Private security guards blocked a local television reporter's access to workers cleaning up oil from a local public beach last Friday, directly contradicting claims from BP that it has not restricted media access to the ongoing clean-up operation.

In a tense exchange with television news anchor Scott Walker from WDSU-New Orleans, security guards told Walker he could not interview clean-up workers on a public beach at Grand Isle, Louisiana [1].

"Every single security guard here has given instructions to every single news crew: you can be outside of a hundred yards of the workers on the boom," one security guard tells Walker. (To watch the incident, click over to the next page.)

Walker responded that since the security guard is not from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, the Coast Guard, or the military, he has no legal authority to stop him.

"I can tell you where to go because I am employed to keep this beach safe," the security guard retorted.

The incident between Walker and the security guards contradicts a BP's executive's claim that the company would not interfere with media's attempt to cover the story. Two days prior, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles sent a letter to Gulf Coast Region Incident Commanders thanking them for their hard work and denying the allegations that the company was blocking media access to the clean-up operation and its workers.

"Recent media reports have suggested that individuals involved in the cleanup operation have been prohibited from speaking to the media, and this is simply untrue," the letter from Suttles stated [3] (.pdf). "BP fully supports and defends all individuals rights to share their personal thoughts and experiences with journalists if they so choose. BP has not and will not prevent anyone working in the cleanup operation from sharing his or her own experiences or opinions."

During the argument with the security guards, Walker mentions Suttles' letter that states cleanup workers and volunteers have the right to speak with the media.

"The email did not explicitly give you permission to do that," the security guard said in response.

Eventually sheriff's deputies from Jefferson Parish intervened in the dispute and allowed Walker to question the workers.

Asked by a sheriff's deputy who the security guards worked for, one security guard answered, "Talon Security."

Asked who gave Talon Security the authority to restrict access to a public beach, the guard said he could not answer the question.

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