California Highway Patrol Capitulates

After an 18-month legal wrangle, the CHP has capitulated and awarded press credentials to reporters and photographers working with SF Bay Area Indymedia. The CHP had revoked all SF Bay Area IMC press credentials in March 2003 after claiming that IMC reporters took the side of activists and were not unbiased reporters, and therefore "did not meet the criteria to possess a CHP press credential pass." The SF Bay Area IMC received notice of this revocation at its office in San Francisco just days before the US invaded Iraq and anti-war protesters shutdown the city of San Francisco.

The CHP revoked the credentials on March 12, 2003 apparently at the request of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, which had faced CHP-accredited Indymedia reporters covering forest defense actions and police repression in Humboldt. Public records suggest an organized campaign by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office and Pacific Lumber to eject independent media from the area in preparation for an operation to remove tree sitters on March 17, 2003.

The Oakland-based First Amendment Project, as well as the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, argued on behalf of the SF Bay Area IMC that the government lacks the constitutional authority to determine who is a journalist or which organizations should receive privileges of the press, such as permission to cross police lines or access crime scenes.

After refusing for 18 months to restore the credentials to the IMC, the CHP eventually caved in to legal pressure, including a potential lawsuit, and awarded glossy new cards to eight of nine IMC applicants.

The single applicant whose CHP accreditation has not been reinstated—yet—is an IMC reporter who has covered Humboldt County for a number of years.