Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally was briefly detained by the Los Angeles Police Department as he was covering a protest in Echo Park on Thursday evening.
Queally was reporting on the protest for The Times when he was detained. Protesters were also detained by police, who had issued a dispersal order for the area.
After inquiries by Times editors and its attorney, Queally was released. It was not immediately clear why he was detained, but police had issued a statement a short time earlier saying reporters were subject to dispersal orders in the area.
Times Managing Editor Kimi Yoshino said the paper was outraged that Queally was detained simply for doing his job. The Times immediately protested to authorities and he was released without charges.
In an interview shortly after his release, which occurred around 9:15 p.m., Queally said he was wearing an LAPD-issued press badge on a…
