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UK government bans photography

Liberty&Solidarity | 17.12.2008 17:08 | Repression | Workers' Movements

A leaked Home Office letter informs us that publci photography can be stopped by the police at any time. As the number of workers on the dole rises to 1.86million this is more evidence that the state is expecting serious dissent over the next few years.

By Keir Snow, published on December 16th, 2008

The face of the future
The face of the future


In a letter to the National Union of Journalists, the Minister for security and counter-terrorism, Vernon Kay, clarified that the police may stop photographers taking pictures or videos when “the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations or inflame an already tense situation or raise security considerations.” The Police have already been using heightened security tensions and their powers under the Terrorism Act to remove and harass people documenting political demonstrations, which was the cause of the dialogue with the NUJ.

This signifies the Home Office coming clean and admitting from now on the Police will have ability to remove anyone at all with a camera - all the police have to do is declare, possibly not even publicly, that there are special circumstances:

“Additionally, the police may require a person to move on in order to prevent a breach of the peace or to avoid a public order situation or for the person's own safety and welfare or for the safety and welfare of others.”

This means if you witnessed the police bundling someone into the back of a van and decided to film it on your camera phone, you would be breaking the law. If a professional journalist did so, they would also be breaking the law.
Though this is a frightening development, it is only the latest in the governments’ campaign against civil liberties. Earlier this year the government announced plans requiring anyone buying a mobile phone to show their passport and to be entered onto a database. Coupled with other developments, such as compulsory ID cards, it is clear the government is deliberately curtailing the rights of its citizens. This begs the question; why?

It would seem no coincidence that the continuous curtailing of freedoms has intensified in pace since the outbreak of the “credit crunch”, an economic crisis which looks to be the most severe in recent history. Though the impact of it has not yet been felt, if previous crashes are anything to go by, it will be accompanied by large amounts of unrest from those workers who have their conditions and pay attacked in order to squeeze out money to bail out the bosses and banks.

Already we have seen mass redundancies from the various city banks and financiers, and on the high street Woolworths and MFI are the first major casualties. However these are just a small sign of what is to come. As more companies either slim down their staffing in order to curtail expenses, or simply go out of business, masses of people will be made unemployed. This will flood the labour market, driving down pay and conditions for all those who have to work for a living.

The public sector will also be affected. Having given the banks a 500 billion pound bailout, five times the size of the annual NHS budget, Gordon Brown will have to figure out a way to recoup his expense. The obvious choice seems to be intensifying the cuts of public services, increasing privatisation and diminishing public sector pay.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many people will not accept being punished for the mistakes of the bosses. A clear correlation can be seen between economic downturn and resistance from the general population. In Greece currently the police murder of a young boy has acted as a trigger for a widespread anti-police and largely anti-capitalist rebellion that has seen symbols of wealth like luxury hotels and high-end shops looted, whilst banks and police stations have been torched across the country. The uprising continues with many town halls being occupied by locals and there are ongoing street confrontations with the police. What the Greek rebellion represents is how resentment of the government and the state apparatus twinned with long term economic depression can quickly develop small revolts into generalised insurgency in the current financial crisis – even in the first world. With very minor solidarity riots occurring in other European countries, this is exactly the kind of omen our governments are panicked by, and exactly what they hope to avoid with this legislation.

However, the Greek response is not automatic, especially not in relatively dormant UK political landscape. With the steps the government has taken, and the general weakness of the left within the UK, working class victory, or at minimum, self-defence, is dependent upon the swift organisation of our communities and workplaces so that we can better resist the inevitable attacks and generalise the issues of single campaigns into a network of struggle.

The government is not ignorant of history, nor of the link between worsening conditions and civil unrest. It would appear that the government is preparing to meet the threat of revolt head on. This year has already seen the rapid expansion of both MI5, the government's spies, and the armed forces. The government is ready for the coming clashes, and so we must be too.

[background information on the photography ban can be found here: www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=831582 and updates on the situation in Greece can be found here www.occupiedlondon.org/blog - neither have any link to L&S]

Liberty&Solidarity
- e-mail: enquiries@libertyandsolidarity.org
- Homepage: http://libertyandsolidarity.org

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Everybody

17.12.2008 17:38

Everybody in the UK should feel responsible and ashamed for this decay of liberties and culture in this country. The government here literally is dancing on your corpses. The few voice here maybe should flee in an other place where they will prove more useful, because it seems that the game is lost ages now in the UK. Unless you leave the pub now and WAKE THE FUCK UP.

Ashamed


you're reading indymedia in the pub?

17.12.2008 17:51

ra.

ellen s


cripes

17.12.2008 18:30

LITERALLY dancing on our corpses? They should put them back in the boneyard where they belong. And anyway: Dancing when they should be catching villains, sounds a bit namby-pamby to me, political correctness gone haywire, etc, etc.

Ant Ped


And another thing

17.12.2008 18:32

Surely it's 1) wake the fuck up and then 2) leave the pub. Otherwise you might trip over something on the way out.

Ant Ped2


What law...

17.12.2008 19:59

What law(s) allows them to stop you taking pics?

A|R


run, the crunch is coming

17.12.2008 20:03

Get the fuck out of Her Majesty's Prison England before your money is worth nothing abroad too.

Krop


Bans?

17.12.2008 23:10

"This means if you witnessed the police bundling someone into the back of a van and decided to film it on your camera phone, you would be breaking the law. If a professional journalist did so, they would also be breaking the law."

Err, no. Law isn't made in the form of letters from government ministers to trade associations. It sounds like Cooker would like that to be the law, and is imagining that it already is.

Ernie


solution: hidden cameras

18.12.2008 02:14

Miniature cameras are becoming more and more common and cheap these days.

If the filth can use them, so can we.

If you are hefting a massive penis substitute of a camera around, they can stop you. If it's a tiny hidden camera, they won't even know you have got it until the evidence of their misbehaviour appears up on YouTube.

Now all we need are cameras like this that store all footage encrypted, so if they are confiscated the cops can get nothing useful from them. Or even ones that continually upload the footage encrypted to a remote site, so even if they do steal the camera, you still have the footage.

anon


To ernie: yes, bans

18.12.2008 03:23

If an officer wants the photographer gone, thats it - they have to go. They don't *need* to make new laws to do this. In fact its much better and prectiable that they don't, and just make this a working guideline for 'special circumstances'. Read the following from the British Journal of Photography:

"Home Office clarifies street photography bans

The Home Office has written to the National Union of Journalists, outlining cases when photography may be legally limited. BJP reports.

In a letter dated 03 December, which BJP saw, Vernon Coaker, the Minister for Security, Counter-terrorism, Crime and Policing, has written to the National Union of Journalists to inform it of measures that have taken since their meeting on 05 November.

The meeting was arranged after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith shocked photographers by appearing to condone increasing police restrictions, despite confirming there is no legal framework to prevent them shooting in public.

In the letter, the Minister has confirmed that photography can be limited in public places in special circumstances. The letter reads: 'This may be on the grounds of national security or there may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations or inflame an already tense situation or raise security considerations. Additionally, the police may require a person to move on in order to prevent a breach of the peace or to avoid a public order situation or for the person's own safety and welfare or for the safety and welfare of others'.

The broad definition could allow police officers to legally prevent photographers, including press photographers, to document events such as protests or any kind of incident."

Bill


Re: hidden cameras

18.12.2008 09:37

"If you are hefting a massive penis substitute of a camera around, they can stop you. If it's a tiny hidden camera, they won't even know you have got it until the evidence of their misbehaviour appears up on YouTube."

Take both - an obvious camera to film what's going on and then a hidden one to film them trying to confiscate the first.

Steve


Stop co-operation

19.12.2008 10:19

The police use the press when it suits them, photo shoots of infinitives and crackdowns on drug dens, community safety shots, helping trace and find suspects, in fact they rely upon the press a lot.
However if they think they have the right to decide when you can take press pictures, the right to stop you filming, even when you hold a press ID card then here is the answer:

All press photographers to halt all co-operation with the police until further notice:

Seek out and publish photographs showing the police in a bad light at every opportunity.

Refuse to attend and report on any police press conferences .

Lets see how they like it !!

Together we are strong !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TOG 99


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