The A.P. obtained the recordings under a Freedom of Information Act request.

“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,” said Lee Rowland, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer specializing in First Amendment issues.

The F.A.A. administrator, Michael Huerta, said in a statement Sunday that his agency would always err on the side of safety. “F.A.A. 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,” he said.

Mr. Huerta also said that, to the best of the agency’s knowledge, “no media outlets objected to any of the restrictions” while they were in effect.

In the recordings, an F.A.A. manager urged modifying the flight restriction so that airport-bound planes could enter the airspace over Ferguson.

The agency manager in Kansas City then asked a St. Louis County police official if the restrictions could be lessened so nearby commercial flights would not be affected. The new order allows “aircraft on final there at St. Louis. It will still keep news people out. The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway,” so with the lesser restriction, “it still keeps all of them out.”

“Yeah,” the police official replied. “I have no problem with that whatsoever.”

Brian Thouvenot, the news director at KMOV-TV in St. Louis, told The A.P. that his station had been prepared at first to legally challenge the flight restrictions, but was later advised that its pilot could fly over the area as long as the helicopter stayed above 3,000 feet. That kept the helicopter and its mounted camera outside the restricted zone, although filming from such a distance, he said, was “less than ideal.”