Referring to the media, Ch Supt Davies of the Mets Public Order Branch says:
"Like all forms of modern protest,
experience has shown environmentalist to be highly organised and media friendly.
It is almost standard now that the media will give protesters cameras, both
video and still, to record a protester's eye view. This would almost certainly
result in a significant propaganda victory for the protesters as they are
selective about what they release".
(Police Review 21st March 97)
Well, I never! Would you say the positioning of the screens at the eviction of the road-protest site at Birmingham was anything other than 'selective'?
Police are increasingly using various legal `devices' and violence, to remove photographers from the scene of actions were the police feel that they may be portrayed in a less flattering light! Arrest on a spurious 'holding' charge, later to be released without charge, having missed deadlines is a favourite one: |
|
Well, good grief !!!
It seems OK then, for the police to go undercover as demonstrators etc and film activists in action covertly. They then get to use that material in prosecutions and intelligence with their 'spin', as they see fit with little restriction.
However, they appear to find it convenient to think that a photographer covering an action or demonstration where they may feel their work might be critical of police, might in fact be an undercover demonstrator! Police say the media is sometimes a cover for activists. To form this opinion is, of course, a useful ploy.
Press credentials are, not accidentally, but deliberately, being ignored by police. It suits their purposes you see. Without outside prying eyes looking into their activities, they can feel free to be that bit rougher with the citizens protesting on an issue, than they would be if 'eyes' of different persuasions were watching.
| Precisely, of course, why investigative journalism is supposed to be allowed in a free society. Keeps everyone on their toes. For an example, watch the national news on TV when there is a story concerning, say a human rights demonstration in south-east Asia. Watch the reaction of the police to the presence of a camera while their buddies carry on behind them. The embarrassment is obvious, followed by the inevitable violent assault on the cameraman and the grab for the film! Many of us have seen exactly the same expression through the viewfinder, here. |
|
Undercurrents have been watching all this go past as well. Check out Undercurrent 9. The story 'Breaking News', is elquant in expressing these dificulties.
For some reason the varied Police forces or perhaps the Home Office have decided who shall report the news and how. During protests to save forests in Manchester and Birmingham ,police erected fences around the trees and banned all journalists from the site. A platform well away from the action was erected with views of only a tiny section of the forest was constructed by officers.
In the same year when the very basic framework of the police were exposed as corrupt and racist by numerous newspapers why should any journalist believe any press release by the police ? The press office of the police went very quiet in all of the following cases. In Manchester John Williams, a television cameraman for HTV was truncheoned and dragged from the trees, Nick Cobbing a photographer for the Guardian was arrested and fined with obstruction merely for choosing to report from the trees rather than the police controlled platform.
A photographer and a Tv cameraperson was arrested in Totnes for reporting local people destroying up Genetically engineered crops. Cameraperson Ben Edwards found himself wandering the streets in a police issue white paper suit minus his clothes, camera and tapes. Edwards nearly went out of business when everything was detained for over 6 months as evidence. The police even raided his home and seized his computer, a number of video tapes and written material. Later, Edwards shook his head at the devastation of his home and said “ they seem to have no idea of what they were looking for, they even took tapes of documentaries I taped off the Tv”.
A few weeks previously a journalist reporting for the Daily Mail was arrested in Ayrshire merely for knocking on a door. He was enquiring about the secret meeting of hugely influential capitalists known as the Bilderbergs. Eight years a journalist, Campbell Thomas, is also a special constable, and his initial disbelief at his arrest for breach of the peace was followed by 5 hours in a filthy cell. Thomas said that “it seems that the arresting of journalists has been going on for a long time but newspaper and Tv editors rely so much on the police for tip offs that they don’t want to risk upsetting their prime source of news” Despite all of the charges being dropped in court, he has been suspended from his work as a special constable.
Specialist reporting on environmental issues increase the chance of being arrested it seems. Videojournalist for the alternative news video Undercurrents, Roddy Mansfield came up against the Metropolitan police while filming a protest against Rank leisure ltd, the boss being champion of free speech ex-Channel 4 Michael Grade. While he could display his Natioanl union of Journalist (NUJ) press card with his photo on it, he couldn’t remember his cards PIN. Mansfield was arrested for forgery of a press card. All the charges were later dropped once officers ensured that his deadlines had passed. Since then he feels that he has been singled out for harassment by the police. He has been assaulted by riot police, had an expensive videocamera smashed, been arrested 8 times and once the police actually erased his footage in front of him in the custody suite of Belgravia police station. However they didn’t figure on his camera picking up shots of their own feet and hands with the microphone picking up their voices as they questioned him about him being a journalist. Mansfield sees it as his “first, real, hard piece of evidence of police news management”. However Tv news editors don’t see it that way.
Despite numerous articles published in the Guardian, Independent, Observer, and numerous magazines, numerous court cases, and dozens of documented cases the Tv channels are ignoring this suppression of the news. The Channel 4 investigation series ‘Dispatches’ would not risk commissioning an investigation to find out if the police do have a co-ordinated plan for controlling the news saying ‘The arresting of journalists has been going on for a long time and we just have to accept it’
It is out of this complacency that alternative media is flourishing and exposing issues well before the mainstream get around to even acknowledging that a problem exists. Breaking down the elitism and power of both the mainstream media and the large corporations is vital if we are going to reclaim control in order to rebuild our communities. Instead of buying into the daily output of death, crime, consumerism, fear and destruction, why not seek out and support the alternative media brimming with support and visions of love, hope, regeneration and most of all resistance ?
Article from NUJ (National Union of Journalists) Freelance newsletter.
In the Thames Valley, it seems that journalists covering demos may get arrested on the grounds that they are protesters in disguise. In Birmingham, the only way that journalists can get close to a major news story is-you guessed? -- by disguising themselves as protesters.
Photographer Nick Cobbing was arrested in Oxford on 12 December- merely for leaving a demonstration, it seems. When the event, one of a series of animal rights demos, quietened down, he "told a senior police officer that I wanted to leave, and showed him my NUJ press card," Nick told the Freelance. Then two different police officers arrested him for leaving the demo, under Section 12 of the Criminal Law Act 1986.
Nick says he told the arresting officers clearly, three times, that he is a journalist, covering the event for the German news-weekly Stern, and they should note the press card around his neck. Fortunately, a colleague had the presence of mind to get Nick's film from him.
An Italian TV camera operator, a random passer-by and Roddy Mansfield of the Undercurrents video group were also arrested. When Roddy's colleague Paul O'Connor called Thames Valley Police, Press Officer Janet Malcolmson explained that press cards are forged by animal rights protesters. She had no recollection of saying anything about forgeries when the Freelance later spoke to her, but stressed that the Thames Valley Force had encountered "people claiming to be journalists and press photographers and subsequent enquiries have shown that they are not." She did not know who had done this, or where, or when.
The NUJ Press Card is (officially) recognised by all UK and Ireland police forces. It carries a Metropolitan Police telephone number which any officer can call to confirm a journalist's identity using a PIN number.
At the suggestion of London Freelance Branch, NUJ General Secretary John Foster is writing to all Chief Constables, asking them to remind all their officers of the working of the Press Card. The Union would be interested to hear any concrete reports of impersonation or of forgery.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the forest: the Freelanceunderstands that journalists have resorted to impersonating protesters to report the eviction of those obstructing the romantically-titled Birmingham Northern Relief Road. The alternative is to check in at a Rugby Club clubhouse four or more miles from the action, presenting a special BNRR press card.
Successful applicants are driven in a mini-bus by security guards to a fenced press compound, equipped with a tower for still and TV photographers. Protester Muppet Dave tells the Freelance that the tower is not visible from interesting parts of the action. BBC West Midlands senior correspondent David Gregory says the view is adequate. The fence around the eviction site was made opaque with plastic sheeting on 12 December. During the first week of December this arrangement was enlivened variously by a BBC crew strolling onto the site and being evicted, and by two agency reporters diving out of the minibus and making a run for it. The Freelanceis not aware of any charges or threats of prosecution. Bailiffs simply ban entire news organisations. Live TV and BBC TV West Midlands are among those to receive this accolade.
David Gregory stresses that the ban, following enthusiasm by "an alleged chief news correspondent who is leaving anyway-for other reasons" has been sorted out. He understands that the Highways Agency, bailiffs and the police are concerned about the safety implications of a lot of hacks running around an eviction site. The protesters object to his crews filming certain things, too. Anyway, "we are getting video footage out-the protesters have cameras of ours, and ITN and Sky have cameras in there too."
Hang on-now we have protesters working as journalists, because of the Highways Agency reporting ban.
The 1998 NUJ Annual Delegate Meeting passed a motion, proposed by London Freelance Branch, instructing the National Executive "to call, organise, finance and attend dignified collective defiance by journalists of future reporting bans."
Mike Holderness
(Press Gazette magazine 31 / 08 / 01)
A new film looks at claims riot police target 'unsympathetic' journalists,
reports Andrew Wasley
Covering an environmental demonstration meant a story - and thus money - for journalist Zoe Broughton. Following a tip-off, the freelance video reporter accompanied Greenpeace activists as they occupied a waste incineration plant in Sheffield.
The first day went as planned; Broughton's footage of the occupation made the regional television news. Wanting to cover the action in its entirety, however, she returned the next day as the activists prepared to leave the plant following a court order demanding their removal. After being allowed to film them being arrested and put into police vans she too was suddenly arrested "despite making it very clear that I was a freelance reporter".
Broughton was held in custody while her house was turned upside down by police and her camera equipment seized. Bailed (minus her trousers and shoes), she has returned to police stations twice since her arrest in May as they continue to consider charges of "conspiracy to cause criminal damage".
This ordeal is all too familiar to fellow videojournalist Martin Palmer of alternative news agency Undercurrents. He was arrested in June "on suspicion of causing criminal damage" after filming an anti-consumer action in Portsmouth. "A van load of police swooped, held me and seized my tapes," he recalls. "It was clear I'd not carried out any criminal damage; they were just looking to cause as much inconvenience as possible. My journalistic credentials were ignored."
Broughton and Palmer are the latest journalists to run into trouble with
the police while covering environmental and political protests. Over the past
two years, regular accounts of journalists being arrested or beaten by police
- and in some cases, having their houses raided and equipment seized - have
continued to surface.
At the time of writing, videojournalist Ken Little was considering what action
to take after being attacked by security guards during a protest against GM
crops in North Wales. Eyewitnesses say police stood by and flatly ignored
the reporter's pleas for help.
This Friday, Channel 4 will screen an item exploring aspects of this increasingly controversial issue, the first time mainstream UK television has reported on it. Viewers of Breaking News will hear the testimony of reporters and photojournalists who have fallen foul of the law at the hands of the police and witness what Undercurrents, which directed the programme, describes as police attempts to "manage" the news.
One sequence tells of how video reporter Roddy Mansfield was arrested during an environmental protest and held just long enough to ensure he missed his news deadlines. Another sees him attempting to gain access to the Metropolitan Police's news conference prior to this year's May Day protests. Assuming it would be open to all journalists, Mansfield is seen being prevented from entering Scotland Yard by officers acting on the instructions of the Met press office - something Undercurrents believes to be part of police attempts to control coverage of the protests.
It was later reported that only journalists deemed to be 'sympathetic' to the massive police operation during May Day were admitted while Undercurrents reporters were excluded because their previous investigations had 'embarrassed' the Metropolitan Police.
Breaking News is part of Channel 4's experimental package of alternative media, Alt-World. Containing six short films covering a diverse range of issues, from the underground music scene in Serbia to Reclaim the Streets actions in Australia, the 30-minute documentary claims to "dismantle the barriers between newsmaker and news 'prosumer' and rewrite the news agenda". The programme (and its website), produced by Graeme Bowman of production company Wark Clements and commissioned by Channel 4's Documentary and Independent Film and Video departments, is the latest project to offer an accessible platform for alternative news.
The past two years have witnessed a huge growth in the alternative media, with the emergence of a whole plethora of grass-roots news organisations, websites run by independent media organisations (often known collectively as "indymedia") and video activist collectives, many taking advantage of cheap digital technology. Originally focusing on providing alternative coverage of the anti-globalisation protest movement (as an antidote to what activists describe as the 'violence-led' reporting of traditional outlets), journalists working for such groups have recently caught the attention of the mainstream news media.
During the Genoa protests, many big rolling-news services - including AP, AFP and The Guardian's web site - carried regular reports by indymedia reporters. Equally, Channel 4's decision to go with the Alt-World project indicates an unprecedented level of interest in the new alternative media.
"I think the mainstream media will have to take more and more interest in indymedia if they want to understand what the big protests like Mayday and Genoa are all about," says Jess Search, commissioning editor for Alt-World. "The aim of the Alt-World programme is to examine the new protest culture and see how we could represent that on TV."
Unfortunately, the rise in indymedia journalists covering protests could mean a corresponding rise in the number of reporters in trouble with the police. Police in London on May Day were accused of allowing correspondents from big-name news agencies to come and go as they pleased, while indymedia reporters - most with NUJ press cards - were hemmed in among protesters.
"The police still tend not to distinguish between activists and reporters," says Undercurrents' Paul O'Connor. "Carrying a camcorder and press card at a demonstration appears to be no protection against arrest or harassment."
Such views echo those of Mike Holderness, editor of Freelance, the newsletter
of the London Freelance branch of the NUJ. "At present, the right to
report freely at demonstrations is at risk. Politically, it is a huge problem
and one that does not appear to be about to go away." He points to the
disturbing case of Mark Coverill - the indymedia reporter bbadly beaten up
by Italian police in Genoa.
"He's a journalist, albeit an alternative journalist, but clearly the
police made no distinction. That was Italy, but remember that journalist Danny
Penman still has a steel plate in his arm from the November 'N30' protest
in 1999 outside Euston station."
The NUJ has agreed to recognise and offer support to indymedia journalists in distress. It has also talked with senior police officers and plans to get posters detailing information about the press card scheme placed in police stations. "It's a long-term process, but one hopes the message - that journalists, including alternative, indymedia, freelances, should be able to work unhindered by the police - will get through," says Holderness.
What the police reaction to Breaking News will be is uncertain. In the past, they have tended to argue that those working for alternative news outlets were not legitimate reporters, especially if they did not carry press cards. The fact that almost all now do, combined with a new acceptance of alternative news journalists by the mainstream, means such claims appear less convincing and could suggest other - more sinister - explanations for the police's apparent attempts to prevent or influence reporting of protest issues.
Channel 4's Search says Breaking News is about provoking debate on a situation that is "not acceptable". "For us the radical nature of Alt-World is how the stories are told. I was interested in the attempt to tell stories from the perspective of those involved [in protest issues] rather than from the viewpoint of the established media," she says.
Alt-World is on Channel 4 on Friday, 31 August, at 7.30pm.
http://www.undercurrents.org
|
http://www.nuj.org.uk/ http://www.undercurrents.org/ http://www.hoffmanphotos.demon.co.uk/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3816598,00.html http://uk.indymedia.org/ http://www.ifj.org/ http://www.authorsrights.org/ http://www.ifex.org/ http://www.cpbf.demon.co.uk/ http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/hamlyn/princess.htm http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/1997040.htm |
Alan Lodge / Tash: ... tash@gn.apc.org