'This is my job. This is what I’m supposed to do.'

The NewsGuild-CWA has condemned the arrest of radio reporter Dan Heyman on May 9.

NewsGuild President Bernie Lunzer said, "This is a chilling attack on the right to report. Every journalist across the country should take notice. In situations like this, the NewsGuild-CWA stands ready to assist."

The arrest is part of a pattern of escalating attacks on the media since the Trump administration took office, Lunzer said, which the union is determined to fight.

Heyman's crime? The reporter for Public News Service persisted in asking Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Price about the Republican health care bill as Price walked through the West Virginia state capital.

Heyman repeatedly asked Price whether domestic violence would be considered a pre-existing condition under the health care bill, which passed the House on May 4. "In some cases, before the Affordable Care Act, it was a pre-existing condition," he said, and women who suffered domestic violence were denied coverage.

"This is my job. This is what I'm supposed to do," Heyman said immediately after his release on $5,000 bail. "I'm supposed to find out if someone is going to be affected by this healthcare law…I think it's a question that deserves to be answered. I think it’s my job to ask questions and I think it’s my job to try to get answers."

The NewsGuild is sending letters of protest to the West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, the West Virginia Capitol Police, and the Secret Service. Read more here.