Yeah.. Like this picture would be a no-go.
Re-posted from Green is the New Red
Indiana lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it illegal to photograph or videotape things like factory farming, clear-cutting forests, mining, and fracking.
You read that correctly. Under Indiana’s SB 0373, anyone who sets foot on corporate property in order to document environmental, animal welfare, and health violations of these industries would face criminal penalties.
The bill has already passed the Senate, and is on track to pass the full House. It is part of a wave of similar legislation introduced across the country that have been dubbed “ag-gag” bills. [Here’s a detailed look at ag-gag efforts nationally.] But Indiana is poised to become the first state to pass an ag-gag bill this year.
This ag-gag trend is the brainchild of the Big Ag industry, working with the American Legislative Exchange Council. What’s especially troubling about Indiana’s bill, though, is that it extends far beyond factory farms to the timber, mining, and manufacturing industries.
The text of the bill lists “agricultural operations” such as “crops,” “livestock,” “poultry,” horticultural products,” and “growing timber.” It also lists “industrial operations,” which is pretty much everything connected to industry: the “manufacture of a product from other products, “transformation of a material from one form to another,” “mining of a material and related mine activities,” or “storage or disposition of a product or material.”
If that’s not bad enough, the bill also targets:
* Workers and whistleblowers — the bill places a 48-hour requirement on anyone reporting criminal activity, which makes it impossible to document a pattern of abuse.
* Journalists — the bill places special emphasis on anyone who “distributes, disseminates, or transfers the image, photograph, video recording, or motion picture,” and specifically targets those who distribute this materials to the press. The Hoosier State Press Association has spoken against it.
As the Indianapolis Star editorialized: “The measure is unnecessary and the cost is too great, not only to investigative journalists, animal rights activists and other keenly interested parties, but also to the general public.”
If you care about the environment, workers’ rights, animal welfare, or consumer safety, this bill is a blatant attempt to keep you in the dark. And it’s on the verge of passing.
EF! DAM
Ecodefense
Earth First! Newswire 
Reblogged this on Croatan Earth First!.
What can we do to stop this?!
Reblogged this on Rue d'Odessa and commented:
This is scary and we should be making as much noise ab
Conservative “values” at work: coverup, destruction of freedom of speech, destruction of the freedom of the press, destruction of the environment, and worship of money.
I don’t live in Indiana but I’m offended that anyone or any company would ban me from my rights, this may not seem like a big deal, but its the biginning of things ahead that removes one of our rights & then the rest go down with it.
Hello Marylou:
You are right to be offended.
Corporate America is always testing the resolve of the America People.
“How much can we get away with today?”
—Fracking next to houses and schools!
—Toxic fluoride in our water!
—Curtailing Freedom of Speech at every opportunity!
—Deadly GMOs in our food supply!
—Deadly pesticides and herbicides in our food!
This list could occupy thousands of pages, no doubt.
If they feel they have to pass laws to keep us from seeing what’s going on, it’s pretty obvious they REALLY don’t want us to see what’s going on! And while they’re at it, they’ll just make whistle blowing impossible. However, what they didn’t include is photographing or videotaping money being handed over to the politicians from the industries in question. I wonder whey they left that out?
Congratulations, Indiana – it is nice to see another state besides my home state of Texas look like bozos by acting as if the Constitution is only a group of friendly suggestions!