The former CNN anchor Don Lemon has warned the US must “keep fighting” for its right to a free press, calling it “the breath in the lungs of democracy” following his arrest alongside another journalist by the Trump administration.
Lemon was arrested late last month, days after covering an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.
Alluding to rights bestowed under the US constitution’s first amendment while speaking on Saturday at a Human Rights Campaign event in New York City, Lemon said: “Our society cannot breathe without the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech.
“I felt the smothering, the suffocation. I saw how quickly a voice can be targeted, how easily truth can be distorted … I saw how fast a story can be turned into a warning.
“But I’m not an activist. I’m not a protester. I’m a journalist. And my calling is not to shout – but my calling is to witness. And that’s what they’re afraid of – that witness … to tell the truth.”
Lemon argued later in his 12-minute speech that Americans in power generally celebrate “the idea of a free press” as long as it “does not disturb [their] comfort”. He also asked those listening to “imagine the state having control of your freedom, simply because they don’t like that you are doing your job”.
“It was very frightening to me” to find out what that’s like, Lemon added. “When the first amendment becomes optional, democracy becomes hollow,” he said. “We [have] got to keep fighting. A free press is … one of the few places where power can still be questioned, where stories can still be told, where the voiceless can still be heard.”
Lemon’s impassioned comments came after Trump administration prosecutors persuaded a federal grand jury in Minnesota to indict Lemon, his fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort, and others on charges of conspiracy and interfering with worshippers’ constitutional rights to freely exercise their religion during the 18 January protest at the Cities church in Saint Paul.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official is a pastor at that church. It was 11 days after an ICE agent had fatally shot Renee Nicole Good while she was driving away from a confrontation in Minneapolis, prompting large protests. And it was six days before border patrol agents would shoot another 37-year-old US citizen, Alex Pretti, to death in Minneapolis after disarming and restraining him, setting off another round of demonstrations.
Lemon has said he had no affiliation to the group that disrupted the church service and was there as a journalist livestreaming the demonstration. And before his indictment, a federal magistrate judge had refused to sign a warrant ordering the arrest of Lemon.
He went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after his indictment and recounted how his attorney had told authorities that Lemon would surrender on the charges filed against him. But instead a dozen federal agents went to the Los Angeles hotel where Lemon was staying to cover the Grammy awards and arrested him overnight on 30 January.
On Saturday, he said it all reminded him of “something that I thought that I understood”.
“The first amendment is not just a legal guarantee – we have to keep fighting for the first amendment and all of our rights,” said Lemon, who was fired by CNN after a 17-year run there amid a bumpy run as a morning show host.
He added: “It is the breath in the lungs of democracy. It is the bedrock of our democracy. And when that breath is threatened, you, I – all of us – can feel it before you can even explain it.”
