‘Go away or go to jail’
THE UNION is preparing legal action against London police over threats they made during the G20 protests to have journalists jailed. On April 2 officers near the Bank of England used a threat of detention under the Public Order Act to order photographers to clear the area.
Video of the scene shows an unidentified inspector addressing a group of photographers with the words: “Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I have been asked to ask you to leave the area for the time being under section 14 of the Public Order Act that can be imposed by the senior officer on the scene.
“What this means is that I want you to go away for half an hour ... You have got a choice, you either go away now or you can spend the rest of the afternoon in a cell. What do you want to do?”
The photographers obeyed the orders. It is not known what operation the police were anxious to avoid being photographed.
Veteran photographer David Hoffman, who has been covering civil unrest and demonstrations for 30 years, can be heard arguing with the officer in the clip. He said afterwards: “We all felt that it was an illegal order but we would have been arrested and lost our afternoon’s work. I think they are trying to threaten and intimidate protesters and they think that journalists are part of the same group”.
SECTION 14 of the 1986 Public Order Act allows a senior police officer who “reasonably believes that ... any public assembly ... may result in serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community” to “give directions ... as to ... its maximum duration, or the maximum number of persons who may constitute it”.
Police later admitted their use of the law was at fault. A Metropolitan Police press officer said: “Section 14 was applied outside the Bank of England to disperse protesters. There may have been some photographers caught up in that. If so we apologise. We respect the right of photographers to cover current events.” Video shows that police knew they were dealing with journalists.