A hefty media coalition is stepping up in opposition to the Federal Aviation Administration’s prohibitions on the use of drones in reporting the news. The coalition that includes The New York Times, the Associated Press, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an amicus brief in the FAA’s case against a drone operator taking photos above the University of Virginia campus. (The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2014, by Jack Nicas)
Meanwhile, drone reporting is taking off in Latin America. The El Salvador newspaper La Prensa Grafica recently purchased three drones to use in reporting traffic snarls among other things. The drones are also in use in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. (Global Post, May 5, 2014, by Jamie Stark)
“I hope that this latest legal attack on the FAA’s failure to properly promulgate regulations affecting commercial drone operations will result in the FAA expediting rulemaking to allow at least some commercial operations by small UAVs. The FAA’s failure to act has resulted in the drone industry in the US lagging behind other countries. It’s hard to understand why our government would not want to be in the forefront of this new and exciting technology,” writes John Goglia, May 6, 2014, in Forbes.