When St. Paul police launched a violent crackdown on journalists covering the Republican National Convention in September, Free Press needed an on-the-ground organizer to pressure city officials to drop the charges against the journalists. Free Press knew just the person to call: Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance.

“The RNC truly were dark days for press freedom,” Doyle Brown said. “I was shocked and outraged. We saw the progressive city of St. Paul become a police state overnight. The RNC was a grave reminder that maintaining our freedoms requires constant vigilance.”

While Free Press gathered signatures through an online letter-writing campaign demanding that the intimidation of journalists be stopped and that all charges be dropped, Doyle Brown busily worked the phones, partnering with Free Press to deliver the letters and plan a major press conference on the steps of St. Paul City Hall.

Time was short. With only two days to organize, Doyle Brown called media reform advocates throughout the city, rallying support for the petition delivery and the press conference. Free Press coordinated with its local members to prepare for the event and ensure a strong media turnout.

On the last night of the RNC, local police stepped up their arrests, sweeping hundreds of people onto a bridge in downtown St. Paul and detaining the entire crowd in a mass arrest.

“We’ll never know how many important stories never got told because their authors were behind bars, not in the streets,” Doyle Brown said.

On Friday, Sept. 5, local citizens, media reformers and journalists — including Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman and others who had been arrested earlier in the week — convened on the steps of City Hall and, led by Doyle Brown, marched inside. They hand-delivered more than 60,000 letters to St. Paul Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland, St. Paul Attorney John Choi and the office of Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner.

Big conventions like the RNC “are alluring to city leaders,” Doyle Brown said. “But we as residents are ready to say no to these events if they mean turning our streets over to brutal police tactics and repression of freedoms.”

The press conference and petition delivery garnered significant coverage in both independent and mainstream media outlets across the Twin Cities.

They also produced results: Not long after the petition delivery, the county announced it would not pursue any felony charges against journalists. Then, on Sept. 19, authorities in St. Paul announced that they would not prosecute journalists arrested during the RNC.

“Seeing St. Paul drop all charges against journalists is a welcome step,” said Doyle Brown, “but our work is far from done. Watching these arrests brings press freedom into very clear, stark terms. But there are a hundred more subtle ways that press freedom is compromised every day in this country, from allegiance to corporate advertisers to newsroom staff cuts and overreliance on official sources.”

Working with the Twin Cities Media Alliance, whose mission is to bring together media professionals and engaged citizens to improve the quality, accountability and diversity of local media, Doyle Brown intends to keep fighting for a free press.

“I wake up in the morning thinking about how to change the media, so my challenge is to communicate to others the urgency and importance of this issue and ways to make change.”