Photographers stage flash mob in city centre
Article published: Thursday, July 22nd 2010
A flash mob was held in Manchester city centre by a group of photographers on Sunday to protest their right to take photos in public spaces.
The event was organised by Salford Photographer Joel Goodman, who told the Manchester Evening News: “Many of us are getting stopped on a regular basis by private security guards and street wardens. We are constantly being obstructed or prevented from taking pictures when it is perfectly legitimate in a public place. They have no right or principled argument to prevent it but I read stories on a daily basis about it happening and a great many people I know have been affected by it.”
The flash mob, organised through image sharing-website Flickr, arrived outside the Arndale Centre in the city centre with an armoury of camera equipment and informed passers-by of the importance of photographers’ rights.
While it is legal to take pictures in public space, Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 introduced last February criminalises the act of taking photographs of police officers. The provision states that anyone found “eliciting, publishing or communicating information” relating to members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers can be arrested under suspicion of providing material ‘useful’ to a person committing an act of terrorism.
At the time of the introduction of the legislation the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) held a similar mass-photography protest event at Scotland Yard. The legislation has attracted criticism on the level of civil liberties and also raises other issues such as the fact that members of the Royal Family are part of the armed forces, and therefore technically cannot be photographed.
In addition there have been widely reported incidents of police deleting pictures and confiscating equipment under the auspices of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, in which police have the right to stop and search anyone they want, without the need for suspicion of committing an offence.
More: Manchester, QuickKick
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