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.

STOP & SEARCH ONE: Philip Caller being stopped & searched under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) at 7.50am on Sunday 7 February 2010 in London, England. Photo by Philip Caller. (c) Philip Caller, 2010. Published here by kind permission of Philip Caller.

“Photographer stopped and searched three times during Israeli goods protest” – journalism.co.uk

“Journalists angry at ‘stop and search’ harassment” – National Union of Journalists.

On Sunday I got a phone call from London Photographers’ Branch member Philip Caller. Philip told me he had just been stopped & searched 3 times in 45 minutes by the police on a job covering a protest in west London. Philip had been stopped and searched under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) and here are the pictures.

Yesterday the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) issued a statement on this. This is what Roy Mincoff the NUJ legal officer had to say:

“This is an example of straightforward harassment which is totally unacceptable in a country which presumes to lecture other regimes on freedom of expression. While we receive assurances from senior police officers and politicians that reporters and photographers will not face interference when carrying out their legitimate work, it is clear that the instructions to junior ranks are still not getting through to all officers.

STOP & SEARCH TWO: Philip Caller being stopped & searched under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) at 8.15am on Sunday 7 February 2010 in London, England. Photo by Philip Caller. (c) Philip Caller, 2010. Published here by kind permission of Philip Caller.

STOP & SEARCH THREE: Philip Caller being stopped & searched under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) at 8.35am on Sunday 7 February 2010 in London, England. Photo by Philip Caller. (c) Philip Caller, 2010. Published here by kind permission of Philip Caller.

I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! – photographernotaterrorist.org

“Press Clippings: I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist!” – marcvallee.co.uk

Grant Smith and yours truly being interviewed on BBC News 24 in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 23 January 2010 before 3,000 photographers congregated for the “I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist!” Mass Photo Gathering event.

Pictures: “Mass Photography Demonstration Against Police Stop & Search Powers” – gettyimages.com

Here are a few of the better press clippings I have found of the 3,000 strong I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! event in Trafalgar Square yesterday. It is a shame that the BBC News 24 broadcast is not up online as I have been told it was pretty good. Feel free to let me know of anything I have missed that is worth taking a look at. It was great to see so many photographers in one place – until next time!

“Photographers protest against police stop and search” – The Guardian.

“Photographers protest over UK terror search laws” – BBC News.

“Snappers Protest Over Police Search Powers” – Sky News.

“Photographers protest UK terror law” – CNN.

“Photographers protest in Trafalgar Square” – ITN News.

“Photographers protest against police use of anti-terror laws” – Daily Telegraph

A few of the 3,000 strong I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! photographers go for some light refreshments after the event. Picture published here by kind permission of the Unknown Snapper.

Link.

Media Release: “Mass Photo Gathering in Defence of Street Photography” – photographernotaterrorist.org

“We’re photographers, not terrorists” – Marc Vallée, The Guardian.

Looking forward to seeing you all later today!

Publications: Front cover of Cultures Of Resistance magazine, Winter 2009/2010. Link. (PDF)

Above is a tearsheet of the front cover of Cultures Of Resistance magazine – my 2005 picture of a Hizb ut-Tahrir protest (below) was used on both the front a back of the magazine.

The magazine has a very interesting feature article on the government’s Preventing Violent Extremism programme (Prevent) which my picture goes with. Prevent we are told is a “community-led approach to tackling violent extremism” but Arun Kundnani makes the case it has in effect become “the government’s Islam Policy” and that it’s not working – well worth a read.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 10.12.05. Members of Hizb ut-Tahrir – a right-wing Islamists political party – demonstrate on Satuardy 10 December 2005 in London, England. The demonstration was called to protest against anti-terror laws and other government proposals which they claim attack all Muslims. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2005.

Link (PDF).

“Reporting terrorism: NUJ Ethics Council guidelines” – National Union of Journalists.

The National Union of Journalists Ethics Council has produced a set of guidelines for journalists covering “terrorism cases” – well worth taking a look at.

Let’s face it some need to read it more then others!

Publication: Lead story of The Independent, 3 December 2009.

“Warning: Do not take this picture” – The Independent.

“In the eyes of the law” – BBC News.

“I’m Photographer Not a Terrorist!” – photographernotaterrorist.org

Over the last two days I have done interviews for The Independent and BBC News on the impact anti-terrorism laws on public photography. I was also asked to go on Channel 4 News and BBC Breakfast. But let’s face it I have a face for radio, so no surprise the TV interviews did not work out – but I was thinking about it!

But seriously, why is the act of making a picture deemed by the state to be so potentially threatening? Why is photography routinely criminalised? Anti-terrorism legislation talks about creating a hostile environment for ‘terrorists’ to operate but the reality is that it has created a hostile environment for public photography. This has had an incredibly detrimental effect on freedom of expression.

Its time for the controversial section 44 to go!

CARLO GIULIANI 23, shot dead by Italian riot police. Genoa G8 Summit. 21/07/01. Copyright Jess Hurd 2001. Published here by kind permission of Jess Hurd.

“Photo-Forum” – photo-forum.org

This Thursday’s Photo-Forum is going to be the place to be! Stuart Freedman, Eddie Mulholland and the one and only – my good friend and colleague – Jess Hurd will be showing their work.

Photo-Forum is a place for working photographers across the spectrum to bring images, photo stories and work in progress for supportive debate and criticism and sometimes we talk about terror laws.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 02.04.09. A City of London police inspector orders the media to leave the area as police ‘kettle” protesters outside the Bank of England on Thursday 2 April 2009 in London, England. The police officer ordered members of the media to leave the area for 30 minutes under the threat of arrest by citing Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. The protesters had congregated to mark the death of a man who had died on an anti-G20 protest the day before. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.

“Adapting to Protest – Nurturing the British Model of Policing” – inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk

“HMIC press release” – inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk

“‘Aggressive’ policing of protests condemned in post-G20 inquiry” – Paul Lewis, The Guardian.

“Journalists on the G20 front line” – Marc Vallée, The Guardian.

My friend and colleague Paul Lewis writes in The Guardian today, “Senior police officers could lose the consent of the British public unless they abandon misguided approaches to public protests that are considered “unfair, aggressive and inconsistent”, an inquiry has found.”

Paul goes on to say, “Denis O’Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, used a landmark report into public order policing to criticise heavy-handed tactics, which he said threatened to alienate the public and infringe the right to protest.”

Many will welcome the report. But – and its a big but – what impact will this report have on frontline journalists who report and document political dissent in Britain? As the report almost fails to mention photographers and journalists covering protests, I think we will have to wait and see.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 18.05.09. Commander Bob Broadhurst at the NUJ Photographers Conference held at the Institute of Education on Monday 18 May 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.