The International Press Institute (IPI) is concerned at reports that journalists were arrested and allegedly assaulted by police during the 26-27 June G20 summit in Toronto, Canada.

Four Canadian journalists – Jesse Rosenfeld, Amy Miller, Daniel McIsaac and Lisa Walter – have lodged complaints with the Office of Independent Police Review Director, claiming that they were illegally detained and subjected to physical assaults and threats of physical violence.

The four journalists – who have dubbed themselves the “Free Press 4” – were covering the protests surrounding the holding of the annual meeting of the world’s 20 largest economies.

According to a statement released by their lawyers, Miller, a freelancer with the independent newspaper The Dominion, said police threatened her with gang rape in detention.

Rosenfeld, a freelancer, who had contributed to the comment section of The Guardian in the UK, said police beat him without provocation as he was arrested.

Walter, a journalist and photographer working for Our Times, an independent labour magazine, was also arrested and held without charge over night.  Walter had received her press accreditation from the “Alternative Media Centre” which had been set up by the organisers of the G20 summit specifically for citizen journalists, bloggers and members of the independent and alternative press.  Ms Walter claims that the police ignored her accreditation.

Walter told IPI: “From the moment I arrived on the scene, I began videotaping and had my credentials clearly visible on a lanyard around my neck.  As soon as I started speaking to one journalist in the back of a police cruiser, police stepped in to prevent me from doing so.  When I showed my credentials, an officer declared they were ‘fake.’ I declared that I was with the press and asserted my right to cover what was happening.  Police denied that I had the right to be doing so and claimed I was interfering. Other people were mingling in the area, curious as to what was going on.  They were not threatened or accused of interfering.

“The video I shot from the time I arrived on the scene to the time I was arrested was deleted from my camera’s hard drive by police. I am attempting to have it recovered.”

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “We are concerned at the reports that journalists covering the G20 summit were arrested and allegedly assaulted by police. Journalists have a right to cover such events, including any protests that accompany them, without interference or harassment from police.”