“Video of police threatening to arrest me if I do not delete pictures. Absolutely absurd behavior by them and potential blackmail. No cordon was put in place and no police officer stopped me from walking up to where I was standing… hence the other photographer just walking up after me. Police officer also claiming that he will be “touching me” in the police van back to the station.”
The video has been pulled down by the photographer for various reasons. We hope it’ll be back online soon.
Disgraceful behaviour by a plain clothed Police officer (one assumes a detective, who says he’s in charge of the crime scene, who then clearly threatens the photographer quoted above, by saying “I’ll be touching you in a Police car back to Ilford Police Station”) and a Police sergeant against a press photographer doing his job and covering a story from an un-cordoned public footway. One might accept a Police officer new to the job not to know about the rights of the press, but for two experienced officers to abuse their powers like this and then give the photographer an ultimatum to delete the pictures or be arrested, is just wrong. They also bring forth arguments of morality which is clearly not within the Police service’s mandate of things to enforce.
After all the good work done by the BPPA and NUJ with the Police service, resulting in much better Police relations than has been had in recent years, it really is an absolute shame to see this behaviour emerging again.
The Police have no right to stop anyone taking pictures in a public place. They also have no right to ask for images to be deleted. This document by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) clearly reminds officers of their powers.
NB-I have kept the identity of the photographer hidden for now. Also as I get more details on what the incident was that was being photographed, I shall update the story.
Photo This & That 
What’s Wrong With The Newspaper Industry
Press Photography & The Papers
A press card and a selection of media accreditation from over the years. June 12, 2012. Photo: Edmond Terakopian
The problems with the industry (normally and not just during this recession) are multiple; some do lay with the accountants who run most things (being qualified with arithmetic and spread sheet skills, or the understanding of formulas, in my mind does not give someone aesthetic understanding or the ability to have a news sense), weak picture editors, bad editors, visually less capable mass audience and the pandering of the papers to the weakest common denominator as opposed to trying to visually educate the readership a little. Not too long ago we had newspapers that ran the most amazing photography; informative, accurate, ethical, creative and mind blowingly powerful – and no, I’m not just talking about the broadsheets (as they were then) but a few tabloid papers too.
Another huge issue is the switch to digital and the ‘everyone’s a photographer’ syndrome; backed by accountants who see a picture as something that has four sides to it but have no ability to comprehend it’s content, importance or power. This also lead to the birth of the mass paparazzi – the most money paid for photography is for this type of content and the publications who print this material, sell the most, so have the biggest budgets.
The ‘new’ technology, called the internet also has had a detrimental effect to the traditional model of newspapers. A day late, even with great analysis and checked, journalistically correct information, is sometimes too late for readers. I saw new in quotes as anyone looking at most newspaper websites would thing the internet came to being a couple of months ago. It’s been with us long enough, yet few papers have learnt to design good, usable websites that harness the power of the web and deliver amazing content. The business model has to change too; good content needs to be paid for properly. Content is king; no good content means lower visitor hits, equalling less advertising revenue. It’s not rocket science! It is however beyond doubt the future (including mobile devices using the internet for delivery of content).
Let’s not forget though, as photographers we have our share of the blame. Some of this ignorance comes from the educational sector who are happy to teach Susan Sontag and theory, but when it comes to actual skills needed by photographers to survive, like knowing one’s rights and the law of copyright, they teach nothing. The rest of the blame is purely with us for not finding out.
We are signing away our copyright and future rights to our work, even though the law states that it’s ours. This is shortsighted and every time such a contract is signed, another nail is hammered into our collective coffin. There is no going back from this. Sooner than you know, we will retire and have no picture library of our own to fall back on; so, no books, no print sales and no exhibitions. My thoughts are that the bigger picture needs to be looked at; after all, this is a career and so, is long term.
We are killing our own industry too.
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