Breaking news from Democracy Now!:

North Dakota Prosecutor seeks “riot” charges against Amy Goodman

New charges have been filed against Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman for filming the attack on Dakota Access Pipeline protesters.

Bismarck, North Dakota—A North Dakota state prosecutor has sought to charge award-winning journalist Amy Goodman with participating in a “riot” for filming an attack on Native American-led anti-pipeline protesters. The new charge comes after the prosecutor dropped a previous criminal trespassing charge against Goodman.

State’s Attorney Ladd R. Erickson filed the new charges on Friday, October 14 with District Judge John Grinsteiner, who will decide on Monday, October 17 whether probable cause exists for the riot charge.

Amy Goodman has traveled to North Dakota to face the charges and will appear at Morton County court on Monday October 17, at 1:30 pm local time (CDT) if the charges are approved.

In an e-mail to Goodman’s attorney Tom Dickson on October 12, State’s Attorney Erickson admitted that there were "legal issues with proving the notice of trespassing requirements in the statute."

The charge in State of North Dakota v. Amy Goodman stems from Democracy Now!’s coverage of the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline.

On Saturday, September 3, Democracy Now! filmed security guards working for the pipeline company attacking protesters. The report showed guards unleashing dogs and using pepper spray and featured people with bite injuries and a dog with blood dripping from its mouth and nose.

Click here to see Democracy Now!'s exclusive report, which went viral online—it was viewed more than 14 million times on Facebook and was rebroadcast on many outlets, including CBS, NBC,NPR, CNN, MSNBC and the Huffington Post.

On September 8th, a criminal complaint and warrant was issued for Amy Goodman's arrest on the trespassing charge.

"I came back to North Dakota to fight a trespass charge. They saw that they could never make that charge stick, so now they want to charge me with rioting, " said Goodman. "I wasn’t trespassing, I wasn’t engaging in a riot, I was doing my job as a journalist by covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

“Filming Native Americans being violently attacked as they defend their land is not rioting, it’s called journalism, it is protected by the First Amendment, and indeed, it is an essential function in a democratic society,” said Professor Katherine Franke, Chair of the Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The pipeline project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and members of over 100 other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Click here to see our complete coverage of the pipeline and the protests.

Tune in Monday to Democracy Now! (stream live at democracynow.org at 8am ET or check your local listings for broadcast times) and look for updates on our website at DemocracyNow.org.

Update on October 15, 2016 by

admin

Lizzy Ratner in The Nation has published an article, "Amy Goodman Is Facing Prison for Reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline. That Should Scare Us All."

Josh Fox, famed filmmaker of Gasland and Gasland II, also published an article at The Nation, "The Arrest of Journalists and Filmmakers Covering the Dakota Pipeline Is a Threat to Democracy—and the Planet."

Fox himself was arrested while filming for his documentary Gaslands II -- arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police on the Hill, by orders of a pro-fracking committee chairman, at a supposedly public hearing.

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone has also published a powerful defense of Amy Goodman's 1st Amendment right to practice "freedom of the press" journalism.