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<blockquote data-quote="Babagounj" data-source="post: 752672" data-attributes="member: 12952">Democrats refused to allow a vote today on an amendment&nbsp; &nbsp; introduced today by Rep.&nbsp; Paul Broun, R-Ga., to ensure press access to&nbsp; &nbsp; the gulf oil spill. Broun’s amendment was a response to&nbsp;&nbsp; numerous&nbsp; reports that&nbsp; government authorities and&nbsp; BP are keeping the&nbsp; press away&nbsp; from areas affected by the&nbsp; spill. The amendment&nbsp;&nbsp; reads as follows:Except&nbsp;&nbsp; in&nbsp; cases of imminent harm&nbsp;&nbsp; to human life, federal&nbsp; officials shall allow&nbsp;&nbsp; free&nbsp;&nbsp; and open access&nbsp;&nbsp; to the media of oil&nbsp; spill clean up activity&nbsp; occurring&nbsp; on&nbsp;&nbsp; public&nbsp;&nbsp; lands or public&nbsp; shorelines, including the BP&nbsp; Deepwater Horizon&nbsp; oil&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; spill.The&nbsp; amendment was introduced during committee markup of the&nbsp;&nbsp; CLEAR&nbsp; Act, a&nbsp; cap and trade bill being championed by Sen. Maria&nbsp;&nbsp; Cantwell,&nbsp; D-Wash., and&nbsp; Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.“The media has a&nbsp; responsibility to not only accurately report the&nbsp; &nbsp; news but to keep&nbsp; everyone associated with the spill accountable.&nbsp; &nbsp; President Obama promised&nbsp; transparency, but we have seen numerous&nbsp; &nbsp; examples where that is not the&nbsp; case,” said Rep. Broun in a statement.&nbsp; &nbsp; “There is no excuse for&nbsp; reporters and photographers to be&nbsp; denied&nbsp;&nbsp; access to public places unless&nbsp; their life is in imminent danger.&nbsp; This&nbsp;&nbsp; amendment is necessary in order&nbsp; to eliminate any confusion and&nbsp; ensure&nbsp;&nbsp; that First Amendment rights&nbsp; truly are protected.”Media&nbsp; outlets such as The New York&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Times, Columbia&nbsp;&nbsp; Journalism Review, and NPR&nbsp; have written damning reports of the government’s unreasonable attempts&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; to limit access to the spill. The New Orleans Times-Picayune&nbsp; was prohibited&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; from flying a plane over the spill so a photographer could get&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; pictures. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was denied permission to take a&nbsp;&nbsp; boat&nbsp;&nbsp; out to the spill with reporters and examine the catastrophe&nbsp;&nbsp; affecting&nbsp;&nbsp; his state. The&nbsp; Associated Press sent&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; a letter of protest with the White House over the arbitrary&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; restrictions. A CBS camera crew was threatened&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; with arrest for trying to report from a beach affected by the&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; spill.Washington Examiner</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Babagounj, post: 752672, member: 12952"] [B]Democrats refused to allow a vote today on an amendment introduced today by Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., to ensure press access to the gulf oil spill. Broun’s amendment was a response to numerous reports that government authorities and BP are keeping the press away from areas affected by the spill. The amendment reads as follows: Except in cases of imminent harm to human life, federal officials shall allow free and open access to the media of oil spill clean up activity occurring on public lands or public shorelines, including the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[/B] The amendment was introduced during committee markup of the CLEAR Act, a cap and trade bill being championed by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “The media has a responsibility to not only accurately report the news but to keep everyone associated with the spill accountable. President Obama promised transparency, but we have seen numerous examples where that is not the case,” said Rep. Broun in a statement. “There is no excuse for reporters and photographers to be denied access to public places unless their life is in imminent danger. This amendment is necessary in order to eliminate any confusion and ensure that First Amendment rights truly are protected.” [B]Media outlets such as [I]The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review[/I], and NPR have written damning reports of the government’s unreasonable attempts to limit access to the spill. The [I]New Orleans Times-Picayune[/I] was prohibited from flying a plane over the spill so a photographer could get pictures. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was denied permission to take a boat out to the spill with reporters and examine the catastrophe affecting his state. The Associated Press sent a letter of protest with the White House over the arbitrary restrictions. A CBS camera crew was threatened with arrest for trying to report from a beach affected by the spill.[/B] Washington Examiner [/QUOTE]

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