The Associated Press has learned that Ferguson police worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to ban news helicopters reporting on the protests over the shooting of Michael Brown last August. A White House spokesman said there was a temporary restriction of flight over the area after reports of guns fired at a police helicopter but that restriction was lifted to allow reporters. Tapes of conversations between the FAA and county police reveal another story, that planes were allowed at the international airport in St. Louis with the understanding that the news media would still be excluded. (Associated Press, November 4, 2014, by Jack Gillum and Joan Lowy)
Documents obtained by AP show that the FAA and local police established a no-fly zone for the media. The ACLU condemned the zone as part of the systematic denial of First Amendment rights to the public, media and news photographers during the Ferguson protests. “The failure to allow press in the airspace above this unfolding national news event risks obscuring potentially unconstitutional police practices involving use of force and detentions, and thus risks preventing the public and advocacy groups from adequately addressing such practices,” wrote the ACLU in a letter to the FAA. (American Civil Liberties Union, November 4, 2014, by Sonia Roubini)
The St. Louis County police chief denied that the ban on flight was directed at keeping reporters grounded and that the ban after reports of guns fired at police helicopters was only temporary. He said there were news media who had obtained permission to fly above 3000 feet over the protest sites. (NBC News, November 3, 2014)