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Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights rejected the governments appeal to it’s decision in January that ruled Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Although the Home Office has said it is still considering how the ruling effects the law and the police will continue to use it. It’s possible that any Stop & Search under s44 since 12th January 2010 will be open to legal challenge, so hang on to any receipts.

Unfortunately there are still a swathe of laws that police use to harass photographers, most notably s43, which is similar to s44 but requires an officer to suspect that you are a terrorist and s76 which makes it illegal to ‘elicit information about a police officer’ which includes photographing them.

In the meantime we’re going back to the place where our campaign started, outside New Scotland Yard. We’ll be gathering at 12 noon, this Sunday 4th July (Independence Day!) Come along and lets celebrate a little more freedom for photographers.

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The incident clearly shows how officers are continuing to abuse Terror laws and how security guards are abusing their position by calling the police every time somebody photographs a building, which they claim is not allowed, but is of course perfectly legal and legitimate.

Can I Please Have My Mobile Phone Back, Officer?

I spent the weekend in Derby at the National Photography Symposium and was involved in a panel discussion on ‘Photography, Security and Terrorism. How ironic that my first assignment back in London today saw me experience again the public humiliation of a detention and a physical search by a City of London police officer.

A security guard tries to stop Grant photographing a building. Image © Grant Smith 2010

Scouting for a location on London Wall for a portrait of one of the architect’s responsible for the City’s changing skyline, I went to One Aldermanbury Square. Loaded with a Canon g10, I wandered around the base of the building taking recce shots. A guard employed by the building waved his hands at me, asserting that I couldn’t photograph this building. As I stood on the pavement opposite the building I told him he was wrong, and I had every right to photograph, which I kept on doing. Another guard approached saying the same thing, and that if I didn’t move he’d call the police. (He recognised me from a previous occasion when he had warned me off, which had also resulted in a police response. On that occasion they were satisfied that I was within my rights and I had done nothing wrong. Thus the security guards had prior confirmation from the police that I was a photographer, not a terrorist.) I wandered back and forth, sizing up my locations and where I would place my subject. I walked along London Wall high walk, and saw the frenzied police activity below. Four officers had arrived and were in animated discussion with the guards. A police van with flashing lights sped out of Wood Street and eyeballed me, fixing my position.  Uniformed police approached me from both directions. I continued walking and photographing. PC 374 walked towards me and greeted me with a cheery ‘Hello’. I responded in like fashion and continued to walk on as he spoke into his radio. He stopped me with his hand firmly on my chest. I asked if I was being detained.

‘I’d just like a word with you.’

Am I being detained? ‘Yes you are.’

Under what grounds? ‘Section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act.

Why? ‘If you’ll let me finish’, he responded. ‘And you are?’ He inquired the way a school bully might query anyone on their patch.

I wanted to know why I was being detained, and what were the reasonable grounds. ‘The guards at the building over the road alerted us to someone acting suspiciously. And under Section 44(2) we don’t need reasonable grounds.’

‘What’s suspicious about my behaviour. I was taking photographs.’

‘If you let me finish. The fact you were taking photographs, we’d like to know the reason. ‘

I said that I’m in the City, an area of iconic buildings and fascinating historical sites, that’s why I’m taking photographs. He replied with a cryptic answer:‘You’ve just explained it.’ I looked puzzled.

‘The very fact you were here at all is the reason we’ve stopped you.’

I explained that being in a public space I could not be prevented from taking photographs. He said the guards were wrong in trying to stop me.  I felt relieved and thought that the whole affair would rest then and there. As I began to move away a second PC, PC29 moved from behind and took both my arms, preventing me from moving. PC 374 then told me he was searching me under s44, and he began to go through my pockets and pat me down. My phone was taken from me. The camera hanging around my neck was carefully removed and placed out of my reach. I asked several times if I could record this incident on camera and was denied this right, being told that under s44(2) I must do as ordered. The power was now in their hands. Mine were still being held.

PC went through my pannier, flipping through personal notebooks, gingerly peeking in a plastic bag that contained a towel and swimmers, still wet from my earlier swim. He located my wallet, and pulled out my drivers licence with obvious glee. Each time I attempted to move PC29’s grip on my arms became firmer. I moved to zip up my jacket, which had been unzipped in the search, and his grip tightened. I explained I was getting cold and would like to warm up. He agreed, but kept hold of me by one hand.  I tried to move left or right and he blocked me. Repeated requests for my phone and camera were turned down. I asked to get pen and paper from my bag, and this was declined. I said I wanted to record the incident, only to be told that I will get their record at the end of the procedure.

Many times I asked why was I being stopped under s44. The answer I given was because of my obstructive and non-compliant attitude. Based on this observation, it then became necessary to treat me as a potential criminal suspect. I noted that s44 could be open to misuse, as it was so powerful and sweeping. PC374 replied ‘It has been said, but it is open for our use’ The implication being that it can be used on anyone who is non-compliant.

Waiting for the data base to give PC374 the all-clear on my record, I was kept hemmed against the barrier by PC29, repeatedly told that if I kept moving I would be handcuffed. This scene of public humiliation, as I was restrained and treated like a criminal, was watched by workers from the neighbouring building.

Once the all clear was given, PC374 tore off the pink slip of the s44 stop search form asking if I wanted it. I asked if I could carry on taking photographs, he turned his back on me like a petulant child, forgetting that his cap lay on the ground in the spot he had removed it earlier. Joined by a third PC, the posse then turned their back on me refusing to answer any further questions from me. I watched as the three of them walked away from me, with my mobile phone. Excuse me I called ‘Can I please have my mobile phone back?’

Grant is also one of the organisers of the I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! campaign.

Press Freedom: Hostile Reconnaissance highlights the continuing police surveillance of journalists documenting political dissent in the UK and follows the rise of the I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist! campaign.

The film follows on from the 2008 film Press Freedom: Collateral Damage that exposed the extent of police surveillance on street journalists. The film includes interviews with photojournalists Marc Vallee and Jess Hurd, NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear and Hickman and Rose partner Anna Mazzola. They are a few among many who continue to campaign to expose and fight the increasing erosion of civil liberties and press freedom.

Hostile Reconnaissance rally on Civil Liberties, Terror Laws & Press Freedom in Friends Meeting House. Image © Rude Cech 2010

Last night saw the fantastic Hostile Reconnaissance rally take place as 200 people filled the Large Meeting House of Friends Meeting House in Euston.

The rally heard from across the spectrum of journalists and photographers with accounts of journalists being harassed by police whilst working, being forced to erase images under the threat of arrest, detention on trumped up charges of ‘a breach of the peace’ and forced removal from covering protests using public order legislation.

The panel, chaired by London Photographers’ Branch chair Jess Hurd, included lawyer Chez Cotton, photojournalist and PHNAT organiser Marc Vallee, civil liberties columnist Henry Porter, photographer Pennie Quinton, NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear and law academic Keith Ewing.

Many on the panel were derisory of the erosion of civil liberties under New Labour, Jeremy Dear said:

Don’t believe for one second that the answer is to replace an illiberal New Labour regime with an authoritarian Conservative one.

Whilst Prof. Keith Ewing called for a press freedom bill to enshrine specific rights for journalists, similar to the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act outlining his proposal in 12 statements:

1. A right not to reveal sources.
2. A right not to be required to surrender images.
3. A right to attend public events and to move freely at these events.
4. A right to right to take photographs in a public place.
5. A right to photograph police officers and public officials exercising their duty.
6. A right not to be under surveillance by police or intelligence services.
7. A right to not have equipment confiscated.
8. A right not to have images erased or equipment deliberately damaged.
9. A right not to be subject to Stop & Search.
10. A right not to be restrained by injunction.
11. A right that police Forward Intelligence Teams only act with prior legal authority.
12. A right to meaningful accountability of police Forward Intelligence Teams.

Observer columnist Henry Porter spoke about the depressing emails he received each day on human rights abuses in the UK; a man Tasered by police on a bus in Manchester who was having an epileptic fit, the 15,000 people wrongly listed as criminals by the Criminal Records Bureau and the new powers being given to bouncers to issue fines for drunken behavior and other offences.

Human rights lawyer Chez Cotton told of her experience dealing with cases of journalists using Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights which provides the rights to freedom of expression and ACPO press guidelines. She gave examples of cases that she had worked on; the use of s14 of the Public Order Act at the G20 protests to disperse journalists, a photographer who photographed the police arresting someone in Waterloo train station and was told to delete the images under threat of arrest and the journalist who was told by police that he couldn’t photograph the scene of a fire ‘as a matter of common decency’ despite there being no bodies or a crime scene. He was then arrested for a breach of the peace, even though he hadn’t taken a photograph.

Full length audio from the rally, courtesy of Andrew Stuart.

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P.S. If you are the owner of a black diary that was left at the rally, get in touch and we’ll reunite you with it.

The rally will be chaired by photographer Jess Hurd and we’ve got a top lineup of speakers who have dealt with the raft of terror laws that we face today:

• Jeremy Dear, General Secretary National Union of Journalists
• Paul Lewis, Guardian journalist & British Press Awards Reporter of the Year 2010
• Keith Ewing, Professor of Public Law at King’s College London & author of Bonfire of the Liberties
• Henry Porter, Observer columnist, author & British editor of Vanity Fair
• Chez Cotton, Head of Action Against the Police at Bindmans Solicitors & a co-ordinator of the Police Action Lawyers Group
• Marc Vallée, Photojournalist, investigative journalist and one of the organisers of the I’m A Photographer, Not a Terrorist! campaign group.
• Pennie Quinton, Filmmaker who won the ECHR case that ruled s44 is unlawful.

Supporting the rally are the National Union of Journalists, NUJ London Central Branch, London Freelance Branch and the I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! campaign group.

This is a free event, open to the public.

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Image available for use in conjunction with this story only. Do Not Crop. Image © Jonathan Warren/jwarren.co.uk 2010

Hostile Reconnaissance
Terror Laws, Civil Liberties & Press Freedom
13th of April, 7pm. Friends Meeting House, Euston.

For Immediate Release

With the General Election in full swing it is time to put civil liberties and press freedom centre stage in the election debates. Our right to work, our right to protest and dissent are increasingly under threat by the use and abuse of a raft of anti-terror legislation.

Professional and amateur photographers alike are being stopped routinely by police under Section 44 of the Terrorism act on grounds of conducting ‘Hostile Reconnaissance’ which has seen the rapid growth of the campaign group ‘I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist!‘.

The use of these laws has been challenged and ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights. The filmmaker and NUJ member who is fighting the government appeal to the ruling next week, Pennie Quinton, will be speaking at the rally.

Mike Mansfield QC said in support of the rally:

The Government’s legislation has less to do with terrorism than with control and the suppression of opposition and truth. It has been recognized for some time by the authorities that agents of the state have too often been caught on camera committing unlawful acts: (Orgreave, Poll Tax, Fairford, Brighton, G20, climate camp). The power to confiscate the camera is therefore an essential tool for an oppressive regime.

How such a draconian measure, drafted in such wide ranging terms, got past our so called political scrutineers in the Commons beggars belief. Either they were subverted by the ‘fear factor’, diverted by expenses claims or overcome by sleep. Mind you, it’s the same lot who voted for the War in Iraq in the first place and who later believed security service assurances that the UK had not colluded in rendition and torture. Such an unquestioning and unaccountable bunch of Labour and Tory MPs needs to be booted out on May 6 and this iniquitous provision repealed

The London Photographers’ Branch of the National Union of Journalists, is proud to be hosting a pre-election rally Hostile Reconnaissance – Terror Laws, Civil Liberties & Press Freedom at 7pm on the 13th of April at Friends Meeting House in Euston.

The rally will be chaired by photographer Jess Hurd and we’ve got a top lineup of speakers who have dealt with the raft of terror laws that we face today:

• Jeremy Dear, General Secretary National Union of Journalists
• Paul Lewis, Guardian journalist & British Press Awards Reporter of the Year 2010
• Keith Ewing, Professor of Public Law at King’s College London & author of Bonfire of the Liberties
• Henry Porter, Observer columnist, author & British editor of Vanity Fair
• Chez Cotton, Head of Action Against the Police at Bindmans Solicitors & a co-ordinator of the Police Action Lawyers Group
• Marc Vallée, Photojournalist, investigative journalist and one of the organisers of the I’m A Photographer, Not a Terrorist! campaign group.
• Pennie Quinton, Filmmaker who won the ECHR case that ruled s44 is unlawful.

Opening the rally will be a film by Jason N Parkinson with highlights from the campaign.

Supporting the rally are the National Union of Journalists, NUJ London Central Branch and the I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! campaign group.

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Contact:

Jonathan Warren 077939 40759
Jess Hurd 07713 151765

[email protected]
http://londonphotographers.org

ENDS

Welcome to the Debate section of the London Photographer’s Branch. We are the newest branch of the National Union of Journalists that will promote the needs of photographers. The Branch is the result of years of Union members campaigning to create a platform in which they could highlight the issues that matter to photographers.

Branch membership is open to photographers living in the London area or deriving most of their income from London based clients. This covers many of the photographers working in Britain today. The NUJ’s National Executive Committee has also reinterpreted the rules so that any NUJ member has the option of joining the Branch. Regardless this branch will be fighting for the issues and causes that matter to all photographers in the UK.

The Photojournalist of today is under assault from almost every side. In the last 10 years we have seen profound changes in Photojournalism. At the forefront are the changes in technology. Digital Photography has radically changed the way we not only produce images but how we consume them. Digital Photography has put in the hands of the amateur what once was the preserve of the professional. The internet has created a myriad of platforms for which to display and look at photography. Film is now increasingly the preserve of the Art photographer and even then, chances are those images are scanned and displayed somewhere in the worldwide web.

While these changes have in so many ways been a positive trend the overwhelming feeling among our community is that these changes had for the most part devalued our profession and at the very least, the value of images. I read once that more images have been made since 2000 than all the photographs made between 1842 and 1999. Our world is now swimming in an ocean of imagery. We have flooded the market with our stock.

These changes in technology have also adversely affected the very platforms we traditionally published our work. There are few newspapers or current events magazines that are not under serious duress from the alternate free sources of information available on the web. Readership and advertising is down in the physical copies of these publications, while millions now consume them for free on the internet. Web advertising cannot currently pay for the costs of producing these online versions. Publishers have been looking for ways to cut costs and the photographer’s income from commissions and use of their images has been targeted. The myriad of new platforms available to the photographer on the internet rarely pay anything approaching a living wage or the costs of producing the very photographs they publish. The real danger here is that these new platforms cater only to us as photographers, not the wider audience the photojournalist strives to reach. If we are not communicating to a wider audience what exactly are we doing?

It is in this economically difficult environment that we are challenged by authorities even to our right to photograph. More and more of our colleagues are being stopped by the police and stopped from doing their job in the name of combating terrorism. In fairness, the police have always harassed photojournalists. Now with the real threat of terrorism hanging over all of us, the security forces have decided to try to curtail our legal right to photograph. What is ludicrous about all of this in an age where everyone carries a camera it is the professional photojournalist that is deemed a threat to the safety of the country. I still cannot think of one terrorist act that the camera played any part in its execution. As the most visible members of the journalistic community we face the brunt of attacks on journalism, on free speech and freedom of
assembly.

I could keep writing about the myriad of issues that affect us but I’d best leave these to later articles. I will close in writing that the Branch is dedicated to not only highlighting the issues that concern us but as a vehicle to effect positive change. We have plans to increase the NUJ’s reach in training, education and preserving the rights we currently enjoy. The Branch will invite and seek participation from all the various skills and voices from within our community. We will strive to make our monthly branch meetings an enjoyable experience and not the deadly dull meetings many associate with Union membership. We hope to have a mixture of lectures, slide shows, panel discussions and workshops that will touch on every aspect of our profession. We hope to more than anything to represent photographers in a forceful positive way. We aim to advance our profession and we hope you will join us on our journey.

Antonio Olmos
Vice-Chair, London Photographers’ Branch