Reporter says he was jailed, strip-searched while covering Line 3 protest

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. (KVRR) – Charges have been filed against a reporter who says he was arrested and strip-searched last week while covering the Line 3 protests in northern Minnesota.

Court documents say Alan Weisman is charged in Hubbard County with gross misdemeanor trespassing on critical public services facilities.  The complaint says Weisman “was identified as one of the individuals causing damage to the pumping station and/or trespassing in the posted facility.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists says Alan Weisman was reporting for the Los Angeles Times when he was brought to jail, where officers strip-searched him and confiscated his phone, voice recorder, notebooks, and prescription medications.

Weisman told CPJ that he did not know why he was arrested. He said that he was standing in an area with other journalists and was wearing two lanyards with press credentials when a sheriff’s deputy tapped him on the shoulder and said he was under arrest.

Weisman was arrested at approximately 5:00 p.m. on June 7 and released about 4-1/2 hours later.

CPJ is calling Weisman’s arrest “outrageous.”