Post-Gazette reporter Alexis Johnson and photographer Michael Santiago gaining nationwide support after being banned from covering local George Floyd protests
On a picture-perfect Monday mid-morning, June 8, as it neared noon, Alexis Johnson, with a mask, chatted with fellow Pittsburgh reporters and media members, awaiting a press conference on the North Shore.
The next day, Monday, June 1, Johnson, the Pittsburgh-area native, was informed by Karen Kane, managing editor of the Post-Gazette, and other editors that she would not be permitted to cover any “social justice” stories for the foreseeable future, including any George Floyd protests happening in Pittsburgh.
“I was initially treated in a much more lenient manner by newsroom management than Alexis Johnson or Michael Santiago were and was only taken off protest coverage retroactively,” said the reporter, Joshua Axelrod, to KDKA-TV, June 8.
Michael Fuoco, the president of the local Newspaper Guild, said at a June 8 press conference that it is discriminatory for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette management to keep Black journalists Alexis Johnson and Michael Santiago from covering the local George Floyd protests.
(Photos by Courier photographer J.L. Martello)
Fuoco, representing the Guild, demanded at the press conference that PG management apologize to Johnson and Santiago, and reinstate them to local protest coverage.
