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Hammersmith and Fulham Liberal DemocratsCampaigning for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham |
Photographing a policeman could get you a criminal record
February 16, 2009 10:42 PM
By .
By .
The Government's latest plan for making Britain "safer" is that anyone taking photographs of the police can be arrested if the police think it "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism".
We already have about 100 times as many CCTV cameras as any other civilised country, a DNA database which keeps records of innocent people just in case they might commit a crime one day and local authorities with the power to use spies and hidden cameras to check if our dogs are fouling the pavement. Now snapping pictures of a bobby can get you arrested, if he doesn't like the look of your face, or doesn't want his actions recorded.
The Liberal Democrats have argued for years that our rights are what makes our country worth living in, but each time the government steals some of our civil liberties, we are told: you have nothing to fear unless you have something to hide. No longer true, if you are the journalist who snapped a policeman at a demonstration and was told to hand over his camera, or the press photographer detained while covering a wedding because the building in the background might have been a terrorist target, or if you happen to be an amateur photographer.
Tourists, beware: other countries have signs at airports saying "no photography". In Britain you might need a "no photography" sticker for your camera.
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