A bill that would prevent workers from documenting unsafe working conditions and animal cruelty on farms or any industrial operation workplace using video cameras is being pushed through the Indiana Legislature. 

The "ag-gag" bill, S.B. 373, has an amendment that would make it a "Class A misdemeanor to photograph at a farm or business without written permission from the owner."

Indiana State AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott says:

Documentation of working conditions in Indiana has been instrumental in improving the nation's workplace safety laws since Lewis Hine photographed children working the midnight shift in Indiana's glass factories in the early 1900s. And that's exactly what this bill seeks to prevent. The big businesses pushing for this bill seek to ensure that the public discussion of what ought to be cannot be informed by the truth of what is.  

Indiana University law professor Seth Lahn told the Public News Service he believes the bill violates the First Amendment:

Whether you come at it from a position of food safety or working conditions or animal cruelty—it gets into a number of areas that, I think, the courts have always recognized—and common sense tells you, is an issue the public has an interest in hearing about.

Nine other states are considering bills that would make it hard, if not impossible, for whistle-blowers, workers and journalists to expose unsafe, cruel and inhumane working conditions.