Freedom of the press took a blow to the groin yesterday when Josh Fox, a PA native and director of the acclaimed documentary Gasland, was arrested at a House hearing on the process of fracking.
Reports indicate that it was House republicans who ordered Fox to be detained by security, claiming he did not have the necessary press credentials to film the hearing. But Democrats on the committee and Fox himself maintain that his arrest for unlawful entry was a tactical attempt to silence his very public criticism of the natural gas industry.
In speaking with The Huffington Post, members of the committee stated that his detainment was unprecedented, as well known reporters often show up to hearings without press credentials and are never arrested or even turned away. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) told reporters, “I was chair of the Subcommittee for four years, and we frequently had people show up the day of a hearing to film. A couple of times staff said, ‘You’re getting in the way, don’t stand there,’ but other than that, I do not ever recall anything like this.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) went even further, stating that Fox’s arrest was an “outrageous violation of the First Amendment.”
Fox’s previous documentary recounts the purportedly nightmarish effects of hydraulic fracturing in the mid-west in an attempt to inform the public on the possible fallout from natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation. Fox and others suggest that this could be a possible motive for the republican’s objection to his filming the meeting.
Josh has since released a rather lengthy public statement on his arrest yesterday, echoing the sentiment that his constitutional rights were violated.
“As a filmmaker and journalist I have covered hundreds of public hearings, including Congressional hearings. It is my understanding that public speech is allowed to be filmed. Congress should be no exception. No one on Capitol Hill should regard themselves exempt from the Constitution. The First Amendment to the Constitution states explicitly ‘Congress shall make no law…that infringes on the Freedom of the Press’. ” [Read his full statement here.]
Regardless of your opinion on fracking in Pennsylvania, Fox’s arrest does not bode well for Americans’ constitutional right to film governmental proceedings. And the ACLU’s legal director in Washington seems to agree, releasing this statement regarding Josh’s arrest.
“… congressional committees routinely allow professional journalists to record hearings even when they don’t have official press credentials, and excluding a journalist because he doesn’t share the political views of the committee chair is outrageous. The Supreme Court has explained many times that censorship based on viewpoint is the clearest kind of First Amendment violation, and that seems to be what happened here.”
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