News Releases

RTNDA President to Testify at House Hearing on Proposed Fees for Filming on Public Lands

WASHINGTON—Radio-Television News Directors Association president Barbara Cochran will testify December 12 at a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee, to ask that journalists’ ability to report on National Park Service land be protected in proposed regulations that would impose fees for “commercial filming” on public lands.

The hearing will take place at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 12, in room 1324 Longworth House Building in Washington.

The Department of Interior, which oversees public lands and national parks, has not previously set rules to restrict media access; although they have charged fees for filming permits, “news coverage” has always been exempt. The proposed regulations, designed to help manage private use of such public resources, do not define what constitutes news coverage, leaving park administrators to make such judgments.

“The system we have now has introduced many discrepancies,” Cochran says. “If the goal of the new regulation is to bring clarity and uniformity to the process, the definition of who has to pay the permit fees and who doesn’t should be less ambiguous.”

To read Cochran’s written testimony, click here.