Noncommercial Broadcasters Take Issue With Park Filming Proposal

Public broadcasters are not happy with a US Forest Service directive on vetting filming requests in national parks, arguing it would be illegal content-based regulation. While they are fine with leaving the wilderness untrammeled, they also don't want the Forest Service to run roughshod over the Constitution.

In a filing, the groups ask the Forest Service to recraft the directive, and warn there could be legal action if that does not happen. The service is proposing issuing a directive that officials evaluate TV and film projects that want to use public lands on whether they have a "primary objective of dissemination of information about the use and enjoyment of wilderness or its ecological, geological, or other features." That, says a coalition that includes the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Service, National Public Radio, and the Association of Public Television Stations, would be tantamount to government officials making content-based judgments about whether to issue permits.