Photographers face more vicitimisation in London

ajmall

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This week's Amateur Photographer has an interesting and frustrating report on new "guidelines" and possible new laws restricting us photographers from taking innocent photos in public places such as parks and tourist attractions due to concerns of paedophiles taking photos of young children. I find it ridiculous how political correctness is being taken to new and unneccesary levels. The police admit that no photography association was contacted to discuss the new plans to persecute what will largely be innocent people undertaking a hobby.


To quote a few items from the report:

"The police have the power to arrest someone if they suspect them of having taken an indecent picture, without having seen the pictures..... Earlier this year an innocent photographer spoke of the 'trauma' he felt following his arrest by police after a complaint was made about pictures he had taken on a Scarborough beach. Alastair Macaulay- theatre critic for the Financial Times - described how police searched his home, confiscated his computer and destroyed his films. It wasn't until 6 months later after he was arrested, in 1998, that he was found not guilty"

I'm assuming that you cannot get AP magazine in the states or elsewhere so when i get my scanner working i shall gladly post the article.
 
my friend was arrested recently for taking a picture of a fight in the street with his camera phone. He's due in court soon.
 
hmm, well he was told to stop taking the picture and said ok but then he walked away and carried on taking more. he was arrested and put in the van... dont really want to go into it too much but hes now charged with assaulting a police officer...

His solicitor has told him he might get away with going to jail because their was no reason to arrest him just for taking a photo...

as he said, the police could have used his photos as evidence

Have to wait to see what happens
 
Here are two links dealing with Photographers' Rights, one for the US and the other for the UK:

US


UK

Download the pdf file, print it and carry a copy of it in your camera bag.

Good luck to you all.​
 
Well this is outrageous !!! We must fight this political correctness gone mad . Actually it is another nail in the coffin for democracy as we know it. If they had said no photographs allowed in airports or near sensitive military locations i would have accepted that but this is just plain wrong. What next? No photos allowed in the countryside of animals in case it causes them to suffer "unecessary distress" ? I am very annoyed that this is happening and not at all happy :soapbox: :angry1:
 
right on mitica, that's just the document (the US one) i was thinking of. ;)

i've been wondering for some time, since that document is published by a private lawyer, and in Oregon (a place i'm not familiar with), is there any refute to its validity? I think I would feel more secure if it were published by an organization that is known nationally.

that's some really horrible news about the UK stuff. seems like extreme overkill 0_o
 

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