The Metropolitan Police is apologising to press photographers covering last week's G20 protests after BJP questioned why they had been prevented from covering a key incident during clashes outside the Bank of England.
According to photographers contacted by BJP, police ordered them to move away from the action, citing Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, as they prepared a charge on demonstrators using police dogs.
The incident occurred while police were looking to move and arrest demonstrators last Thursday (02 April), and is thought to be the first time Section 14 has been used to corral journalists.
Section 14 gives police the power to impose conditions on assemblies 'to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community'. Under the act, the police can impose the location and duration of a public assembly, as well as the number of people taking part in it.
It is not, however, designed to prevent photographers reporting on events.
'There was a whole group of journalists by Bank tube station at one point,' photographer (and chairman of the British Press Photographers' Association) Jeff Moore tells BJP. 'Officers were using police dogs on one side to snatch and arrest people on the other side. The police walked up to us and asked us to move away or we would be arrested under Section 14 of the Public Order Act. When we protested the decision, we were given the number of a press officer who only sympathised with us and said it was a police matter,' says Moore. 'Once the operation was over, they put us in a lovely spot, but it was too late and too far away.'
As we reported on our website (BJP-Online.com/news) last week, the move was officially protested the following day by the National Union of Journalists and the British Press Photographers' Association, who also condemned authorities for preventing journalists from leaving the Bank area after police formed a cordon around the demonstration for several hours.
After BJP put these complaints to the Met, a spokeswoman admitted Section 14 was wrongly applied. 'It was used to get people to leave an area,' she told BJP. 'It should not have been used specifically against photographers, and they should have been able to stay (in the immediate area) after showing their press cards. The Metropolitan Police apologises if that was not the case.'
The apology comes after both the NUJ and BPPA praised police communication with journalists on the day, but cited a number of incidents about which they remain concerned.
'We're unhappy that photographers were pinned in with the demonstrators during the Bank protests,' says NUJ freelance organiser John Toner. 'It appeared that if photographers wanted to leave the area, they first had to agree to be photographed. We find this unacceptable,' he says.
The Met spokeswoman told BJP that up to 6000 demonstrators, 200 were intent on causing trouble, so police officers were charged with obtaining the best evidence of the worst offences, leading them to take photos of anyone leaving the area, even press photographers'.
The NUJ hopes to discuss these matters with police during an official debrief in a few weeks time. 'Overall, the police were helpful,' says Toner, 'but there were these very serious and unacceptable problems and we intend to take these up.'
There were also unconfirmed reports of officers using the Terrorism Act 2000 to force protestors at the 'Climate Camp' demonstration in Bishopsgate to delete their images of police officers.
Source: BJP 8th April 2009
