[Leica] UK Riots - journalist's rights

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

The UK riots have put journalists under severe pressure, caught between
their desire to record the incidents and the efforts of the police to remove
them from the scene. Here is a statement of journalist's rights in the UK by
a legal expert as publlished in the Manchester Guardian:

Firstly, do you have a right to be there and can police make you leave the
scene of a riot? The police have wide-ranging powers under section 14 of the
Public Order Act 1986. However, this section is meant to deal with riotous
assemblies and the police have had to apologise recently for using these
powers to move photographers away from the scene of a G20
protest<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/08/g20-protest-police-apology-photographers>
.

If a journalist is told to move and refuses then they may be arrested for an
offence under section 89 of the Police Act 1996 for resisting or wilfully
obstructing a constable in the execution of his or her duty. Obstruction
means preventing the officer performing the duty or making it more difficult
for them to do so. In the current climate that definition may be given a
wide interpretation.

Officers, especially more senior ones, are aware of the limitations of this
legislation and I have seen an inspector reprimand an "over-enthusiastic"
sergeant telling him: "They can stand wherever they want, as long as they're
not in our way."

The information gathered by journalists in riot situations is often of great
interest to the police ? especially video and still pictures. In the past
they have been very keen to get hold of material that is unpublished. As
news websites carry more photo galleries, the amount of material unpublished
is perhaps less than in the days of print-only publication when hundreds of
pictures never made it into the public domain.

The police have no powers to seize film, memory cards or cameras from
journalists at the scene of a disturbance, although some officers are
unaware of this and have done exactly that. Such officers need to remind
themselves of the Met's own guidance on co-operation with media
photographers. They have no right to delete any pictures from cameras.

To obtain unpublished material police must obtain an order from a judge
under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. In deciding whether to
grant such an order judges are supposed to weigh the interest of the police
in obtaining evidence with the public interest in a free press.

Sadly the courts have not often been sympathetic to media arguments that
handing over material prevents them doing their job and given priority to
police evidence-gathering.

This leaves journalists caught in the middle between the police, who regard
them as a hindrance, and rioters, who regard them as evidence-gatherers.

Dangerous as it may be, caught in the middle is perhaps where a journalist
gets the clearest view.

*David Banks is a media law <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/medialaw>
consultant
and co-author of **McNae's Essential Law for
Journalists<http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780199556458>
*

Larry Z