In January, Truthout issued a statement of solidarity with the journalists arrested while covering protests around the inauguration of Donald Trump, signed by over 100 journalists and other members of the media, including our own staff. We condemned “this blatant criminalization of journalism” and demanded that all charges against those journalists be dropped immediately.

At the time of writing, reporters Alexei Wood and Aaron Cantú (the latter previously a frequent Truthout contributor) still face charges from their arrest on January 20, including engaging in a riot, conspiracy to riot, inciting a riot and property damage. Their trial begins today. Some of the charges the two face are felonies and they are being threatened with potentially decades of incarceration.

Neither Cantú nor Wood has been accused of any specific acts of property damage or other individual action. They are being prosecuted for being in the proximity of a protest on which they were reporting. As Defending Rights & Dissent and other free press groups state in their letter to the Department of Justice published earlier this week:

THIS CRIMINALIZATION OF EVERYONE ATTENDING THE SAME ASSEMBLY IS DEEPLY TROUBLING, BUT IN THE CASE OF CANTÚ AND WOOD IT RAISES SPECIAL CONCERNS FOR PRESS FREEDOM. IN ORDER TO COVER THESE NEWSWORTHY EVENTS, JOURNALISTS HAVE TO BE PRESENT. AS THE MARCH PROGRESSED DOWN CITY STREETS, JOURNALISTS WOULD HAVE TO FOLLOW IT AND MOVE IN PROXIMITY TO IT IN ORDER TO COVER IT. YET, BECAUSE OF THIS PROXIMITY PROSECUTORS ARE ARGUING THAT JOURNALISTS ARE NOT ONLY GUILTY OF PROPERTY DAMAGE COMMITTED BY AT MOST A HANDFUL OF INDIVIDUALS IN A MARCH THE JOURNALISTS SOUGHT TO COVER, BUT GUILTY OF CONSPIRACY TO RIOT AND INCITING A RIOT.