“Your 10 questions for would-be MPs” – Henry Porter, The Guardian.

“Ten reasons to feel uneasy” – Anthony Barnett, opendemocracy.net

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.

“Photographer and investigative journalist Marc Vallée on protests, breaking stories and police poundings” – ideastap.com

The nice folks at Ideas Tap interviewed me last week about my work and here it is. You have to sign up to view it or you could click here.

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.

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.

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.

I’m on my way to Southport, Merseyside today. I’m a delegate to this year’s Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Over the next four days delegates will debate motions on press freedom, the future of the media, broadcasting, government policies, equality and lots more.

There are a number of motions which address issues on press freedom, the G20 protests and photographers’ rights. There is a motion from London Central Branch which highlights the investigations I have done for The Guardian on policing and protest, which is nice of them.

The Vice President on the NUJ, Peter Murray, highlighted the media event photographers held outside New Scotland Yard over Section 76 at the beginning of the year in his annual report, which will also be put to the conference.

It’s going to be a busy few days and I’ll be posting a picture each day to sum up my take on events. I’ll also be tweeting my way through the conference – follow the #nujadm hashtag.

You can keep up to date with what is going on via nujadm.org.uk where a team of NUJ students members will be reporting on the conference.

Publication: Lead story of The Guardian, 7 March 2009, plus pages 14 and 15. Link.

Publication: Pages 50 and 51 of Huck Magazine, October 2009.

Out now – a feature length interview by Olly Zanetti with yours truly in HUCK – the international surf, skate and snowboarding magazine. Without doubt the most definitive interview about my work and life yet!

Make sure you pick up a copy or you can read it online here.

Publication: Pages 52 and 53 of Huck Magazine, October 2009.

Publication: Pages 3 of The Financial Times Saturday 17 October 2009.

“Met under fire over picture database” – Michael Peel, James Boxell and Marc Vallée, The Financial Times

“Police image library raises Orwellian concerns” – Michael Peel and Marc Vallée, The Financial Times

“Focus on legality of database” – Michael Peel and Marc Vallée, The Financial Times

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.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 28.08.09. Canary Wharf security film environmental activists outside Barclays Bank headquarters in Canary Wharf on Friday 28 August 2009 in London, England. Around 150 climate campers plastered notices across the front of the banks building – unfurled a banner saying “More Future, Less Capitalism” – protesters allege the bank funds coal power and arms trade industries which contribute to the death and suffering of millions people across the world due to climate change. Environmental activists set up camp on Wednesday 26 August 2009 – in clear sight of London’s financial and corporate centre – to hold a week long protest to highlight climate change. (Photo by Marc Vallee/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallee, 2009.

Link : Click here to view more images. Click here to view slideshow.

Clients : Images are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

Link.

“Good news for photographers” – Marc Vallée, The Guardian.

I have written piece for The Guardian’s Liberty Central about the “I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist!” campaign and the new Home Office advice on counter-terrorism legislation and photography in a public place.