BP’s Photo Clampdown

Rescued sea turtle. Photo by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

It’s official: The BP oil spill is now bigger than that other catastrophic disaster, 1989’s Exxon Valdez, and the worst in US history. And as you might expect in the nefarious, super-connected, high stakes world of Big Oil, there are a lot of people who don’t want the full calamity of that known and reported on.

So local and federal officials, under orders from BP no doubt, are trying to restrict where photojournalists can go. We posted on this earlier in the week, when a CBS News crew encountered some Coast Guard officers and BP contractors who threatened them with arrest if they didn’t leave the oil-covered shoreline.

Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a one-time occurence. A Mother Jones’ reporter wrote about his own account of coming up against local officials while trying to survey the scene at Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge (he was told BP’s in charge because “it’s BP’s oil”).  And in a Newsweek piece that runs down the restrictions on press coverage,  they mention a Times-Picayune photojournalist whose flyover of the affected areas was canceled once BP officials got wind of it.

“It’s a running joke among the journalists covering the story that the words ‘Coast Guard’ affixed to any vehicle, vessel, or plane should be prefixed with ‘BP,’ ” says Charlie Varley, a Louisiana-based photographer. “It would be funny if it were not so serious.”

Unfortunately BP’s efforts are futile. There is no damage control in a situation that’s already bad beyond belief. They would do more to burnish their image by appearing to be willing and accommodating with every effort that’s being made to cover and control the spill.

Article from Newsweek

7 Responses to “BP’s Photo Clampdown”


  1. 1 SunnyUK May 28, 2010 at 1:01 am

    I notice that the picture is clearly marked “copyright, all rights reserved” (as opposed to e.g. a creative commons license that allows you to use it with credit, as you have).

    Did you get permission from the copyright holder, or did you decide that their rights didn’t matter?

  2. 2 babydiscarted May 28, 2010 at 10:35 am

    When a government agency puts photos up on a site like Flickr I guess I perhaps naively thought they would be OK if the images are disseminated (with credit and link), especially in a disaster of this nature. I was actually trying to help out LDWF by giving a little plug for what they’re doing – it’s not as if the photo is that exceptional or crucial to the post, and I’m more than happy to take it down if they request it.

    I’ve sent them an inquiry, we’ll see what they say….

  3. 3 Happy Tinfoil Cat May 28, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    Works by the U. S. government are not eligible for U. S. copyright
    protection.

    Click to access circ01.pdf

  4. 4 discarted May 31, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Thank you Happy Tinfoil Cat

  5. 5 babydiscarted June 1, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    From LDWF:

    “Our photos are free for use to anyone as long as they are sourced.”

  6. 6 SunnyUK June 2, 2010 at 12:22 am

    That’s great. Very happy for you that they were happy to oblige and great new info from Happy Tinfoil Cat.


  1. 1 Obama Misses Mark on Spill Story « Trackback on June 8, 2010 at 6:57 pm

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