27 April 2008

Big Bother

Who’d have thought that the UK would become a totalitarian state policed by incompetence? Sure, the signs have always been there, but recently I’ve found myself staring in utter disbelief at this screen at a rapidly increasing pace. Over the past month or so I’ve read not one, but many many cases of security guards and police officers taking action against photographers in public spaces.
I’ve read about a couple who were banned for life from a shopping centre after snapping their grandchildren, a man who was mistaken for a pedophile for taking photos at a fairground, another photographer who was accosted after trying flash techniques and numerous problems about photography at Spitalfields Market in London. To top it all, last week there was this story of a photographer who found himself surrounded by security after taking photos on picturesque Middlesbrough high street.
This is simply ridiculous. There are no laws preventing photography in a public space. In fact it is poorly educated security guards and police officers who are breaking the law by stopping these people. Something needs to be done. Where will it stop? Will tourists be banned from photographing what few attractions we have in this country?
Thankfully, all is not completely lost. MP Austin Mitchell is currently fighting for UK photographers rights. If he’s successful we should see an educational reform of sorts amongst police and community support officers. Of course this isn’t going to mean a thing to goons hired by local security companies, but at least when the police arrive on the scene they’ll know what’s what.
In the meantime, if you are wandering the streets with your camera (especially anything bulky like an SLR) print this out to keep with you and please please please sign this petition.