Letter To The Editor

Film ordinance tries to take away rights

Regarding “Changes to filming ordinance worry some,” Dec. 13:

After watching Tuesday’s City Council discussion about the proposed new film permit ordinance, I was struck by a huge omission. Not one person happened to mention the fact that any city-imposed filming rules need to keep in mind that every citizen has the legal right to photograph in public without restriction, as long as they are not interfering with the public business.

Because of this neglect, what we saw Tuesday was a mishmash of contradictory rules and exemptions that weren’t governed by any overriding concern, except perhaps that of how it’s perfectly OK for the Burbank police to control someone’s use of a camera.

For starters, as a result of this proposed ordinance, the city will now require freelance news gatherers not employed by a bona-fide news agency to apply for an expensive filming permit — a restriction that, unfortunately, is not legal in this country. Some permit exemptions, though improved, are still based upon the status of the artist as to whether they are noncommercial or not.

All charitable groups are now going to have to buy liability insurance when they want to film anywhere — that’s how sloppily written these new rules are. All student filmmakers are going to have to provide expensive liability insurance, too, wherever and whoever they happen to be.

No exceptions for either group, at least not in writing, which means that arbitrary decisions will end up ruling the day.

These new policies were supposed to be an improvement over the old ones. They were supposed to clear up inconsistencies. But for them to vest so much power in the Burbank police as to the how and why, or to regulate speech and assembly as much as they do, with an expensive fee tacked on to boot, and all without any concern for balancing the rights of the artist with the rights of the public, is really unacceptable.

JIM CARLILE

Burbank