Noyo News: Anniversary of BP Gulf spill, journalist's arrest

NOYO NEWS IS BACK!

Anniversary of BP Gulf spill, journalist's arrest

by David Gurney

Apologies to readers for the weeklong hiatus from this blog, http://noyonews.net.

The past week marked several important milestones for this blogger, and for ocean conservation in general. April 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The rig caught fire and exploded on that day. It burned for two days and sank on Earth Day, April 22, 2010.

April 20 also marked the day last year when the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative forced this reporter to stop recording a public meeting. I was informed that the public would be allowed to observe, but would not be allowed any opportunity to record or speak at the proceedings.

Though I protested this obvious infringement of California State open meeting laws and the U.S. Constitution, the following day, April 21, 2010 I was arrested at this MLPA Initiative meeting for attempting to continue to film, and for offering a question during a question-and-answer period, near the end of the two-day public policy meetings.

I was accused of attempting to disrupt the assembly. The local DA refused to file charges in the matter.

We are now engaged in a lawsuit against the MLPAI, to hold them accountable for their illegal actions. Of course, the nefarious group is now attempting to claim they are not any sort of legal entity, and are therefore not accountable. We will examine these claims in future blogs.