Last night I was at the launch of Keith Ewing’s new book Bonfire of the Liberties – “a provocative book which confronts the corrosion of civil liberties under successive New Labour governments since 1997.”
I was one of the speakers at this packed out event held at NUJ headquarters along side Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary; Henry Porter, novelist and political columnist for The Observer; Dave Smith, from the Blacklist Support Group; Cerie Bullivant, who was on a control order for two years and Pennie Quinton, who took Section 44 to Strasbourg.
Dave Smith’s contribution on blacklisting in the UK construction industry and the attacks on trade unionists was very powerful.
We have to keep an eye on databases of multinationals as much as the states. It is important to defend our Article 11 rights as trade unionists to meet without being put under surveillance and harassed, by either the state or private companies.
The investigations on police surveillance of protesters and journalists as well as the covert state targeting of environmental activists that I worked on with Paul Lewis at The Guardian are mentioned in Ewing’s book which was a nice surprise.
“A collaboration between a national paper staff reporter and one of the union’s most active street photographers has produced a string of groundbreaking stories on police interference with the right to protest”.
Here are the links to the interview that Paul Lewis and I did with the National Union of Journalists magazine – The Journalist . You can read it online here and here (PDF).
Note: The article incorrectly states that Paul Lewis and I broke the story of the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 – this was not the case – this was the work of Paul alone.
Over the last two weeks I have been working for The Financial Times on an investigation into a secret police database of pictures of protesters. This made the front page today of the FT. The investigation team included Michael Peel the FT Legal Correspondent, James Boxell the FT Home Affairs Correspondent and yours truly.
To read what we found out click on the links above.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 02.05.08. A civilian police photographer films and photographs working journalists outside City Hall on Friday 2 May 2008 in London, England. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.
This is the thrid major investigation I have worked on with Paul Lewis for The Guardian this year. Click on the links above to see what we found out – you could also pick up the print edition as well!
Publication: Page 5 of The Guardian, 22 June 2009.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 06.12.07. A member of Plane Stupid joins an environmental protest in London, England on Saturday 6th December 2008 as UN Climate talks take place in Poznan, Poland. The London protest was part of an international day of protest and an appeal to the UK government to take political action to tackle climate change. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.
Above are links to the second investigation I have worked on for The Guardian this year.
UPDATE: Radio 4’s Today programme, Channel Four News, ITN News and BBC News have all picked up on our investigation, in fact Channel Four News led with it tonight (see below).
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 15.06.08. A police photographer, in full riot gear films and photographs protesters, during a demonstration against George W Bush during the U.S President’s visit to London on Sunday 15 June 2008, London, England. Protesters had been “banned” by the police from demonstrating outside 10 Downing Street to protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2008.
For the last 3 months I have been working on an investigation about police surveillance of journalists and protesters for The Guardian with Paul Lewis. Click on the links above to see what we found out.
