‘Why can’t a journalist ask a question!’ Former Greens activist who crashed Gladys Berejiklian’s press conference is dragged away by her protection unit
- A man has been thrown out of a press event by the NSW premier’s police officers
- Jim Beatson was bundled out of the Brunswick Heads Surf Club on Wednesday
- Footage shows him being dragged away, screaming ‘why can’t I ask a question’
A former Greens activist has been thrown out of a Queensland surf lifesaving club press event by one of Gladys Berejiklian’s elite protection unit officers.
Footage of the bizarre moment showed the officer physically restrain Jim Beatson and drag him out of the press event at Brunswick Heads Surf Club on Wednesday.
In the video, Mr Beatson is seen being dragged away from where the NSW Premier was announcing an upgrade, while screaming ‘why can’t a journalist ask a question?’
Footage of the bizarre moment showed the officer physically restrain Jim Beatson (pictured) and drag him out of the press event at Brunswick Heads Surf Club on Wednesday
In the video, Mr Beatson (pictured) is seen being dragged away from where the NSW Premier was announcing an upgrade, while screaming ‘why can’t a journalist ask a question?’
Mr Beatson was then manhandled by the Premier’s security staff, who kept referring to him by his first name, and pushed into a nearby room while he continued to shout.
The video of the incident, which was later posted to social media, revealed Mr Beatson was a community newsroom journalist at radio station Bay FM.
Other people in the video could also be heard shouting out: ‘Ask the question!’
A second video showed Mr Beatson continue to push against the plain-clothed police officer, while saying he wanted to ask the premier a question.
‘I did it in a polite way but immediately I was propelled backwards by her staff including this gentleman here,’ he says in the video.
‘I’m not threatening. I’m a miserable little light, very …’, Mr Beatson began before someone in the room cut him off labelling him a ‘loudmouth’.
Mr Beatson previously co-founded Brisbane youth radio station 4ZZZ in 1975 before a lengthy career as a newspaper journalist.
He has advocated progressive politics and, in 2012, was a Greens candidate for Byron Shire Council.
Mr Beatson was then manhandled by the Premier’s security staff (pictured), who kept referring to him by his first name, and pushed into a nearby room while he continued to shout
The surf live saving club incident isn’t the first time the veteran reporter has needed to be ejected from an official meeting, however.
He was escorted from a Byron Bay Council meeting in 2014 after he shouted at a councillor, according to local newspaper reports at the time.
In a Bay FM audio archive from August 2018, Mr Beatson is heard confronting Ms Berejiklian at another press conference over koala habitats and overdevelopment in the region.
‘The negative to being a reporter is it’s considered bad form to be continually interrupting the speaker as they wander off into poli-speak or mistruths,’ he tells the audience.
Following the incident on Wednesday, NSW Police confirmed a specialist officer intervened but did not arrest Mr Beatson.
‘Officers removed the man from the location to prevent any further breach of the peace,’ a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Mr Beatson and Bay FM.