UK want to curb public place photography!

I hope you succeed in this petition, Edward. My wife and I are planning to travel to London and other European capitals at the end of the year, and I’d want to do some serious street shooting in my limited time there. Keep us posted.

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of Lightstalkers members Edward- If this latest bombshell and http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/ also gets the go-ahead we may as well give up and become toilet cleaning operatives,(well I have always wanted to work at my own convenience).
Seriously-show the government what you think and sign these two petitions now !!

yeah,its great the travel tax has 1.6 million petition votes but the public photography one only has 4,000!

Probably because the travel tax petition ends tomorrow- Feb 20th 2007, so sign it right now :-(
And sign the public place photography petition too unless you want to have to show your id card
every time you take your camera out!

Why, oh, why are the Government doing this, does anybody know? The UK is already the most CCTV’d nation on Earth. They just don’t seem to care that they are just pissing the public off more and more. Will they raise any money by doing it I wonder. Is this sort of thing happening in the USA too? Maybe George has suggested it to his mate Tony…..

We’re not there yet!

In the interests of Journalistic Integrity – see his website where he explains the reasons for this petition: http://www.phooto.co.uk/rights.shtml

“These are the reasons why I have raised the petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Photography/, and although there is NO BILL IN THE OFFING, it is vitally important that politicians such as Mr Livingston are fully aware of the basic rights UK citizens have, and that changes to restrict our use of cameras would require very fundamental changes in UK law”

So it’s not actually happening – it’s more to bring attention to the increasing intolerance re: taking photos in public, and make Politicians aware that photographer’s are aware, so no slipping that bill under the table because photographer’s are looking your way, Mr. Livingston.

The petitions says “There are a number of moves promoting the requirement of ‘ID’ cards to allow photographers to operate in a public place.”, so it’s clearly just Tony Blair’s latest attempt to persuade us that we really do need ID cards after all. However, they haven’t even got the chipped passports right yet (ten year passport but the chip is only guaranteed for two years)....Labour will be long gone before ID cards ever get off the ground and the other two parties are totally against them.

The petition can’t hurt though.

I think Angela has it right – there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that (for once) the government is planning anything. The misguided photographer ID card suggestion seems to have come from the camera clubs rather than Tony Blair, and it isn’t really clear who the petition is aimed at. The moves towards compulsory ID cards in general are much more worrying – they’ve already set up the national network of interrogation/fingerprinting/biometric scanning centres ready for new passport applicants in April (and the rest of us later on):

http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=1595

http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release.php?name=Intrusive_passport_interviews

The passport thing isn’t workable either. Do they really think it feasible to give a 15 minute interview to every passport applicant? They can’t issue passports on time as it is. It’ll be another New Labour scheme that fails and falls by the wayside…but sadly not until they have wasted millions in tax payers money.

This was flagged up on LS yesterday. There is no bill, regulation or law being brought in to restrict photography in the UK, or even plans for a law as far as I know.

The website which flags this up this petiton has a case history typical of the majority of disputes which arise regarding photographers in public places – namely that the photographer, and anyone objecting, including in many cases Police officers, are often completely ignorant of the law regarding photography in public spaces.

The case history mentioned is a catalogue of errors committed by the photographer, Police officers, witnesses and public officials.

Photographing in public places in the UK is not illegal. Photographing children in public places (contrary to popular belief) is not illegal.

In the UK right now, if you’re a photographer going about your private business in a public space and obstructing nobody, there is no law that can stop you.

You have the same rights not to be hassled that everyone else has.

The only limits are your individual method of conducting yourself, and if a professional newsgatherer, various guidelines (not laws) laid down by the PCC, which also covers aspects of child photography – but the publishing of those images, not the taking of them.

If you are a professional newsgatherer, then if asked, it’s good form to show your press card, but this gives you no extra rights above anyone else.

But it doesnt give you any less rights either, and any popular prejudice against journalism, is not a valid or legal reason for interference or assault.

I’ll sign that – here’s another good cause – a petition against funding the London Olympics at the expense of charitable funding of all kinds of good causes

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Defend-funding/

Another photographer on this site emailed this to me, so I cut and pasted it.
I have since deleted the post.

Have a look at Simon Wheatleys latest blog entry.

http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2007/03/pixelated_youth.html

E-Petition: response from the Government

The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to “Stop proposed restrictions regarding photography in public places” is on-going. This is a response in advance of the closing date from the Government.
Thank you for signing the petition on the Downing Street website calling for the Prime Minister to stop proposed restrictions on photography in public places.

This petition has already attracted over 60,000 signatures from people who obviously share your concern. Not surprisingly, the idea that the Government might be poised to restrict your ability to take photos has caused some puzzlement and even alarm.

We have therefore decided to respond to this petition before its closing date of August, in order to reassure people.

The Government appreciates that millions of people in this country enjoy photography. So we have checked carefully to see if any Government department was considering any proposal that might possibly lead to the sort of restrictions suggested by this petition. We have been assured this is not the case.

There may be cases where individual schools or other bodies believe it is necessary to have some restrictions on photography, for instance to protect children, but that would be a matter for local decisions.

In fact, Simon Taylor, who started the petition, has since made clear that he was not really referring to Government action or legislation. His main concern appears to be that photographic societies and other organisations may introduce voluntary ID cards for members to help them explain why they are taking photographs. Again, any such scheme would not involve the Government.

We hope this re-assures you and clears up the confusion.