Differing accounts of FEMA press relations; Times-Picayune awaits EPA's FOIA response

Carl Redman, managing editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate, said the agency had kept reporters from a makeshift morgue, but the paper's director of photography had not heard of any restrictions from his team of six photographers. Similarly, the president of the National Press Photographers Association said she had no trouble in the area. One official said journalists had misinterpreted FEMA's rules.

Katrina has also brought up a number of FOIA issues, according to the Society of Environmental Journalists. "It's been more than a week since The Times-Picayune . . . turned in desperation to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to answer a basic question: Where are dangerous chemicals leaking as a result of Hurricane Katrina?" See SEJ's release.

Photographers, reporters or editors for Louisiana newspapers, please e-mail your experiences with FOIA and/or FEMA officials to newsboy101@hotmail.com.