Reporters Aren't Exempt From Ordinance Forbidding Presence in City Park From 10 Pm to 6 Am

Reporters Aren't Exempt from Ordinance Forbidding Presence in City Park from 10 pm to 6 am

From today's decision in State v. Bliss (N.C. Ct. App.), written by Judge Jeffery Carpenter and joined by Judges Julee Flood and Michael Stading: Defendants were journalists for The Asheville Blade, a newspaper. The Asheville Blade is known for criticizing the Asheville Police Department's methods of clearing homeless encampments and corresponding protests. On 19 December 2021, a multi-day protest began in Aston Park …, a public park owned and o…

Appeals Court rejects appeal from Asheville journalists arrested at protest

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled against two Asheville journalists challenging trespass convictions related to their arrests at a 2021 protest. It’s the second time this year the state’s second-highest court has ruled against the journalists. Appellate judges issued a February opinion dismissing an appeal from Matilda Bliss and Melissa Coit on procedural grounds. In a new unpublished opinion Wednesday, the court rejected the journal…