Charleston, West Virginia. An American reporter was arrested today and imprisoned for asking a question in public, that a high ranking Federal government official did not like, leading to a shameful example of how the United States is not the bastion of freen speech held up to the world by it’s propagandists.
The West Virginia journalist was arrested and jailed after following US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price down a hallway in the state’s capitol building and asking him questions about healthcare policy, reporters said.
American Journalist Dan Heyman was grabbed by Federal agents and handcuffed after calling out a question to Price as the health secretary visited the Charleston legislature with White House advisor Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday, Heyman said at a press conference after the incident. Price’s office and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
“I’m not sure why, but at some point I think they decided I was just too persistent in asking this question and trying to do my job, so they arrested me,” said Heyman, who works for Public News Service, a nonprofit news operation.
A criminal complaint filed against Heyman in Kanawha County, West Virginia said he was “yelling questions” at Price and Conway and “aggressively breaching secret service agents to the point where the agents were forced to remove him a couple of times.”
The question repeatedly asked Price if domestic abuse would be deemed a pre-existing condition under the healthcare bill passed last week by the House of Representatives, but the official did not respond, clearly attempting to evade accountability.
The reporter said he was wearing a press badge and shirt with his newspapers logo on it at the time of his arrest. He said he was not warned by security guards or police that he was breaking the law.
Heyman said he was held by security and later arrested on a charge of “willful disruption of state government processes.” He was booked into a local jail and released shortly after on $5,000 bail.