Photographer Philip Calller had gone to an industrial estate in Hayes, Middlesex, last Sunday morning to take pictures of demonstrators blockading  import depots which distribute goods produced in Israeli settlements on Palestine’s West Bank. When a police officer questioned why he was there, he explained that he was a press photographer covering the event, and showed his police-recognised press card.

“The police officer told me that he was going to search me under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), as he believed that I might be in possession of a set of keys that fitted the locks the protesters were using to chain themselves to the gates. He stated that in the past keys had been passed to photographers. I replied that I had just arrived, had been in full view of police officers at all times and that nobody had passed me anything. However, not to be obstructive I agreed to the search. My searching officer found my house keys. He tried these in the protesters’ locks to no avail.  

“After the search he allowed me to continue my job. But as I started to walk to the next blockaded gate, the same police officer said that I would be searched again if I approached any of  the other gates. As I arrived at the second gate, which was in full view of the first gate, I was approached by another police officer and told that section 1 of PACE was being enforced and that I was going to be searched. Once again my searching officer found my house keys and tried them in the protesters locks. But, of course, they did not fit.”

Philip Caller was searched a third time - all within a total of 45 minutes - after being followed by a police car. Again, the house keys which police 'uncovered' during the search didn't fit the protesters locks.

NUJ legal officer Roy Mincoff commented: “This is an example of straightforward harassment which is totally unacceptable in a country which presumes to lecture other regimes on freedom of expression. While we receive assurances from senior police officers and politicians that reporters and photographers will not face interference when carrying out their legitimate work, it is clear that the instructions to junior ranks are still not getting through to all officers.
 

“There has been some good progress recently on this, but it is essential that improvements continue. This incident highlights that much more needs to be done. The right of journalists to go about their work without police or other harassment is one of the tests of a free society. Too often, that test is still failed, and society is the poorer as a result.'”

London Photographers' Branch secretary Marc Vallée said :"Press freedom is a central tenet of a democratic society. Neither the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police nor his officers has any legal power or moral responsibility to prevent or restrict what the media record.  To use stop and search powers to obstruct a member of the press from reporting on a political demonstration is very worrying."  

10 February 2010

 

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