Union pledge on photographers’ rights

The work of photographers is under threat from all sides and the NUJ is defending them, a union conference in May heard.

Nearly 200 photographers at the London conference made clear their determination in a heated discussion with the police commander in charge of public order in London. He was repeatedly challenged over the treatment of journalists at public order events.

Photographers told Commander Bob Broadhurst that officers at recent protests had refused to accept the NUJ press card, even though it is formally recognised by all police authorities.

Commander Broadhurst said he accepted the right of journalists to work unhindered but insisted that officers also had a right to control everybody present at public order events. “Some of our officers have huge problems dealing with groups of people when they are faced with a phalanx of photographers,” he said.

He tried to question the validity of the press card. “What is the vetting that is done?” he asked. Union officials explained that members had to show they were newsgathering journalists. They said a major problem was the lack of training of police in how to deal fairly with the media, despite the guidelines agreed between the NUJ and the Met five years ago. Officers were simply not aware of them.

Lawyer Emma Hulme of Thomp­sons, the union’s retained solicitors, told the conference that new “anti-terrorist” laws were undermining the few rights that journalists had to protect their work from the state.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear committed the union to fight for photographers’ rights. “We will never rest as long as members are stopped from working free from threat and harassment,” he said.The photographers’ conference discussed other vital matters as well as policing. Union assistant organiser for freelances Pamela Morton (centre), who organised the event, chaired the session on copyright, with Thompsons solicitor Kate Fox (left) and Linda Royles of the British Copyright Council.