The motion went on to highlight "an unprecedented (at least in America) interference with the recording and photographing of public events."

Accounts from six journalists and photojournalists in addition to Hussein were included as exhibits.

Among them is a declaration from St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson, who described returning to Ferguson on Aug. 17 after covering initial protests and being ordered to stay in a special media zone or else face arrest.

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, said a St. Louis County Police public information officer told him the same when he arrived on Aug. 19 to investigate the treatment of the press.

"I did my best to explain that while we appreciated the police establishing a media area for the convenience of the press, it was absurd to think that was the only area where the press could be," he wrote in his declaration.