Government Drops Opposition to Media Coverage of New Orleans Clean-Up

Facing a CNN lawsuit, the federal government has dropped its controversial policy banning the media from covering clean-up and recovery efforts. The network had filed suit in federal court before U. S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison (Southern District of Texas) for a permanent injunction against the government’s “zero access policy.” Officials later argued that they had been misunderstood, saying that they were only prohibiting reporters from “embedding” themselves with those who were engaged with recovery efforts. Earlier Judge Ellison had issued a temporary restraining order against the “zero access policy” while he considered CNN’s request for the injunction. Read more here.

See an earlier post on the subject here.