Reporters criticize media restrictions in New Orleans

When NBC anchor Brian Williams and his crew were trying to take pictures of a National Guard unit securing a Brooks Brothers shop in downtown New Orleans, a sergeant blocked the footage by ordering them to the other side of Canal Street. “I have searched my mind for some justification for why I can’t be reporting in a calm and heavily defended American city and cannot find one,” Williams said yesterday.

“I don’t like being told when I can and cannot walk on the streets and take pictures.”

But he grumbled and told his crew to stop shooting Wednesday, Williams said, because “authority in New Orleans is as good as the last person to make the rule. I didn’t have time to take it up the chain.” As rescue and recovery efforts continue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, reporters and press analysts are growing increasingly critical of restrictions on media access. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, under heavy journalistic fire for its slow response to the disaster, has sparked new criticism by asking news organizations not to take pictures of bodies being recovered in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Source: Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post via spj.org

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