Give me my freedom

I don’t often get really annoyed with things, actually scrap that I DO regularly get annoyed at things BUT not usually THIS annoyed at things.

I’m a semi-pro photographer. I say semi-pro because I don’t specifically get paid to take photographs for publication BUT it is a big part of my job.

I’ve photographed everything from football matches, rugby games, music gigs, festivals to major news stories, protests, cultural stories and pretty scenes.

I’m not telling you all this to boast or to show off - my photography isn’t that great, if it was I would be doing that alone for a living - but it is reasonable.

The reason I’m telling you this is to give some background to why I’m so bloody annoyed by a BBC News Magazine story that recounts stories of photographers being harrassed by the police.

The story suggests that an increasing number of photographers, amateur, professional and enthusiast alike are being given a hard time by police and security when they try to take pictures in public.





One photographer was stopped from photographing the turning on of Christmas lights, another trying to photograph a lock and more still when trying to take pictures of buildings and parks.

So far I’ve not been directly affected by this in a major way, although I have been asked by the police why I’m taking photos - but working for the BBC I can usually just show my ID and they move on.

But I have spoken to people who have been stopped by the police, been made to delete photos and generally given a hard time - all because of terrorism. Basically the logic seems to read “terrorists take photographs so anyone taking a photograph must be a terrorist.”

There is even a Police campaign in London that suggests people report anyone taking photograph on the grounds that terrorists take photographs of things and as you don’t know if the person taking a photograph is a terrorist you should probably report them anyway.

In fact it actually says “Thousands of people take photos every day. What if one of them seems odd? Terrorists use surveilance to help plan attacks. Taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras.





“If you see someone doing that, we need to know. Let experienced officers decide what action to take.”

Now I’ve taken photos of CCTV cameras before as I think they make for useful blog post illustrations, I’ll also make a note on my phone about the location so I can properly caption the photo later on. What if I did it in London? Would somebody report me? Would I end up being held for 21 days without charge on grounds of terrorism when all I was trying to do was illustrate a blog post?

Where the fuck (excuse me but it IS necessary) do we live? Communist China? This is purely a case of the fear of the few eroding the freedom of the masses and it’s complete bollocks!

And this is all a growing trend. The Police told the BBC in the story that it wasn’t policy to stop all photographers from taking photos but officers on the street still seem to take a hard line and have even been known to tell a photographer that they’re “not allowed to photograph here” - that’s bollocks.

You have every right to take photographs in public places in the UK. You even have the right to photograph police officers and other members of the public. You can photograph public buildings and private buildings from the outside.





Basically anywhere you can go legally you can also take photographs.

Fortunately the police have admitted and agreed with that and senior officers have said they WILL make sure that information is filtered down to officers on the street.

My suggestion - take a photograph of any officer giving you a hard time over you taking photographs - then when he arrests you (you can refuse to delete the photos) you have evidence of who he was for the wrongful arrest case you will later bring.

There is help at hand though - Labour MP (so there is a sensible one then) and keen photographer, Austin Mitchell, has brought an early day motion to the House of Commons that has been signed by 131 cross party MPs on this issue AND he plans to take a group of photographers to the Home Office to demonstrate.

He told the Press Gazette “People have complained about photographers being stopped from taking pictures by police, PCSOs, wardens and by various officious people.





“People have a right to take photographs and to start interfering with that is crazy. It seems crazy when the streets are festooned with closed-circuit television cameras that the public should be stopped from using cameras.

“The proliferation of digital cameras and mobile phones with cameras means that everybody carries a camera these days.”

People should be writing to their MP and other people’s MPs as well - lobby your political party of choice and generally make a nuisence of yourself over this issue. Let people in power know that you won’t stand for your basic rights and freedoms being eroded in this way.

In fact you could find your MP on They Work for You and then use an adapted version of this written by Jayel Aheram.

Dear [Member of Parliament],

As a constituent and a photographer who cares deeply about civil liberties and artistic freedom, I urge you to join your fellow Member of Parliament Austin Mitchell in his campaign to protect photographers’ rights. Photographers that take pictures in public spaces are not a threat to their fellow citizens and their government, so they should not be treated as such. Misguided police officers and security guards that are ill-informed about the law frequently harass innocent photographers that take pictures.

Please support MP Austin Mitchell in protecting photographers’ rights.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Hometown]

But only use the above as a guide - take from it and re-write it in your own words as Copy and Paste letters will just go into a big pile and get ignored.

With an increasing number of people taking up photography as a hobby and posting their photos to sites like Flickr - this is going to become a bigger issue.





It’s well worth keeping a copy of the Photographs Legal Guide on you - it’s 2 A4 pages OR if you know how to flip a page in a printer 1 double sided A4 piece of paper.

It basically lays out what you can legally do as a photographer in the UK - keep it with you and use it to show the police - or in fact make a dozen copies, keep them in your camera bag and give the police officer a copy to take home with him - every little helps.

It’s a simple, quick PDF Download.

Or you could just take this piss out of the whole thing. A comment on Boing Boing suggested that as terrorists also use toilets - maybe we should be keeping an eye on the bogs as well.

You can view my photos on my Flickr Stream.

Share/Save