OpenFile

An interview with detained journalist Jesse Rosenfeld
Posted by Christopher Watt on Sunday, June 27, 2010

Journalist Jesse Rosenfeld emerged from the G20 detention centre on Eastern Ave. just after 6 p.m., raised a fist in the air and yelled, "Power to the people!"

He was greeted by a cheering crowd of approximately 100 people, including citizens, journalists, concerned parents whose children were still being held inside, and the ever-present riot police.

In a series of tweets sent late last night, TVO’s Steve Paikin described watching police officers “assault” a reporter who identified himself as being with the Guardian:

as i was escorted away from the demonstration, i saw two officers hold a journalist.

the journalist identified himself as working for "the guardian." he talked too much and pissed the police off. two officers held him....

a third punched him in the stomach. totally unnecessary. the man collapsed. then the third officer drove his elbow into the man's back.

no cameras recorded the assault. and it was an assault. the officer who escorted me away from the demo said, "yeah, that shouldn't have happened." he is correct. there was no cause for it.

Paikin was describing the arrest of Rosenfeld. As a result, and much like Paikin himself, the Guardian freelancer became a part of the G20 story.

After exiting the detention centre, Rosenfeld was approached by reporters. He quickly spoke with CTV News, and then bent down to re-lace his shoes. He was sorting through items inside a clear plastic property bag when I approached and spoke to him for about five minutes.

Rosenfeld, a Canadian who usually reports from the Middle East, said he was on the phone with his girlfriend when he was arrested last night.

"They ripped my notebook from my hands," he said, referring to police.

Rosenfeld also said he wasn't allowed to make a phone call until 4 p.m. today.

"I was in handcuffs from the point when I was arrested from 10:30 at night to 5:30 in the morning," he said.

Rosenfeld spent the night in a holding cell that contained no benches, measured five by eight feet and housed six people.

"We all had to sleep on the floor," he said.

Rosenfeld also stated that detainees were denied proper medical attention.

"A lot of people were beaten,” he said. “I was beaten for absolutely no reason.”

Rosenfeld applied for official media accreditation through the Guardian and planned to write several G20 pieces for the British paper about the summit. He said he thinks police may have targeted him as a result of a comment piece he wrote for the Guardian that spoke of the “apparent systemic racism within both the Mounties [the Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and local police forces.”

He also noted that his request for media accreditation had been denied, which meant he was unable to cover the official summit.

"Now I have this story," Rosenfeld said.