Police promise pow-wows
freelance | 10.12.2006 22:41 | Other Press | Repression | Workers' Movements
Following increasingly outrageous treatment by police, the National Union Of Journalists have been raising their concerns. The following article was published in the Freelance....
Police promise pow-wows
POLICE treatment of photographers at two recent demos has drawn protests from the NUJ.
Freelance Organiser John Toner and Pamela Morton, Assistant Organiser, met with Commander Robert Broadhurst, responsible for Public Order, at New Scotland Yard on November 27.
They described officers' actions at incidents in Parliament Square on 9 October - when member Marc Vallée ended up in hospital - and outside the Mexican Embassy on 16 October.
John said he found Commander Broadhurst "receptive". The Commander agreed to continue to reiterate the importance of providing media access at briefings prior to public order events.
Broadhurst also offered Toner regular meetings at two-monthly intervals in order to monitor the Metropolitan Police Service Guidelines, agreed at the turn of the year.
John Toner added: "The meeting was necessary because of the injury to a photographer at Parliament Square. Obviously I did not go into detail, as this is likely to be the subject of legal action. Commander Broadhurst said the Met were already aware of the incident.
He added: "This meeting was arranged by Bob Cox of the Met press office, with whom we have a very good relationship. I am grateful to him for his continued support."
Commander Broadhurst has agreed to speak at the Photographers' Conference on 27 February.
POLICE treatment of photographers at two recent demos has drawn protests from the NUJ.
Freelance Organiser John Toner and Pamela Morton, Assistant Organiser, met with Commander Robert Broadhurst, responsible for Public Order, at New Scotland Yard on November 27.
They described officers' actions at incidents in Parliament Square on 9 October - when member Marc Vallée ended up in hospital - and outside the Mexican Embassy on 16 October.
John said he found Commander Broadhurst "receptive". The Commander agreed to continue to reiterate the importance of providing media access at briefings prior to public order events.
Broadhurst also offered Toner regular meetings at two-monthly intervals in order to monitor the Metropolitan Police Service Guidelines, agreed at the turn of the year.
John Toner added: "The meeting was necessary because of the injury to a photographer at Parliament Square. Obviously I did not go into detail, as this is likely to be the subject of legal action. Commander Broadhurst said the Met were already aware of the incident.
He added: "This meeting was arranged by Bob Cox of the Met press office, with whom we have a very good relationship. I am grateful to him for his continued support."
Commander Broadhurst has agreed to speak at the Photographers' Conference on 27 February.
freelance
Additions
Defending Democracy - video of police treatment of press, protesters and public
11.12.2006 01:09
Here is a video showing the way in which mainstream journalist and protesters alike were treated on the day of the Sack Parliament event in London in October. It's 19 minutes long but compressed using H264/MPG4 so not to large to download, just 47mb. Best watched with VLC (
http://videolan.org).
http://videolan.org).
r2r
Media Archive
11.12.2006 10:27
The NUJ photojournalist Marc Vallée has set up a "Media Archive" of news reports from both the "mainstream" and "independent" media which has news of him being injured and hospitalised in Parliament Square on the 09.10.06.
http://www.protestphoto.co.uk/091006.html
http://www.protestphoto.co.uk/091006.html
journalist
