Photographers rights in UK
It looks like the American paranoia when it comes to security has been spreading fast and hit UK now. Apparently when you are visiting that country you got be very careful when you take a photograph of just about anything right now as you can be stopped and questioned by the police. So tourists beware! But there is a light at the end of the tunnel:
Labour MP Austin Mitchell is planning to take a delegation of photographers to the Home Office to protest about the growing number of cases in which police officers and others try to stop professional and amateur photographers taking pictures in public places.
"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.
Mitchell's Early Day Motion reads:
"The proliferation of digital cameras and mobile phones with cameras means that everybody carries a camera these days."
"That this House is concerned to encourage the spread and enjoyment of photography as the most genuine and accessible people's art; deplores the apparent increase in the number of reported incidents in which the police, police community support officers (PCSOs) or wardens attempt to stop street photography and order the deletion of photographs or the confiscation of cards, cameras or film on various specious ground such as claims that some public buildings are strategic or sensitive, that children and adults can only be photographed with their written permission, that photographs of police and PCSOs are illegal, or that photographs may be used by terrorists; points out that photography in public places and streets is not only enjoyable but perfectly legal; regrets all such efforts to stop, discourage or inhibit amateur photographers taking pictures in public places, many of which are in any case festooned with closed circuit television cameras; and urges the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers to agree on a photography code for the information of officers on the ground, setting out the public's right to photograph public places thus allowing photographers to enjoy their hobby without officious interference or unjustified suspicion."
Glad to see that someone is finally addressing the issue, in today's digital age harassing people because they photograph the city is silly and without any merit.
(via Boing Boing - read full story)
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I have blogged on exactly the same issue today, following an unsavoury incident when I too was detained in a police car simply for taking photographs.
I trust that all photographers will do something to back Mr. Mitchell's campaign