Ansgar Graw and Frank Hermann were cuffed and jailed for three hours the day after arriving in the beleaguered suburb of St. Louis. Graw and Hermann were there to cover the town of Ferguson, whose African-American population has clashed fiercely with local police since the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer on August 9.

The journalists had wanted to take pictures of a burned out gas station on Florissant Avenue, the street at the centre of the week-long protest. The building was looted and burned the night of Brown's death.

«The street was empty at the time, there was no hint of violence or riotous assembly,» Graw wrote for Die Welt of his ordeal.

Police told him that journalists were gathering on the other end of the street, in the large shopping mall, for security reasons.

«We felt there were no threats, everything is completely peaceful, and we said that we would stay on and take the photos we wanted,» Graw wrote.

Then a young police officer says: «Okay, but only if you keep moving. The moment you stay standing, you'll be arrested. That's the last warning.»