Publication: Lead story of The Guardian, 7 March 2009, plus pages 14 and 15. Click here for more on the investigation into police surveillance.
“Surveillance of protesters ruled illegal” – Matthew Taylor and Paul Lewis, The Guardian
“Privacy and the Police – Important Court of Appeal Judgment” – panopticonblog.com
Most of you will know that I worked on The Guardian investigation into police surveillance of journalists and protesters with Paul Lewis earlier this year. So the outcome of the Wood case on police surveillance was something I was keenly waiting for.
Here is a very good take on the Court of Appeal’s (PDF) judgment from the legal blog, Panopticon.com:
“It is important to note that the result of the Court of Appeal’s judgment is that the taking of the photographs did not per se constitute a unlawful interference with Mr Wood’s right to privacy. Rather what was unlawful was the excessive retention of the photographs beyond a time when there was any reasonable basis for supposing that Mr Wood may engage in criminal conduct at the arms fair. On the question of whether this judgment sets a precedent on the question of whether the police can generally take photographs of ostensibly law-abiding citizens, it is worth noting Lord Collins’ concluding comments: ‘it is plain that the last word has yet to be said on the implications for civil liberties on the taking and retention of images in the modern surveillance society. This is not the case for the exploration of the wider, and very serious, human rights issues which arise when the State obtains and retains the images of persons who have committed no offence and are not suspected of having committed any offence’ (paragraph 100).”
Lord Collins is clear that this case is “not the last word” and that the Court of Appeal did not explore the lawfulness of a situation where the police retain and circulate data of people who have committed no offence and are not suspected of having committed any offence – like bona fide news gatherers covering a protest or for that matter sitting in a car waiting for a protest to begin (see picture below).
We will have to wait to see if this judgment impacts on the retention and circulation of data of journalists by the police who document political dissent in modern Britain.
BRIGHTON, UNITED KINGDOM – 15.10.08. Photojournalist Marc Vallée is filmed by an officer of the Police Foward Intelligence Team, before a protest is due to begin on Wednesday 15th October 2008 Brighton, England. Published here by kind permission of Jonathan Warren 2008. (c) Jonathan Warren 2008.
Click here for more informationon the background of this picture.
