We went along to Saturday's I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! protest in Trafalgar Square to register our concerns about about the increasing use of terrorism laws against street photographers.

The cops aren't harassing people scaling up trees to take pictures of nuclear installations through massive telephone lens. They're harassing normal people taking ordinary tourist photos, or documenting architecture, or capturing police misconduct (G20) or taking the kind of street scenes that has produced some of the greatest photography.

Things are bad enough already - giving the law even more reason to harass people exercising their right to take pictures of whatever they like will result in massive restrictions on photography, more hassles from cops - and lots of photos of police abuse being censored.

Here's a few pics from the demo:










More photos here

Labels: photography, protest

Situated slap bang in the middle of Trafalgar Square, one of London's most famous landmarks and tourist attractions, the Climate Camp picked a perfect place to publicise their cause.

Pitching up after the Wave march on the previous Saturday, the camp was set up to protest against the 'elitist and undemocratic' UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

After the famously heavy handed policing at this year's G20 protests in the City of London, the cops seem to have adopted a 'softly softly' approach, with the camp remaining in place on the following Wednesday.









More Climate Camp photos

Labels: london, protest

Some pics from today's demo at Parliament Square:

More pics: here

Labels: london, protest

Here's how ridiculous our cops can be:

Eleven G20 campaigners are being prosecuted for impersonating police officers despite some being half-dressed and wielding toy machineguns.
The protesters, who call themselves the Space Hijackers, claim today it was obvious they were taking part in an April Fool's Day joke as world leaders met in London on 1 April.

They were arrested as they drove an armoured personnel carrier through the City while playing Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries over a loudspeaker.

Leah Borromeo, 30, a freelance journalist who was wearing a riot helmet and boiler suit rolled down to the waist to reveal a black bra, said: 'If I'm guilty of anything it's of impersonating a stripper, not a police officer. Our lawyers never thought anyone would be charged because it is so ridiculous. It is a farcical case.'

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer decided they must face a four-day trial despite critics describing the charges as 'a terrible abuse of power'.

The offence carries a maximum sentence of three months and the case has reportedly already cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.

Experts have called for the case to be withdrawn. The Met was heavily criticised over its handling of the protests. Apart from the Space Hijackers case, the police and Crown Prosecution Service have proceeded with only a handful of charges of violent disorder and criminal damage.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23749027-bra-girl-charged-for-posing-as-a-pc.do

 

Meanwhile, this video is an absolute joy:

 

Labels: protest

Apart from some positively psychotically incandescent cabbies (and, to be honest, one or two testosterone-overcharged cyclists), this was a fabulous ride, with hundreds of cyclists enjoying a leisurely, car-free saunter around the streets of central London.

More photos here: Critical Mass, London

Labels: critical mass, cycling, london, protest

A march from Trafalgar Square leading to a rally outside Scotland Yard to 'remember Ian Tomlinson, demand no more deaths in police custody and defend civil liberties and the freedom to protest.'

More pics here

Labels: london, protest

With photographers getting more hassle at demos and some even being forced to delete their images, I've put together a basic guide on how to ensure that your photos stay safe at demos.

Here's an excerpt:

FORCED TO DELETE IMAGES?
The police, security guards or anyone else have no right to demand that you delete images off your memory card. After all, if you've committed an offence the images would act as evidence, and if you haven't broken the law, the images are innocent.

However, in some circumstances, the police may be authorised to confiscate your film or memory cards as evidence but they are still not authorised to delete any images.

If an officer demands you hand over your photos, make sure you get a written receipt. Under no circumstances should you just hand them over without that.

RECOVERING DELETED IMAGES
If you are forced to delete your photo, take the card out of the camera immediately. Whatever you do, do not take any new pictures - if you want to keep on snapping, use a fresh card. When you get home, you can use a file recovery program to get your images back. These often have a high success rate.

We recommend the open source, multi-platform application PhotoRec, which is described as a, "file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost pictures from digital camera memory.

PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted."

UPLOADING PHOTOS
If you have an account with social networking sites like Blogger, Twitter, Facebook etc, it's easy to instantly upload images to your account by setting up your phone to use MMS or email. It's also worth separately emailing important images to yourself as a back up. If you have a regular camera with you and your phone has a suitable SD card slot, consider emailing images straight off your camera.

Read the full article here.

Labels: legal, photography, protest, rights

COMMENT: G20 FOOTAGE and PHOTOGRAPHERS' RIGHTS

All the video and photographic evidence leaking through into the mainstream from the G20 protests is going to make it really hard for the police to try and stretch anti-terrorism legislation to cover banning photography at future demos.

Surely even the most right wing media must now appreciate the importance of recording protests from all sides now.
Even if the police do try and implement terrorism laws to force photographers to hand over their cameras and video footage, new mobile streaming technologies will soon make it a redundant gesture.

Using fast 3G connections, protesters will be able to take movies/photos on their mobile phones and upload them directly onto YouTube from within the 'kettle,' so there's no way the cops can stop the footage getting out (unless they delve even deeper into their dodgy powers and force a mobile signal blackout - a move which would surely prompt questions from the general public).

Quite a few phones are already capable of uploading videos directly on to websites and as the technology becomes more commonplace it's going to become increasingly difficult for the police to try and suppress legitimate press and personal coverage of demonstrations.

More info: Photographers Rights And The Law In The UK

Labels: g20, photography, protest

What happened at the Climate Camp after these photos were taken was an outrage, with riot police using shields and batons in a violent,  unprovoked attack on peaceful protesters.

The protesters are chanting, "This is not a riot" as the hard plastic shields are smashed into their faces. It's fucking outrageous.

Discuss it here: Weds 1st April: G20 protests - discussion, reaction and chat

Labels: london, protest

Today I attended the G20 protests in the City of London.

Just like Mayday 2001, the police employed their borderline-legal tactic of forcing protesters into a cordon for many hours and depriving them of food, water or toilet facilities.

Throughout the day, the policing was aggressive, disproportionate and needlessly provocative. We were lucky to get away around 3pm, dodging an advancing baton charge by riot police and dashing up an alleyway to escape.

We walked over to the Climate Camp demo, which was probably the fluffiest protest I've ever seen, with a rows of tents filling the streets, a canteen, compost loo and drummers. It was delightfully relaxed and mellow.

Sadly, this didn't stop the bonehead riot cops steaming in tonight.

Today was some of the worst policing I've ever seen at a UK demo.

Here's some photos from the day:

Loads more photos here: G20 and Climate Camp protests, London

Chat about the issues on the board: urban75 G20 thread

Labels: london, protest

There was a huge turn out for this march today - here's some hastily slapped up photos:

Loads more here: Put People First G20 Demonstration: 'Jobs, Justice, Climate

Labels: london, protest

It seems like an eternity ago now but at the time it was a mighty important battle against the Tories' mad, mad, mad plans to implement "The biggest road-building programme since the Romans."

 

In December 1991 Twyford Down became the site of the UK's first road protest camp when environmentalists, including members of Dongas and Earth First! gathered to hinder work. After a year this first camp was evicted on Yellow Wednesday, named after the uniforms of the Group4 security guards who performed the eviction in December 1992.

Resistance to the road intensified and Earth First! set up a new protest camp nearby in Plague Pits Valley, and continued to obstruct the work both on the water meadows and up on the Down itself. In addition to many actions there was a mass trespass when over 5000 people attended the protests and occupations, and six people were sent to prison for some weeks for defying an earlier injunction not to enter the site. (Wikipedia)

 

There was a defiant march by protesters along the completed motorway just before it opened, and it was an incredibly hot day. I've still got a 'do not trespass' sign from the site in my bathroom!

Join in the Twyford Down discussion on our bulletin boards.

Labels: protest, twyford down

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This morning, photographers and filmmakers - and the political activist and comedian Mark Thomas - gathered in their hundreds outside New Scotland Yard to exercise their democratic right to take a photograph in a public place.

The event was in defiance of Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 which became law today.

The new legislation gives the police powers to arrest photographers for taking and publishing a picture of a cop if the police decide that it is 'likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.'

I'll have a full report and more photos up later.

Labels: london, photography, protest

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