[Public News Service of West Virginia Reporter Daniel Ralph Heyman] has been arrested and charged with "disruption of government services" in the state capitol for "yelling questions" at visiting Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price and White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway.
[...] "The above defendant was aggressively breaching the secret service agents to the point where the agents were forced to remove him a couple of times from the area walking up the hallway in the main building of the Capitol," the complaint states. It adds Heyman caused a disturbance by "yelling questions at Ms. Conway and Secretary Price."
The misdemeanor carries a possible fine of $100 and up to six months in jail.
[...] The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia called the charges "outrageous" and said the arrest was "a blatant attempt to chill an independent, free press."
"Freedom of the press is being eroded every day, " it said in a statement. "We have a president who calls the media 'fake news' and resists transparency at every turn."
The statement said this is a "dangerous time in the country."
Price and Conway were in West Virginia to discuss opioid addiction in the state, which has the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday May 11 2017, @08:45PM
1) First amendment is not limited to some set of "official" reporters.
2) The Gov't knows that the best way to eliminate rights for all people, is to start with the ones people generally despise. Our domestic mass surveillance system is based on making sure a purse snatcher/stalker did his year (or whatever) in jail rather then get off on a technicality. As it turns out, those "technicalities" are the difference between a Constitutional Republic/Democracy, and straight up tyranny. But all people ever see is the asshole in the first case, and after that, it's done and over for everyone eventually.