G20 demonstrations

As from 16th February this year it is effectively illegal to take pictures of the police.

The new legislation (section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act), means you could be arrested for taking and publishing a photograph of someone in intelligence, the police, or the armed forces. Placing photographs on the internet falls within the definition of publication.

Journalists have been increasingly targeted by the police, monitored, hassled, arrested and assaulted - with this new legislation I expect that only to get worse.

I would go down to shoot some footage, but I already get shit from police while shooting perfectly within the law and on public land - and I imagine with this new act and the general cultural divide between anyone who protests and the police will mean people wanting to record the event are likely to be targeted for some special attention.

There is an important caveat here : which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism'. Subsequent debate on this has led the police and the home office to admit that there will now need to be an onus on the police forces to demonstrate how that material may be useful.

Subsequently: *It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action. *The police and the Home Office have stated that recording historic activity for the purposes of posterity and news reporting constitute reasonable excuses, as do collection of material for the purposes of artistic endeavours, provided that the future publication doesn't consitutute distribution of "useful information" that is not obtainable under any other means, such as Freedom of Information requests and walking down the street.