Australia raises concern over assault on news team at Washington DC protest
Australia has asked its embassy in Washington DC to register its concerns with the US government about an apparent police assault on an Australian cameraman during a protest outside the White House.
Demonstrators have taken to the streets across the US in protests triggered by the death of George Floyd, whose heart stopped on 25 May as a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, according to a medical examiner.
On Tuesday, officers used teargas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs to chase away peaceful demonstrators as Donald Trump addressed the press outside the White House.
Video footage from the scene showed the Channel 7 correspondent Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers broadcasting live on a street when riot police approached to clear the area, hitting Myers with a shield.
The pair are then seen trying to leave the scene while another policeman swings at them with a baton.
The foreign minister, Marise Payne, said the Australian government would support Channel Seven, where the cameraman worked, should it wish to lodge its concerns over the incident in Washington with US authorities through the embassy there.
“I want to get further advice on how we would go about registering Australia’s strong concerns with the responsible local authorities in Washington,” Payne told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“So our embassy in the United States will approach the relevant authorities, and Channel Seven will also provide us with their views on how they wish to deal with it.”
“This is obviously a very troubling period in the United States, and a very tough period,” Payne told the ABC. “We encourage all involved on both sides to exercise constraint and avoid violence.”
Meanwhile, Germany’s government warned that journalists in the US should be protected and be able to do their jobs. The statement came after a correspondent for the country’s public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, said he was shot at live on air while reporting in Minneapolis, the city in which Floyd was killed.
Russia’s embassy in Washington also issued a statement saying it was “unacceptable” for US law enforcement officials to use rubber bullets against media workers, after an employee of the Kremlin-backed Sputnik news website said she was struck by rubber bullets.
“We remind the US authorities of their international obligations to ensure the safety and unhindered activities of journalists,” the embassy said.
