Heartland Institute Kicks Journalists Out of 'Public' Climate Denial Event in Paris

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Accredited journalists were kicked out of a sparsely attended climate denial conference hosted by the US oil-and tobacco-funded Heartland Institute today inย Paris.

Heartland’s โ€˜Day of Examining the Dataโ€™ event was repeatedly advertised as open to the public and media. However the freedom-of-speech espousing think tank had French security guards from the Hotel California outside the COP21 official venue remove DeSmog UK journalists.

Why? Because the 9 am press conference was now apparently a privateย event.


An archived copy of the Heartland Institute Website shows the conference advertised as โ€œopen to theย publicโ€

With the two DeSmog journalists gone, this left the likes of Marc Morano from the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and Christopher Monckton preaching to a small choir of under 30 people, the majority of which were elderly men. Ironically, tomorrow is gender day at the official Paris COP21 climateย conference.

This isnโ€™t the first time such a climate denial conference has beenย underwhelming.

Last April, Heartland and CFACT travelled to Rome to try and pursuade the Pope not to speak on climate change. Aside from a very minimal media presence at the first day of their press stunt, there was no one except the climate denial faithful on dayย 2.

It also isnโ€™t the first time for this group to refuse journalists entry to their events. In June, accredited journalists were barred from attending Heartlandโ€™s annual climate conferenceย โ€” and the media that did get in was cordoned off in a separate room unable to actually stand in the conferenceย hall.

Sources tell DeSmog UK that Jim Lakely, Heartlandโ€™s communications director, is now standing guard outside the locked doors of the CFACT-Heartland climate denial conference inย Paris.

This comes after The Australian published a story earlier today headlined โ€œGreens want muzzle on โ€˜climateย deniersโ€™โ€.

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Kyla is a freelance writer and editor with work appearing in the New York Times, National Geographic, HuffPost, Mother Jones, and Outside. She is also a member of the Society for Environmental Journalists.

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