Your right to take photos (in public places)

Photo: courtesy of Angela Sabas

To repeat an overused phrase, everyone is a photographer now. Cameras are relatively cheap and once you’ve bought it that’s it, each frame gets cheaper the more you shoot. Take a walk along the pavement in any city and you’ll find tourists and keen photographers taking pictures of anything and everything.

Yet conversely, a growing number of photographers feel that it is becoming harder to shoot pictures in public spaces without legal restraint, or suspicion from members of the public. Stories of photographers being stopped for taking pictures have become a regular feature in recent months.

Security concerns

Much of this seems to stem from the increase in security concerns around photography which, in London at least, revolved around a Metropolitan Police campaign in 2008 that asked people to report suspicious activity by photographers. This was highlighted at the time by Amateur Photographer magazine, amongst others.

Earlier this year photographers staged a mass gathering outside Scotland Yard because of a new law – Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act – that means anyone taking a photograph of a police officer could be deemed to have committed a criminal offence.

I’m a Photographer…

A growing band of press photographers are now campaigning against what they see as an erosion of press freedom and the right to take pictures in public. I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! aims to help photographers understand and uphold their legal rights.

From Viewfinder

Tagged as: photographers, photos, public places, restrictions