On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
The events in Ferguson drew significant attention to the role of a free press in a democracy. In the days after the shooting of Michael Brown, a number of journalists were detained, searched, and arrested as they attempted to cover the story, while many others reported being harassed, questioned, and threatened by police as well as by protestors and community members. Many journalists and civil-liberties advocates highlighted these occurrences to make the point that preventing members of the press from doing their job puts democracy at risk.
