At 3:12 AM -0400 8/16/12, MichaelHughes7A@xxxxxxx wrote:
In a message dated 15/08/2012 21:22:10 GMT Daylight Time,
fotodiseno2003@xxxxxxxxx writes:
no real effort is ever done by photographers to revert the
increasing perception that photography is somehow connected to crime.
Although I am sure it has been mentioned before this is why I hinted
at the possibility of a trade or professional body producing a
simple check list of rights relating to photography, that could be
shown to law enforcement officials or 'busybodies' to prevent on
street incidents escalating to visits to judges, courts etc and
general waste of time.
As an alternative to a trade body maybe publishers of photographic
software could undertake the task,
The National Press Photographers Association here in the USA did that
many years ago and regularly prosecutes, or joins in support of
lawsuits around the continuous attempts to limit photography in the
streets, especially for journalists. Usually the suits end in cease
and desist orders which only are effective as long as no new faces
come into the police departments and for the department in question.
You can visit their website and copy their list of responses that
photographers are legally permitted to give when confronted by
officialdom and nearly every head of every major newspaper
photography department in the US has a plan for how to respond when
the staff photographer calls in and is in jail on some pretense.
Of course, now that news photography is being crowdsourced, and
newspapers have been emasculated by the consolidation of the
industry, and most people get their news online, and advertising
revenues have dropped to an unsupportable level, and staff has been
consolidated or is on contract etc. etc. and because every little
podunk cop department has to be taken to court to force it to
recognize the First Amendment, and because camera gear is so
expensive and mostly being financed by the contract photographer
instead of the newspaper, and on and on and on, the result is that
protecting the First Amendment is like herding cats.
Laws are only as good as one can afford to enforce them.
--
Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
http://www.landsedgephoto.com
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