U.S. Capital Hill police arrested an award winning filmmaker at the request of House Republicans Wednesday afternoon, according to The Huffington Post.
Josh Fox, the director of the Oscar nominated film "Gasland," were arrested and his crew were detained for trying to film the GOP's hearing attacking the Environment Protection Agency (EPA)'s oversight on water pollution and fracking.
"I'm within my First Amendment rights," Fox shouted, according to Politico. "And I’m being taken out.”
The Huffington Post also claimed that an ABC News crew was similarly denied entrance to the hearing, but the news organization corrected that report, noting that they did not assign any reporters to the event.
Fox apparently did not have proper credentials to attend the meeting, even though identification rules aren't ever enforced for well-known journalists.
Democrats in the hearing were upset with their colleagues' harsh actions. They attempted to suspend the rules on filming and postpone the hearing, but were voted down on both accounts by House Republicans.
"Gasland" was a 2010 HBO documentary that looks at fracking, a process of natural gas extraction that injects pressurized water and chemicals deep underground. Environmental experts say the technique has polluted water tables and destroyed underground ecosystems, and even the U.S. Geological Survey warns that fracking can cause earthquakes.
