Gasland' Director Arrested at Congressional Hearing on Fracking

Director Josh Fox accepts the Special Jury Prize - Documentary for the movie `GasLand` at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival awards night in Park City, Utah, USA, 30 January 2010. Photo by BGNES

United States Capitol Police have arrested Joshua Fox, the creator of the "Gasland" documentary, for trying to film a hearing without proper media credentials.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker was detained during a Wednesday hearing in the House Energy and Environment subcommittee called to examine findings of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that hydraulic fracturing fluids had contaminated groundwater in the town of Pavillion, Wyoming, according to reports of Huffington Post.

The website provides a video which shows that the journalist is not being disruptive and is not resisting arrest.

"I was arrested today for exercising my First Amendment rights to freedom of the press on Capitol Hill. I was not expecting to be arrested for practicing journalism," Fox said in a statement to the press.

Fox was charged with "unlawful entry", despite the fact that Congressional hearings are open to the public, and any citizen is free to attend.

If the filmmaker had been found to be in breach of regulations on videotaping, his camera could have been confiscated or disabled without subjecting him to arrest.

Unconfirmed reports initially suggested that an ABC News camera had also been prevented from taping the hearing but the TV network subsequently denied that they sent a crew to the event.

"As a filmmaker and journalist I have covered hundreds of public hearings, including Congressional hearings. It is my understanding that public speech is allowed to be filmed. Congress should be no exception," Fox went on to say in his statement.

Charged with unlawful entry, he has a hearing scheduled for February 15.

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