffed and detained Carmody while searching his home with guns drawn.
This move is an unconscionable attack on Carmody’s rights as a reporter. Not only do leak investigations necessarily chill reporting, but by taking a virtually unprecedented move of raiding a journalist’s home, the police likely violated the law. California has a strong journalist shield law, which explicitly bans search warrants for journalistic materials that “applies to all material obtained by a journalist in their role as a journalist.”
As the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board wrote in a piece condemning the incident: “Such an assault on a journalist should be regarded as an intolerable assault on journalism itself.”
As the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board wrote in a piece condemning the incident: “Such an assault on a journalist should be regarded as an intolerable assault on journalism itself.”
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