The Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Deia Schlosberg was arrested while shooting anti-Keystone Pipeline activists in North Dakota. Schlosberg wasn’t protesting anything – she was reporting on the events, which is what journalists do for a living. She is being charged with three conspiracy counts, and her case has some unusually horrifying First Amendment implications.
“Filmmaker Arrested at Pipeline Protest Facing 45 Years in Felony Charges”
by Nick Visser
The Huffington Post
October 14, 2016
A documentarian arrested while filming an oil pipeline protest on Tuesday has been charged with three felony conspiracy charges “• and could face decades in prison if convicted.
Deia Schlosberg, the producer of the upcoming documentary “How to Let Go of the World and Love All Things Climate Can”™t Change,” was detained while filming a protest against TransCanada”™s Keystone Pipeline in Walhalla, North Dakota. Activists at the event, associated with the group Climate Direct Action, shut down the pipeline, which carries oil from Canadian tar sands to the U.S, for about seven hours.
Two of the protestors, Michael Foster and Samuel Jessup, were also charged and Schlosberg”™s equipment and footage from the event was confiscated. Schlosberg said shortly after being released on bond that she couldn”™t comment on her arrest until she spoke to a lawyer.
She has been charged with three felonies: conspiracy to theft of property, conspiracy to theft of services and conspiracy to tampering with or damaging a public service. Together, the charges carry 45 years in maximum prison sentences.
Josh Fox, the director of the film and two others related to fossil fuels, including the Academy Award-nominated “Gasland,” said Schlosberg wasn”™t participating in the protest herself but acting as filmmaker to document the event. Her arrest appears to reflect a “deliberate” targeting of reporters, he said.
“They have in my view violated the First Amendment,” Fox said, referring to the state”™s Pembina County Sheriff”™s Department. “It”™s fucking scary, it knocks the wind of your sails, it throws you for a loop. They threw the book at Deia for being a journalist.” Read more.