E-flections

The harassment of photographers in public spaces is becoming a very hot topic, with increasing discussion in mainstream media. The Guardian just had this insightful piece by Bruce Scheiner, author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World ,where he convincingly argues that the idea that terrorists are wandering around taking photographs of everything and anything is ludicrous, and that police officers and security guards are reacting to what he calls a ‘movie plot threat,which is in fact counterproductive as it takes them away from more realistic threats.

Most officials are acting way beyond their remit and the law when they stop filming and photography, so here are links to downloadable leaflets explaining your rights that can be given out to anyone who tries to prevent photography, one for the USA and one for the UK. And there is lots of useful information on War on Photography

This utter confusion over what is allowed and what is not is wonderfully and comically encapsulated in this clip from Fox5, where during an interview with the PR officer for the train station in which he explaisn that there are no restrictions on photographing there, a security guard comes over and tells the crew to stop filming!