Photographers Say BP Restricts Access to Oil Spill – Newsweek

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Photographers Say BP Restricts Access to Oil Spill

As BP makes its latest attempt to plug its gushing oil well, news photographers are complaining that their efforts to document the slow-motion disaster in the gulf are being blocked from the sites where the effects of the spill are most visible.

via Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/26/the-missing-oil-spill-photos.html

Photographers who have traveled to the Gulf commonly say they believe that BP has exerted more control over coverage of the spill with the cooperation of the federal government and local law enforcement. “It’s a running joke among the journalists covering the story that the words ‘Coast Guard’ affixed to any vehicle, vessel, or plane should be prefixed with ‘BP,’ ” says Charlie Varley, a Louisiana-based photographer. “It would be funny if it were not so serious.”