The Law Blog

FROM NufffRespect

Photographers Rights And The Law In The UK – A brief guide for street photographers.

Know your rights when you’re out with your camera.

Despite the law being clear on a citizen’s rights to freely take pictures in public places (with a few restrictions) there is growing evidence of the police, police community support officers (PCSOs), security guards and general jobsworths failing to respect the rights of photographers going about their lawful business.

For more info on photographers rights, please visit:

http://www.urban75.org/photos/photographers-rights-and-the-law.html

Special thanks to:

http://youtube.com/FKNnewz

http://youtube.com/DarrenPollard1st

http://current.com/people/opencircuit

http://youtube.com/SparksVids

http://youtube.com/BrianHowes390

In the UK, a new “Counter Terrorism Act” came into force on 16th February 2009. It contains an amendment to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This amendment will make it an offence, punishable by up to ten years imprisonment, to publish or elicit information about any police constable “of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.

Furthermore, Schedule 7 of the Bill applies this amendment to internet service providers and web hosting services. This means they will have a legal duty to remove all sites perceived to fall under this offence, and has provisions for use at home and abroad.

It is unclear what information will be classed as useful to terrorists, but due to this ambiguous wording, the Bill has implications for bloggers, journalists, photographers, activists and anyone who values freedom of speech.

We must show that we won’t be intimidated, or called terrorists for resisting or monitoring repressive policing.

Fitwatch are one of the groups who could be targeted by this new legislation. Fitwatch, started two years ago by activists, resists and opposes the use of Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) on demonstrations. FIT are police officers who photograph, follow, and generally intimidate protesters. They bring, in the words of Jacqui Smith, harassment style policing to protests.

As part of this opposition, Fitwatch run a blog http://www.fitwatch.blogspot.com/ where they share information about these officers. We feel this blog could be under threat from this new legislation.

Whilst Fitwatch may not like officers who act outside of the law, they are certainly not terrorists.

Neither are:

* people filming, and uploading to Youtube, footage of police officers acting illegally.

* bloggers writing about being randomly stopped and searched.

* journalists publishing details of corrupt or racist cops.

* photographers publishing photographs of police on protests.

The list goes on, but all are under threat.

This legislation not only attempts to stifle our ability to hold the police force to account for their actions, but also attacks the principles of open publishing on the internet. It must be resisted.

Please join the mass action and oppose this ludicrous law.

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