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New Orleans Media Ban Overturned

CNN sought and was granted a restraining order against US authorities in New Orleans.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials said last Tuesday (September 6) it did not want photographs taken of the dead and would not allow journalists to accompany rescue and recovery boats. Journalist groups, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, mounted a protest on Wednesday.  A “zero access” policy containing media coverage was set in place Friday (September 9) jointly by US Army Lt. General Russel Honore and New Orleans Security Director Terry Ebbert after which CNN filed a lawsuit.

ftm background

Hurricane Katrina and the London Bombings Reopen the Debate on Just How Graphic Television Should Be in Reporting Such Stories
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. But in this instance it was the words.

Hurricane Katrina Has Changed American Journalism Forever: No Longer Are Reporters on the Ground Just Innocent Bystanders Describing Tragedy -- Now They Get Involved
A fundamental of American journalism training is that the journalist provides just the facts, no opinions, and the people, armed with that information, are left to make their own opinions and decisions.

Just Because New Orleans is Being Evacuated Doesn’t Mean It Does Without Its Daily Morning Newspaper -- It’s Internet Convergence At Its Utmost with the Times-Picayune Publishing Only PDF Internet Pages
No matter how much a media entity plans for the worst, what newspaper could plan for this -- one day it’s a thriving publication with 270,000 daily circulation and the next day almost its entire subscriber base is gone, your beloved city is 80% under water, and your own building is no longer habitable.

Radio Relief Arrives in Aceh. Really!
Media support agencies and international broadcasters are moving personnel and equipment to Indonesia’s Aceh province, re-building destroyed radio stations.

Does it Get Any More Dangerous than to be a Journalist Covering Iraq?
The journalistic casualty statistics for Iraq are staggering: 62 journalists and critical support staff dead since the conflict began.

Visual images of dead bodies floating in sewage-laden waters have focused outrage, both in the US and around the world, at government response to Hurricane Katrina. Not all media watchers favor reporting – and showing – the New Orleans death and destruction. Heritage Foundation media specialist Mark Tapscott, reported by Reuters and quoted in Editor & Publisher, said “Let’s not make a common decency issue into a censorship issue.” The Heritage Foundation is a long time advocate of smaller government and supporter of Bush administration policies.

The US government decided not fight the temporary restraining order issued by US District Court Judge Keith Ellison saying the order was misunderstood and not intended to prevent news media from doing its job, according to a deputy to General Honore quoted by CNN. Judge Ellison was considering making the restraining order permanent on Saturday before the government announced that it would not enforce its earlier order.

The CNN lawsuit was filed against Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown. CNN, according to its own reporting, directed the legal challenge at Brown because “the officials who announced the decision were acting on FEMA’s behalf.” Brown, a Bush administration political appointee, suffered criticism as “inexperienced” was “returned to Washington,” but not fired. His replacement in the New Orleans relief effort is highly respected Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, who has directed search and rescue operations for much of his professional career. 

Police confiscated cameras and notebooks of a New York Times photographer last week after the photographer took pictures of the aftermath of a gun battle between civilians and police, which left “one man dead in a pool of blood.” 

Also last week New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 25,000 body bags. Ebbert said Friday that FEMA is responsible for all “morgue issues.”

US authorities have prevented media coverage, especially visual images, of dead or seriously injured military personal returned to the United State from Iraq and Afghanistan citing privacy concerns.



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