Photographs like this may soon become illegal!
Yep! According to some proposed legislation currently “going through the process” apparently I could get up to ten years in jail for taking a photograph like the above and publishing it in future!
Read Terror Law and Photography on photojournalist Marc Vallee’s blog.
Worrying implications indeed!
As an article on Indymedia so succinctly puts it:
“If a police officer behaves badly and oppressively we [activists] have been known to criticise them on the internet. Furthermore it has always been commonsense to jot down police collar numbers on demos and take photos a) for legal reasons to identify police breaking the law, to identify police behaving well, to help clarify matters in both criminal and civil courts. Intelligence on police gathered by activists has helped to acquit innocent activists, enabled activists to sue police and correctly identify the culprits. None of this has ever been used in order to use violence against the police let alone terrorism but we can hazard a guess that they might use this proposed legislation against us. What if MI5 infiltrate a group and that agent is discovered? Will it become an offence to warn other activists? Will it be an offence to after having suspicions raised about a fellow activist to make a few enquiries if the “activist” is an undercover cop?”
And there’s some related info on Indymedia here.
At the very least this proposed legislation will constitute yet another encroachment on individual freedoms in this country whilst at the same time giving even greater power and freedom from accountability to the cops, thereby edging us one step closer to becoming a true Police State.
As well as making the job of the photojournalist that much more difficult than it already is.
Also posted at Adventures of an Idiot
-- fotdmike
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