The White House said Monday a no-fly zone the U.S. government imposed over Ferguson, Missouri, for nearly two weeks in August should not have restricted helicopters for news organizations that wanted to operate in the area to cover violent protests there. Audio recordings obtained by The Associated Press showed the Federal Aviation Administration working with local authorities to define a 37-square-mile flight restriction so that only police helicopters and commercial flights could fly through the area, following demonstrations over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Obama administrations defense of its actions centered on a provision of obscure federal regulations intended to allow press flights as long as they meet certain conditions. White House spokesman Josh Earnest sidestepped questions about conversations on the tapes showing police working with the FAA to keep media away. In this case, what the FAA says is that they took the prudent step of implementing the temporary flight restriction in the immediate aftermath of reports of shots fired at a police helicopter, but within 12 to 14 hours, that flight restriction was updated in a way to remove restrictions for reporters who were seeking to operate in the area, Earnest said. In Missouri, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar defended his departments involvement Monday, telling reporters that at no time did we request that only media be kept out of the airspace. The chief said the safety restrictions were prompted by reports of gunfire and that conversations on the tapes were out of context. He did not elaborate.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 23:53:30 +0000
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