Minnesota police pledge not to harass journalists at protests

Outcry after Minnesota police detain, pepper-spray journalists covering protests over the killing of Daunte Wright.

The Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) has promised not to detain, threaten or rough up journalists covering protests, after several reporters accused officers of harassing and assaulting them during demonstrations in the US city of Minneapolis over the police killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man. In a statement on Saturday, the MSP also agreed to stop photographing “journalists or their credentials” and said they will no longer order reporters where they can position themselves to cover the demonstrations. The pledge came after media organisations criticised state police and officers from eight other law-enforcement agencies in the joint force known as Operation Safety Net for how they treated journalists at protests in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on Friday.