Rob Davis of the Oregonian reports that:
The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country’s wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas.
Two questions come immediately to mind.
1) Why would they do that? To which:
Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness director, says the restrictions … are meant to preserve the untamed character of the country’s wilderness.
Translation: Because they can …
2) But can they do that?
“It’s pretty clearly unconstitutional,” said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Va. “They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can’t.”
But, then, they’ll keep doing it until they are ordered to stop.
And the rangers enforcing this rule will be armed and humorless.
