As I described in a previous article, it is now an offence in the UK to take a photograph of a policeman or member of the Armed Forces without ‘reasonable excuse’ – the onus of proving reasonable excuse being on the photographer taking the picture.
What that has done is to turn photography into a suspicious activity in an of itself – an activity that requires explanation or justification to turn it from a suspicious to an innocent activity.
The only parallel I can think of is s.25 of the Theft Act 1968, which makes it an offence to be on the street equipped with burglary tools.
The Latest Developments
Austin Mitchell MP has been a campaigner for the rights of photographers for a number of years. He is not a typical member of parliament, having spent years as an interviewer on TV, so he is more high-profile than some other MPs and can count on more publicity for causes he adopts. He is also a photographer.
And in response to a letter he sent to the counter-terrorism minister Venron Croaker, he received a reply in April this year in which the minister wrote that the Home Office was drafting a circular to be sent to all police forces that would “provide more clarity on the uses and purposes of s58A.”
Section 58A is the section that was inserted into the Terrorism Act 2000 by the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 and which makes taking a photograph of a police officer etc, an offence if the photograph is taken without reasonable excuse.
Mr Croaker also stated that before the circular was issued, a draft would be circulated to certain photography magazines ‘for their comment’.
Watch this space.