KINGSNORTH, KENT, UNITED KINGDOM – 09.8.08. A press photographer files images on the move as environmental activists march from the Camp for Climate Action to Kingsnorth Power Station Hoo, Kent, England on Saturday 9th August 2008. 2,000 campaigners marched on the Power Station with the aim to shut it down for the day. (Photo Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.
“Climate Camp – Media access policy” – climatecamp.org.uk
It’s that time of year again – Climate Camp is upon us – thousands of environmental activists are going to “take back the city of London in a massive public swoop” and “everyone is welcome” to “converge on the secret location where the camp will rise”.
That is if you are not a professional photographer or broadcaster – you will only be welcome between the hours 10am to 6pm. But don’t worry – you do get your very own climate camper – minder – to take care of you when you visit the camp. Who will make sure you do not photograph or film anything or anyone you should not – so no Cartier-Bresson decisive moments then.
We have been here before – in 2007 John Vidal – the Guardian’s environment editor – wrote after the Heathrow Climate Camp,
“I refused to go on the absurd camp tour. On a personal level, every journalist and photographer I talked to felt insulted. Why is a journalist – good or bad – not classed as a citizen? Why could not journalists inform themselves by going to the lectures and debates? Why should they not enjoy the same rights as anyone else? Why was my partner allowed into the camp but not me? Why could I only talk to people I had known for years only in the company of a minder?”
If you are a print or radio journalist you can pitch up your tent and stay on the camp for as long as you want – but you will have to ‘register upon arrival’ and sign up to a ‘code of conduct’ – I have asked the camps media team for a copy of the code of conduct – as I do write now and then – but they have yet to respond. You will also have to wear a “media badge” at all times so folks know who you are. Maybe my “I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist!” badge will do?
As the National Union of Journalists said in a letter to the camp in 2007,
“I am sure your organisation believes in openness and transparency, and that you would criticise public bodies who fall short of those aspirations. Your stated intention to avoid openness imitates the behaviour of those organisations you criticise.”
To be fair to the climate camp folks – the extra hours on the camp site for the media is an improvement on the years before – one hour a day at Heathrow in 2007 and two hours a day last year at Kingsnorth – which was cut short by the police from time to time.
The camp is trying to write its own narrative – pretty much in the same way that New Scotland Yard is spinning its media strategy as fact. As Vidal wrote in 2007, “It’s an easy step from trying to manipulate the press to manipulate information.”
The camps media access policy was “…agreed upon by consensus during the national climate camp planning meetings and the media team is given the mandate to work within those restrictions” – “restrictions” – how true.
