Concerned about a documentary film critical of their policies, the California Costal Commission has taken the unusual step of serving a subpoena for a copy of the work in progress, a move that critics say chills freedom of expression. –DB
CalAware
June 11, 2009
FREE PRESS—The California Coastal Commission has served a subpoena on documentary filmmaker Richard Oshen for a copy of his unreleased work, “Sins of Commission,” a move which he fears may be preparatory to an efffort “to silence the film because it reveals strong links between California’s increasingly catastrophic wildfires and the Coastal Commission’s prohibition of critical brush clearance.”
“Sins of Commission” examines decades of the Commission’s land use policies and questions how a government body could and, indeed did, unilaterally extend its jurisdiction from 1000 yards landward of the coastline to 5 miles inland.
No matter what your politics, this isn’t America if a quasi-governmental body is going to dictate whether you have the right to see a film. This is a very chilling development, and does not bode well for documentary filmmakers or freedom of speech.
“Sins of Commission” is a work in progress. For a government body to demand a work print if like asking a journalist for their notes, or an author for a copy of their book before publication.
To think, if the government doesn’t like what the see or read—they could issue an injunction and prevent a story from getting out is scary… very scary.
Public interest attorney Ronald A. Zumbrun began his February 12 article in Freedom Advocates, “The Unrepentant Sins Of The California Coastal Commission,” with the following reference to the film—a reference that may have been the Commission’s first clue that it was soon to get some unflattering publicity:
What do the former mayors of Malibu and San Diego, a former member of the California Coastal Commission, and a former captain of the County of Los Angeles Fire Department have in common? In a soon-to-be released documentary film entitled “Sins of Commission”, these former public servants, along with several other aggrieved property owners, describe in painful detail the transformation of the California Coastal Commission as a protector of the environment into a radical bureaucratic monster.
Copyright 2009 CalAware