Disputing earlier statements by the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, the Associated Press obtained recorded telephone calls of officers clandestinely confessing the no-fly zone was deliberate in prohibiting news helicopters and cable crews from covering the protests and the civil unrest in the streets that followed in the wake of the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, Jr. on Aug. 9. 

The U.S. government granted a police request to limit more than 37 square miles of airspace for 12 days in August for safety in Ferguson. However, audio recordings show that local authorities surreptitiously acknowledged the drive was to hold off news helicopters during the violent street protests that erupted. Many of these protests and demonstrations spiraled into violence due to brute force by the police, who shot rubber bullets and used tear gas against marchers.

Just three days after Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a flight restriction over Ferguson on Aug. 12. However, it became a difficult task banning other airliners: With the neighboring Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, FAA air traffic managers fought hard to enumerate the flight ban to let commercial flights and police helicopters go through the fly zone.

Lee Rowland, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney with a focus on First Amendment issues, stated in an AP press release, "Any evidence that a no-fly zone was put in place as a pretext to exclude the media from covering events in Ferguson is extraordinarily troubling and a blatant violation of the press's First Amendment rights."

By the sounds of it, that's exactly what it was: A violation. In a sequence of recorded conversations via telephone, one FAA manager noted in regards to the St. Louis County Police that, "They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out, but they were a little concerned of, obviously, anything else that could be going on."

According to the AP, various FAA managers on the phone call then deliberated "how to word a flight restriction that would keep news helicopters away without disrupting other air traffic," BuzzFeed reports. BuzzFeed also notes that provided the police were actively trying to block aerial images of the protests and contain media coverage, it would violate constitutional rights.