Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Two NUJ journalists ejected from Blair school visit

Oscar Beard | 10.09.2006 16:14 | Education | Repression | London | World

Two NUJ journalists are ejected as Prime Minister Tony Blair visits St. John's Wood, North London.

On Thursday 7 September Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Quintin Kynaston in St John's Wood, North London, around 2pm to announce further private corporate investment into the technology school .

Whilst there, being hounded by a few anti-war demonstrators and a hoard of angry school children who had been removed from the school, Blair announced his imminent departure as premiere of the country - the BBC reporting his removal from Downing Street as 4 May, 2007.

During the visit two NUJ registered journalists were removed from the area outside the front of the school, where a press pen had been set up to cage the rowdy and unruly media, and were forced 100 metres down the road behind metal barricades with the other demonstrators.

One journalist was almost immediately ejected when he pulled out two small Lebanon flags. He showed his NUJ card to one policeman, who then asked a senior officer whether the man should be treated as press or a protestor.

Without checking the validity of the press card the senior officer said: “He’s a protestor, remove him.”

Fifteen minutes before the arrival of Blair a second video journalist was approached by one plain clothes officer who identified himself as Inspector Frost. He challenged the journalist’s press credentials, took the press card and said he was going to check it, adding he was unhappy with the journalist’s conduct.

The officer disappeared leaving the journalist waiting by several police officers. After several minutes a second officer, an Inspector Hedderman, returned with backup, told the journalist his card could not be validated and he would have to leave the area.

The journalist argued his right to be in the press pen and demanded to know why his card could not be validated and what was his unruly conduct, as he claimed he did nothing different to any other journalist there.

Ten minutes before the arrival of Blair the journalist was forced to join the protestors far away from the main gates and the approcahing PM.

The journalist later told this old hack that he too checked the validation phone number to verify his own card, only to find his name and NUJ pin number was no longer on the computer system.

“This is very strange,” he said. “I have been stopped and checked many times before and my press card is always validated. This is the first time this has happened to me, but not the first time I have been halted from filming.”

The journalist added he found it strange the police had been watching him the entire time he was at the school filming, nearly two hours before the arrival of Blair, but left it till the last few minutes to eject him, giving no chance to rectify the obvious error and continue his job.

Blair’s arrival was met with huge opposition. School children screamed “Out, out, out,” calling Blair a murder and a butcher, and one burned a “Blair Out” placard whilst others stamped on it, an obvious sign of visible anger, even in children as young as ten years.

Needless to say the news reports that day did not catch the general feeling of the hundreds of school children, many from the Middle East and of Muslim religion. The news showed a few screened and selected children who seemed happy to meet the PM.

Several young English students told this journalist they had begun a campaign the previous day to oppose the Blair visit, only to join the others in being ejected from the school at midday.

Teachers from the school spent the time before the Blair visit in the street stripping anti-Blair placards from the children and demanding they go home immediately. This most children refused and stayed until the PM was well inside the building.

Oscar Beard
- e-mail: oscarbeard@yahoo.com.mx
- Homepage: http://www.reprogrammingthedesensitised.com

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Press cards STINK — Dave tog
  2. silly question perhaps but.... — ben
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech