The Times website was criticised for its coverage of Saturday’s “Mili-band”, the climate change protest where hundreds of people formed a ring around Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent. Robin Henry’s piece was illustrated with a stock photo of helmetted police in a riot situation. (This has now been removed, after reader complaints, and replaced with a stock photo of a power station which may or may not be Kingsnorth.)
I can’t write about heavy-handed police tactics without mentioning recent events in Kent. The Kingsnorth Climate Camp is a perfect example of why the right to photograph in public places is important: because otherwise actions like those shown here would go unrecorded and unreported.
Photographer: "I know the law!"
PCSO: "Yeah, good for you!"
This video [1] raises many of the contradictions in the state attitude towards filming: CCTV is OK but human photographers are a problem; cameraphone footage is helpful evidence but filming in a public place is suspicious behaviour.