Nadler Denounces GOP Arrest and Expulsion of Journalists from Science Committee Hearing on Fracking

The following is a press release from the office of Rep. Jerrold Nadler:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, expressed outrage at news that Republicans on the House Science Committee expelled two journalists, and arrested one of them, from a public hearing on hydraulic fracturing.

He issued the following statement:

“I have served in the House of Representatives since 1992, and I had the privilege of chairing the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.  In all that time, I cannot recall a chair of any committee or subcommittee having ever ordered the removal of a person who was filming a committee proceeding and not being disruptive, whether or not that person was accredited.  It is a matter of routine that all sorts of people photograph and record our proceedings.  Most of them are not accredited.  I cannot recall anyone questioning their right to be there.  The proceedings of the House are open to the public because we are the People’s House.  I cannot understand why any chairman, for any reason, would order the arrest of a noted filmmaker who was only recording the hearing and not in any way disrupting it.  A picayune appeal to the technicalities of House rules that are not normally enforced only illustrates what a betrayal of the fundamental principles of open and representative government this outrage was.”

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler represents New York’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, SoHo, Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, the Financial District and Battery Park City. In Brooklyn, the 8th District includes parts of Borough Park, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach and Seagate.