The White House defended the government imposed "no-fly zone" in Ferguson, Missouri that appeared to be a plan by the police to keep the media from covering the protests after a police officer shot 18-year-old Michael Brown to death.
The Associated Press reported over the weekend that audio recordings they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed the Federal Aviation Administration working with local authorities to define a 37-square-mile flight restriction so that only police helicopters and commercial flights could fly through the area.
The FAA denied AP's allegations when contacted by CNN.
"FAA cannot and will never exclusively ban media from covering an event of national significance and media was never banned from covering the ongoing events in Ferguson in this case," FAA said in a written statement to CNN.
"There is nothing more important to the FAA than the safety of the National Airspace System and people on the ground. When local law enforcement reports a danger to aircraft, including guns fired into the air that could impact low flying aircraft, the FAA will always err on the side of safety."
The recorded telephone conversations obtained by AP appear to say the opposite.
"[Ferguson police] did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didn't want media in there," an FAA manager said during the recorded conversation.
