I see two blurry things here:

The faces of protesters on manipulated images, and the line between protecting peaceful protesters and supporting crime by hiding identities.

If someone is acting illegal, then hiding their identity should also be illegal. I won't get into the ethic conflict of "police states" and "injustice" in terms of protesters being prosecuted "illegally".

But in the above example image, spray-painting the CNN logo does count as vandalism, doesn't it?

So in that specific regard, we'd not protect protesters, but vandals or rioters. The difference here should be obvious.

This article reads as if law enforcement is an evil regime that needs to be fought and perceived as hostile.

If that is true, there's something much deeper going wrong in that country. If we're talking North Korea, then I could understand. But this is not North Korea. Or is it?

If a law-abiding citizen in a friendly protest gets falsely accused and prosecuted for a violation of law, then that's wrong.

But if someone vandalizes property, puts cars on fire or does anything similar, it's no longer a protest. Hiding his face would mean helping crime escape.

It's a blurry line.