BP is limiting airborne press from photographing the oil spill over a huge swath of the Gulf of Mexico, Newsweek reports.
Private aircraft must get clearance from BP's command center to fly over much of the gulf, including the Louisiana coastline. Without BP's consent, pilots must stay above 3,000 feet where visibility of the ocean surface is minimal, the magazine reports.
Photographers are being barred by local and federal officials, working with BP, from getting close-ups of the really nasty looking stuff, the magazine says.
Europe's grip on free press is pretty shaky, according to a research paper by Shawn Marie Boyne of Indiana Law School.
She cites Leroy v France, in which in 2009 a European court upheld France's prosecution of cartoonist Denis Leroy and the publisher of a Basque weekly over a 2002 cartoon that "condoned terrorism." The cartoon showed the ruins of the World Trade Center with the comment: "We've all dreamt it.. Hamas did it" (a take-off of a Sony ad campaign).
We strongly suspect that French officials dusted off a 19th century law in order to punish "blasphemy."
(For more detail, go to the Media Law link in the sidebar or use a search engine for Leroy v France.)
In another cartoon matter, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange brings us up to date on the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! tizzy in a press release to www.scoop.co.nz
These cartoonists. What will they think of next?
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