The Metropolitan Police still don't understand that photography is not a crime

I have blogged before about various incidents that have taken place between the Metropolitan Police and journalists before and unfortunately, despite ACPO issuing guidance for police officers, it appears some of them cannot read or perhaps it is the case they don't want to.

It states "Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel."

It goes on to say under both Sections 43 and 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, that "Officers do not have the power to delete digital images or destroy film at any point during a search."

My previous blog posts are Is photography the new crime? and Photography as a crime rears its head again if you want to read them.

From the National Union of Journalists website today;

NUJ member and photographer Carmen Valino has been threatened with arrest and forced to delete images.


Carmen Valino had images deleted from her camera by police and was threatened with arrest whilst photographing the scene of a shooting in Hackney, East London.

The incident happened on Saturday 31 July as Valino photographed a crime scene from outside the police cordon whilst on assignment from the Hackney Gazette.

She had identified herself as a journalist and showed her UK Press Card to the police.


A police Sergeant approached Valino telling her that she was disrupting a police investigation and to hand over her camera. After protesting to the Sergeant that she was in a public place, outside the cordon he had no right to take her camera, he grabbed her wrist and pulled out his handcuffs. Before he could put the cuffs on she handed him her camera. He then left for five minutes before coming back, bringing Valino inside the cordon and asking her to show him the images and deleting them. Valino was told that she could come back in a few hours to photograph the scene.

This incident highlights how police are still not following the law or the agreed ACPO Media Guidelines as highlighted at the top of this post.

Surely at some point this has to stop, the police have got to stop abusing their powers and perhaps now it is the time for the IPCC to investigate?

Subrosa shuts down the blog - another one bites the dust

What the hell is happening in the Scottish blogosphere?

Recently there have been some blogs disappearing from amongst our midst, such as Advanced Media Watch, Wardog, Moridura, and even Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting is wondering what the end game for bloggers is.

And now another day and another blog has shut down. Today it is the turn of Subrosa and to be honest this is all becoming strange and somewhat weird now. It appears someone has discovered Subrosa's identity and she wants to ensure her family is safe.

I blogged on Sunday about Mike Russell MSPs former staffer Mark MacLachlan who had been "uncovered" as a blogger who also hid behind a pseudonym.

That doesn't mean they were the same, in fact chalk and cheese spring to mind.

Now I appreciate that losing Mark MacLachlan's blog, and some say the same of Wardog is no great loss.

I say as I find. I enjoyed Wardogs blog and although I really disagreed with some of the postings it was an interesting read. Mark MacLachlan's blog was rude and just angry rants and to me just causing trouble. Advanced Media Watch and Subrosa I really did enjoy, didn't always agree but the debate was always inspiring.

They were both on my daily reading list and for slightly different reasons. Subrosa's continued support for our troops was admirable and I am genuinely going to miss this blog.

I am also pleased that Jeff is continuing because that blog disappearing on top of AMW and Subrosa would not have been good for Scottish blogging.

I know some of this does have history and there are some people in Scotland really should be ashamed of themselves over this whole sorry matter. In some respects I wish I knew more about the history and that I had even been here during the whole thing.

Blogging and journalism can and should live together in harmony. I appreciate sometimes that us bloggers will get a scoop that will annoy journalists but that is how the world is now.

We all have to learn to work alongside each other and maybe event together on some things.

We live in a different electronic age to that of five years ago and who knows what will be happening in five years time or how that will affect us?

Newspapers in the current hard copy may no longer exist as more and more people move to electronic communication, I don't think so for the record, I think newspapers will still exist but so will blogging.

Blogging has moved on from the initial online diary concept and journalism has moved on from the old Fleet Street days, now both sides have to learn to co-exist in better harmony in Scotland than now.