Published: September 03, 2008 09:21 am            

Police release jailed Ky. photographers

MINNEAPOLIS — A pair of student photographers from the University of Kentucky and their adviser have been freed without being charged, two days after being swept up during unrest at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota.

The three still await the release of a friend and the return of their camera equipment.

Police Wednesday released two journalism students, 21-year-old Edward Matthews and 18-year-old Britney McIntosh, as well as their student adviser, 26-year-old Jim Winn. But their friend 25-year-old Nathan Weber of Chicago, remained jailed on a misdemeanor riot charge.

All were arrested Monday when police swept up nearly 300 people during protests in downtown St. Paul.

Those released said they understood how police could have mistakenly arrested them but questioned why they were held for two nights.



Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.









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Two University of Kentucky journalism students remained jailed Wednesday, more than a day after they were swept up with nearly 300 others during protests in downtown St. Paul.

Police arrested students Edward C. Matthews and Britney D. McIntosh along with their newspaper adviser Jim Winn on Monday afternoon. Winn was released around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. All came to the Twin Cities to document protests held in response to the Republican National Convention, meeting this week in St. Paul.

Matthews' father, Tom Matthews, heard about his son's arrest Tuesday morning, then saw him in an Associated Press photo that showed him turning away from a stream of pepper spray.

"I feel for him," his father said. "He's taking it in the chops."

Matthews, of Lexington, Ky., spent much of Tuesday trying to learn whether his 21-year-old son would face charges or be released from the Ramsey County jail before being told he'd remain in jail for a second night.

The three arrested are affiliated with the University of Kentucky student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel. Matthews is a photographer, McIntosh is the multimedia editor and Winn is the paper's photo adviser.

Editor Brad Luttrell said the three traveled to St. Paul for the experience of working with professional journalists on a big story, not to cover the convention for the college paper.

"Their intent was to document. They were not protesters," Luttrell said. "They were doing what all the other journalists were there to do."

The photo of Matthews reacting to pepper spray was atop the Kernel's Web site on Tuesday, and Luttrell said it would be the 17,000-circulation daily newspaper's top story Wednesday.

"What's troubling to me is the censorship that's involved here," Luttrell said. "If the police arrest our journalists and they can't tell what's going on, then who is there to describe it?"

Matt Rourke, the AP photographer whose picture showed Matthews, also was arrested, though it wasn't clear if both were arrested in the same incident. Rourke was released hours later and not charged.

Amy Goodman, host of the syndicated radio and television program Democracy Now!, and two of the show's producers also were arrested and then released. Goodman was cited for a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the legal process, said Ramsey County Attorney's Office spokesman Jack Rhodes.

Whether to charge Goodman will be decided when she appears in court. The city attorney's office did not immediately know what her court date was and online jail records didn't have it.

No charges were expected against Goodman's colleagues, Rhodes said.

All four, plus those from Kentucky, were among nearly 300 people arrested at the event that attracted about 10,000 primarily peaceful marchers. A splinter group estimated by police at about 200 broke windows, slashed tires and harassed delegates.

Rourke was covering the protest when he was swept up by police moving in on a group of protesters in downtown St. Paul. Goodman was arrested as she asked police in riot gear about the status of two producers who had been arrested, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.

Goodman interviewed her two producers on her show Tuesday where they recounted their experience. A video of Goodman's arrest, aired on her program and also posted on YouTube, shows her begging police not to arrest her before being taken away in handcuffs.



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Goodman's arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

        

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