Note: This post has been updated since its original publication.

Just days after the one-year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown, St. Louis County filed charges against three reporters who were arrested in 2014 while covering the Ferguson protests.

Their crime? Being journalists.

During the height of the protests last year, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post used a local McDonald’s as a base for their reporting. Police officers stormed the restaurant and ordered Lowery and Reilly to clear out. When the two men recorded the officers’ behavior and didn’t move fast enough, they were roughed up and arrested. On Monday, Lowery and Reilly were charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer.

Police also just filed charges against CTV Los Angeles Bureau Chief Tom Walters, who was pinned to the ground, handcuffed for three hours and detained for eight hours after he tried to ask a Missouri highway patrolman a question during last August’s protests.

This crackdown could include charges against other journalists who were arrested in Ferguson last year. And it goes beyond traditional members of the press: On Monday police arrested several prominent Black Lives Matter activists attempting to film protests in neighboring St. Louis.

We need journalists — and anyone performing acts of journalism — to act as our eyes and ears on the ground, protect our communities’ best interests and report on any abuses of power.

We don’t have time to waste. As demonstrators protest unjust policing practices in Ferguson and reporters document this activism, we need to ensure that neither group is treated as criminals.

Demand that St. Louis County drop these charges, stop harassing the press — and protect everyone who performs acts of journalism.

Original photo by Flickr user Shawn Semmler