Above Photo: Protesters blocked a rail line in support of wet’suwet’en land defenders who were arrested by the rcmp on friday in northern british columbia, in toronto, ont., on sunday, nov., 21, 2021. Christopher Katsarov / The Canadian Press/ Vice.
The Native American Journalists Association condemns the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for standing in the way of news gathering and storytelling by arresting journalists on Wet’suwet’en Yintah.
We are also deeply concerned that the news attention on Indigenous people occupying and using their traditional unceded territory only sees heightened media attention when there are police raids and arrests.
NAJA recognizes the right of sovereign Indigenous nations to invite journalists to their unceded territories and to embed for fair, accurate, truthful storytelling and news gathering for public consumption.
We also understand that Indigenous journalists have a responsibility to report for all nations and can be invited to sovereign territories by leadership or designated communications representatives for story gathering and journalistic purposes.
In recent days we saw more media attention dedicated to the arrests of non-Indigenous journalists than the sovereignty story they are there to tell.
The story should never be centered on journalists when covering Indigenous news.