Capitol Hill Report: NPPA Advocacy Goes To Washington

 

By Alicia Wagner Calzada
NPPA Advocacy Chair

WASHINGTON, DC (July 25, 2007) - Representatives from the National Press Photographers Association visited Capitol Hill to meet with Senate and House staff members in July to discuss issues important to news photographers.

Topics discussed included NPPA’s support for a Federal Shield Law and our concerns about defining a journalist; our concerns about efforts to restrict photography around the country in the name of national security; NPPA’s support for cameras in federal courts and the Supreme Court; the need for continued intellectual property protections and our concerns about previously proposed orphan works bills, especially its potential to greatly affect news photographers; the problem of Internet sharing of news photographs; and the need for improved media access to all branches of government.

The delegation included NPPA's new executive director Jim Straight, NPPA general legal counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher, Advocacy Committee chair Alicia Wagner Calzada, and Covington & Burling attorneys Steve Weiswasser and Rob Sherman. Weiswasser and Sherman, pro-bono attorneys for NPPA, organized and facilitated the meetings. Weiswasser and Sherman were both presented with the Morris Berman Citation, which NPPA had awarded them in May.

The purpose for the meetings was primarily to introduce staffers to NPPA and our mission and to help create awareness of the concerns that are specific to news photographers as opposed to writers, when considering the legislation related to journalists. “I think that this was a very important meeting on a number of levels.” Osterreicher said. “First, after so many years of their tireless efforts on our behalf, it was good to finally meet the folks from Covington and Burling face-to-face. Second it was extremely productive for these staffers to become more familiar with what the NPPA does and for us to get feedback from them on these issues of concern to our membership,” he added.

Osterreicher will be attending a hearing on July 27, regarding a bill to allow cameras into federal courts at the appellate level. “It is important to make our presence known at these hearings and for the House members to realize that this issue affects our coverage of the news as well as the public’s ability to be informed,” Osterreicher commented.

It is expected that an Orphan Works bill will come up in the fall. The Free Flow of Information Act, which would provide for a Federal Shield Law is in committee in both the House and the Senate and the NPPA is a part of a coalition of groups supporting that bill. NPPA will continue to monitor each of these issues and advocate for the interests of photojournalists as it relates to them.

 

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