Article 8 wins Andrew’s case against cops
NUJ member Andrew Wood has won a major legal victory after a four-year battle that will help fellow members, particularly photographers, covering street protests.
The media co-ordinator for the pressure group Campaign Against Arms Trade was photographed by a Metropolitan Police surveillance unit as he left the AGM of publishing giant Reed Elsevier in April 2005.
The company had bought an outfit that organises trade fairs for the arms industry and Andrew Wood had attended the AGM as a shareholder. He was not arrested and never has been.
He complained that the police’s retention of their photographs of him breached the Human Rights Act 1998 — specifically Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights that establishes the right to respect for private and family life.
His case was dismissed by the High Court, but Court of Appeal judges decided on May 21 that the police’s actions constituted a disproportionate intrusion into his privacy. Police were ordered to destroy the photographs. The crown will not appeal.
The ruling could be good news for photographers and journalists covering protests who have often complained about heavy-handed policing and of having their photographs taken and retained — especially in London by the Metropolitan Police’s Forward Intelligence Unit.
“My case should mean that those photographers shouldn’t have their details kept on file,” said Andrew Wood. “The Human Rights Act is part of the essential checks and balances which help to ensure that we can properly participate in a democratic society without repressive state intervention.”
Two weeks later Lord West of Spithead, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, confirmed that as a result of the judgement police forces were looking at all their procedures for taking and retaining images.
He said: “Within the Metropolitan Police Service, the Public Order Branch, CO11, is going through a manual review of all photographs taken of individuals. It is going through each case specifically to see if it is valid to keep the photographs for any reason.”
Andrew Wood had legal aid. His case was not backed financially by the NUJ, although he had the support of the Press and PR branch.