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Two freelance journalists covering protests at the Toronto G20 summit claim they were beaten and threatened after being arrested on Sunday.

Jesse Rosenfeld, a freelance journalist who contributes to the Guardian's Comment is Free, was covering a non-violent demonstration at the Novotel Hotel, nearby to the G20 talks. Rosenfeld was working with the summit's Alternative Media Centre .

Demonstrators marched to the hotel after being ejected from the 'One Free Speech Zone' at Queen's Park by police. According to Rosenfeld, they were then penned in and declared to be under "mass arrest".

Rosenfeld claims that when he verbally challenged the police he was separated him from the rest of the media present and told him his press pass was "not legitimate".

Rosenfeld was not in possession of official media accreditation for the event, which he says he applied for bu was consistently delayed. He claims to have been wearing a pass issued by the Alternative Media Centre.

According to Rosenfeld's statement he was then "severely beaten".

"I was hit in the stomach, I was then elbowed in the back, knocked to the ground, hit my leg as I went down, I was being hit in the back as my face was being pushed into the concrete by the police. All the time I was saying, 'I am a journalist, why are you beating me? I'm not resisting arrest.'"

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Amy Miller, also working with the Alternative Media Centre, was similarly detained by police. In a statement made after her release, Miller says she stopped to report on a group of young people being searched and detained. According to her statement she was then "throttled at the neck and held down" and had her press pass "ripped off". She accuses the police of making "statements which I consider to be threats."

"I was told I was going to be raped, I was told I was going to be gang banged, I was told I was never going to want to act as a journalist again by making sure I would be repeatedly raped while I was in jail."

Miller also claims to have witnessed other young women being fully strip searched by male officers and said that the behaviour of the officers in the detention centre "completely unacceptable".

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Both journalists have now been released. More than along with 560 people were arrested over the weekend in connection with the protests.

Image courtesy of Jason Hargrove

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Written by
Iris Robin

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