12 Noon. 23 January.
Trafalgar Square.
For Immediate Release
The use of Stop & Search without grounds for suspicion has been ruled illegal by European Court of Human Rights. This ruling from Strasbourg comes as thousands of photographers are set to gather in London on Saturday 23rd January to take mass action to defend their right to photograph after a series of high profile detentions under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act.
These included the detention by seven police of an award winning architectural photographer in the City of London, the arrest of a press photographer covering a protest at City Airport and the Stop & Search of a BBC photographer outside St Paul’s Cathedral.
Our society’s visual history is under threat of extinction by anti-terrorism legislation. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act has in effect ended the confidence of the citizen to engage in the act of photography in a public place as photographers, artists and illustrators, amateur and professional are harassed by police invoking terrorism legislation to stop and search them. The act of documenting our street scenes and public life, our built environment, whether iconic or not, is now considered to be an act of hostile reconnaissance and could result in the detention of the image-maker.
The Mass Photo Gathering has been called by the campaign group I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! which has over 11,000 followers on Facebook.
Notes for Editors
I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! Is a campaign run by photographers for anyone who values visual imagery. It was set up in 2009 in response to new terrorism laws preventing the photographing of police officers with a media event attended by hundreds of photographers outside New Scotland Yard.
For more details, see the following links:
http://PhotographerNotaTerrorist.org/events/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-a-Photographer-Not-a-Terrorist/128534046017
hello@photographernotaterrorist.org
ENDS