Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Ah, Wilderness! Forest Service Re-examining Standards for Media Access to Wilderness Areas

If you as a broadcaster, producer, or artist want to head into a congressionally-designated wilderness area to create some programming (both newsgathering and other programming), you will likely have to get a permit to do so from the National Forest Service (NFS). And yes, the power to require a permit also encompasses the power to require a fee for that permit, so you can expect to have to pay for the privilege. For years the standards imposed by the NFS on requests for such permits have been considerably subjective, which is never a good thing: the First Amendment frowns on governmentally-imposed limitations on freedom of expression and the press, especially when those limitations can be arbitrarily applied. To its credit, though, the NFS is considering tightening up its criteria. Whether the end result will assure broadcasters a constitutionally acceptable set of standards remains to be seen. But any broadcaster operating near a federal wilderness area – or who might at some point want to send a crew into such an area – should be aware of the NFS’s proceeding. In other words, as matters now stand, if any broadcaster wants to send a crew into a wilderness area to produce a piece on, say, migratory birds, a show about your local Forest Service lands akin to The National Parks documentary by Ken Burns, or some other newsworthy topic that doesn’t happen to be “breaking news”, the broadcaster may be required to make the necessary showing. The broadcaster will then have to keep its fingers crossed, hoping that the NFS will be satisfied that the proposed activities: (a) meet certain threshold screening criteria; (b) won’t harm the land, (c) won’t interfere with others’ use and enjoyment of the land, (d) won’t create any risk and (e) will “contribute[ ] to the purposes for which the wilderness area was established”. Let’s face it, those standards – and particularly that last one – are far from definite, which means that the NFS has a lot of wiggle room...more

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