As a photographer first and an upright citizen proud to uphold the law when it makes sense, second, I was fascinated by the attitude of Google's minnows in this article in "The Register":

"The NUJ has released a short film highlighting some of the problems faced by journalists covering public demonstrations.

The video was released the day after the TUC in Brighton condemned the erosion of civil liberties and media freedoms in Britain. TUC unions unanimously backed a motion, proposed by the National Union of Journalists, which called for a rethink of government policies that put journalists at risk of imprisonment just for doing their job".

Full NUJ story here

This is a fairly old video from Undercurrents.org. It dates from before the 2000 Terrorism Act and s44 stop and search, or for that matter the ACPO media guidelines agreed with the NUJ, or the escalation of harassment of photographers to include amateurs.

It may come as a shock to those who believe the press enjoy special privileges, or that press cards are a VIP ticket for access.

According to photographers who attended the Camp fpr Climate Action at Kingsnorth today (Tuesday), police are now paying special attention to photographers and journalists. They are reportedly stopping and searching journalists during the two hours allowed for media access by camp organisers. Professional photographer Marc Vallée reports that this took 40 minutes, leaving a reduced opportunity to work within the camp.

If London Heathrow doesn't manage to lose or destroy your mission-critical equipment or send it to Bucharest by mistake, travel to the USA introduces another risk. The Washington Post reports that travellers to the USA may have laptops and other information media seized for no reason and retained indefinitely for scrutiny, according to newly-disclosed Department of Homeland Security's and Customs and Immigration's border policies. Furthermore, the information contained may be shared with whichever agencies or 'private entities' these agencies wish.

Dominic Grieve (Shadow Attorney General) MP for Beaconsfield, Conservative):-

Sceptics who dismissed the fuss we made about forthcoming powers of seizure of flash cards have not had to wait long before having their faith in police judgement shown to be misplaced. They argued that a s43 search requires a 'reasonable suspicion that a person is a terrorist', and this was so serious a matter that it was unlikely to be abused.

A mere 3 weeks later we have Superintendent Neil Sherrington, deputy commander for Portsmouth police telling the Press Association that his officers acted 'reasonably' in stopping and questioning a man under the 2000 Terrorism Act who had photographed their police car.

Last year's Heathrow 'Camp for Climate Action' annoyed press considerably by restricting access to what was, after all, land that the occupiers did not own and had no legal rights over. In an attempt, presumably, to curtail potentially hostile coverage by the evil right-wing MSM, the organisers modelled their press policy on Kim Jong-il and turned the field into a little bit of Pyongang. For sure, Government and BAA are guilty of media manipulation and are bang-to-rights serial fibbers where LHR, traffic and emissions are concerned, but three wrongs don't make a right.

On 16th July the House of Lords briefly debated the encroachment of police and private security on photography in public places.

A few interesting points emerge from some pointed questions, producing a government commitment to meet and discuss matters with police associations and perhaps with the Security Industry Association. The debate manages to perceptively include concerns over CCTV and paparazzi behaviour, both of which arguably feed public and official polarisations. Since the Lords did such a fine job of speaking for themselves, the whole debate is here:

Open government in action...
Photo © Andrew Wiard 2008

Andrew Wiard and a couple of other press photographers report an obstructive encounter with private security guards outside City Hall (the Greater London Authority building) today.