Alan Lodge's Blog

If you have an internet enabled mobile phone, then this is a quick way to Tash on his shiny new Facebook pages.

This is a QR code, that allows you to ‘scan’ using the camera on your mobile phone. It is simply a way to enter a long’ish URL web addresses into your mobile phone

I am one of those representing Nottingham branch to the NUJ Annual Delegate Meeting [ADM] this year. It is Southport.

They can be a bit lefty, for this anarchist 🙂 But I note this year, that the NUJ and journalism collectively, are catching up with modern electronic communications, networks, Indymedia, and the interweb. About time really.

And so, the annual National Union of Journalists (NUJ) delegate meeting (ADM) draws near; with a variety of motions and amendments up for debate on November 19-22 (final agenda available at this link – PDF).

Among them, many issues that directly concern online media: both in terms of how the NUJ communicates through the internet, and how to engage with online journalists.

How to attract new blood?

For the New Media Industrial Council (NMIC), member recruitment among the digital community is key. For this purpose, it commissioned freelancer and former newspaper journalist Vivien Sandt to research digital media, looking into employment patterns in the UK and Ireland to help the council form a new strategy. Sandt will present some of her findings at the ADM 2009.

How should the Journalist handle its web presence?

Another topic up for discussion is how campaigns and The Journalist should be managed online. As the fight for The Union publication’s editorship rages (see the Journalism.co.uk forum for some lively discussion), the Press and PR branch proposes this motion [excerpt]:

“(….) Union rules allow that [the Journalist] editor has editorial content only over online content taken from the Union’s journal. ADM believes this is insufficient for the editor’s new role (…)

It proposes a motion to change the rules to allow that ‘the editor shall have additional editorial control over union and other website pages holding content taken from or associated with the union’s journal written or commissioned by the editor’.

Leeds branch wished to clarify this: ‘that all editorial content on the NUJ website shall by under the independent control of the editor of the union’s journal, unless the editor agrees to cede control of specific content for a specific purpose and for a specific amount of time’.

That is bound to raise some questions over the relationship between the Journalist and other parts of the NUJ, especially with its support of another motion proposed: ‘ADM further instructs the NEC to implement, without further delay, the integration of the Journalist’s editor into the Union’s Campaign and Communications department’.

North Wales Coast branch, which proposed the original motion, claim that the mixture of internet strategies has pushed the Journalist ‘into becoming a cross between a picture led kind of OK magazine and Agony Aunt Letters column’.

[See what the editor hopefuls suggest for the Journalist website at this link to the Journalism.co.uk forum.]

How should the NUJ engage with social media?

This motion proposed by Magazine is bound to create some discussion: the last para has already been recommended as void by the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) for ‘uncertainty of meaning’”…

This ADM notes that:

1) Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and blogging are irrevocably changing the face of journalism.
2)That many of this new wave of journalists believe the NUJ’s attitude towards them is out of date.

This ADM instructs the NEC to address this problem by working with the blogging community and Twitteratti [sic] to bridge this gap and create a framework that embraces the NUJ’s journalistic principle while maintaining the press freedom enjoyed by bloggers and twitterers.

London Magazine further suggests a survey should be carried out, organised by NMIC.

Want to get involved?

The New Media Industrial Council is currently seeking NUJ members to represent these areas: London (1 out of 2) Midlands (1) Black Members Council (1) Disabled Members Council (1) North East (1). The non-geographical seats have to be nominated by the bodies concerned, and all NMIC members must be NUJ members working in new media. Those interested can e-mail the council’s chair (Gary Herman) in confidence on this address: gary.herman [at] gmail.com.

Judith Townend is a member of the National Union of Journalists (Brighton & Mid-Sussex branch) and is co-opted to sit on the New Media Industrial Council – beginning after the ADM 2009.

Online journalism at the NUJ ADM: The Journalist, Twitter and new blood

I’m, not really interested in this movies subject …. but this is the second police campaign i know about in recent times, to try an stop contentious movies been shown to public audiences. The SchNews movies film on the EDO arms factory and protests in Brighton, being the last.

A worrying trend.!!!

Police try to stop gangland movie being shown

A lone policeman took it upon himself to visit local cinemas advising them not to show a movie film about a gang in the west midlands.There was a recent screening planned at the International Black Festival in Birmingham. Again no cinema would let them show it because the West Midlands police had warned them against it. Penny the director finally screened it in a place called the Custard Factory on a dvd. Police arrived 15 minutes into the screening and stopped it, turned on all the lights and came in to “count” the audience (all quietly watching the film). They also took the film crew’s details.

When the police superintendent was challenged by Penny on Radio 5 Live the next morning, the superintendent claimed that her officers had attended “because we heard there were problems with the projector” (a startling claim in its own right, no less when there was actually no projector…).

No-one can really figure out what has happened. It is deeply alarming that the police have suddenly switched sides and decided to actively censor the film by persuading cinema owners that public health and safety is at risk.

For a £750k small independent British film, perhaps the police will wreck its chances of getting a big enough audience to stay in the cinemas. It’s hard to say.

I’ve just watched C4 news tonight which has picked up the story. The same superintendent is now claiming that there has been ‘no co-ordinated actions’ by the West Midlands police to ban the film.

At any rate – the film as still been pulled from Birmingham, Walsall,
Wolverhampton and Coventry.

If you are free on Friday night and live in an area where the film is
playing, I really encourage you to check it out.

Set in a 24 hour period of the Jonnson gang and the burger bar boyz, the movie has caused a storm of protest and controversy,especially in and around Birmingham where it is set. It’s a movie called “1Day” about a day in the life of black drug gangs in Birmingham, UK.

http://www.1daythemovie.co.uk

Photography Twitter List by Jack Schofield on Listorious

Posted using ShareThis

Tough and urgent action is needed in response to violence, intimidation and death threats targeting journalists covering far right demonstrations.

The call by NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear comes in the wake of specific email threats against photojournalist and investigative reporter Marc Vallée, and video journalist Jason N. Parkinson.

The emails follow verbal threats and intimidation aimed at photographers covering a march by the English Defence League in Leeds at the weekend and other EDL protests this year.

Professional journalists covering the events have filed reports with the NUJ detailing physical violence, including one being punched in the head, verbal threats, and attempts to seize cameras and smash equipment. The union is to file complaints to the police.

Jeremy Dear said: “In a week when yet more photographers have been targeted by right-wing hate website Redwatch, when out on the streets professional photographers are subjected to violence and intimidation by right-wing thugs, there must be tough and urgent action in response to these latest death threats.

“These are not idle threats made by kids – these are direct, named threats made by individuals who can be traced – in one case an individual already convicted of stabbing someone. They are designed to silence the media and stop photographers showing the true nature of the protests and protestors. The police must act now before a journalist is killed or seriously injured”.

Jason N. Parkinson said: “It is ironic the English Defence League claim they are protesting ‘peacefully’ against Muslim extremism. Then late Saturday night, after returning from covering the Leeds protest, I receive a threatening email from one of their Welsh and English division organisers entitled ‘Fatwa’.

“This is exactly the behaviour and tactics of extremism the EDL claim they are against. Someone should remind the EDL that the fundamental root of all democratic society, including in the UK, is press freedom. Intimidation, violence, Fatwas and death threats are not.”

Marc Vallée said: “I find it intriguing that only four weeks after attending a BNP press conference – at London’s City Hall – I’m targeted by Redwatch in this way. We should be free to go about our lawful and necessary work without such intimidation. I’m determined that when journalists are targeted in this way the only effective response is a collective one as well as journalistic one.”

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=1406

Well, have finally done it. I am now on Facebook, and have spent a while filling it in. For those wot wanna know, I’m now also at:

http://www.facebook.com/tashuk

Originally, I signed up so I could view yet another anti-travellers [say no to travellers here etc] type site. Bastards had nicked one of my pictures. I contacted Facebook and issued a take-down notice. unless your a member, you can’t view their page.

Anyway, it sat there on the ‘back-burner’ for a while now, and more people kept finding it and lately i discovered 200 folks waiting for joining !! Anyway, apologies to all and have been approving them over the weekend. Adding content and links. And …. it appears the large job of integrating it all with flickr wordpress, vox, lockr, youtube, twitter and more…..

So, am sort of open now 🙂 Drop by and join if you want.

I was prompted into action here by my son, Sam. Well you gotta keep up with the young’ans …. innit.

Since i started with this issue, we have just started a Facebook group:

” Say no to racist groups “

Please join that as well.

A charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass would have catastrophic implications for climate activists

Police today charged one more of the 114 people arrested at a Nottingham school in April, in order to prevent a suspected protest at the coal-fired power station. This brings the number of environmental activists charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass to 25 within the past month.

The move has left activists worried. Aggravated trespass is a summary offence, meaning it is always heard in the magistrates courts. It carries a maximum sentence of six months.

A charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass carries a maximum six-month sentence, too.. But it is an indictable offence, which means the case will be heard in front of a jury in the crown courts, which is an incredibly expensive and time-consuming procedure.

Sometimes these cases – such as the conspiracy to commit public nuisance charge brought against members of the “No M1 Widening” campaign in 2007 – are just thrown out by the judges. But sometimes, as in the conspiracy cases against animal rights activists and anti-arms manufacturing campaigns, they are treated extremely seriously. The impact on the lives of the accused is enormous, because under the terms of a conspiracy charge, you can be forbidden to talk to anyone involved, which can involve housemates, family, friends. Your possessions can be seized (Julie White of the M1 campaign had her door broken down by police, her computer seized and held for a year, and even items taken off her washing line) and held on remand for the duration of the trial.

So what are the police up to? Are they trying to put off activists like Climate Camp, who have been widely broadcasting their plans to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station this weekend?

Here’s what Climate Camp says: “The decision to use a conspiracy charge against 27 climate change activists shows how, despite the police’s attempts to brush up their image at this year’s climate camp, they continue to use draconian powers to clamp down on the growing grassroots climate justice movement. The fact that hundreds of ordinary people are planning to take control of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station next week is proof that such measures will not succeed.”

Are they sending a wider message out to all activists? Nottinghamshire force, who made the arrests, says that it has no comment to make on the decision. But if this actually flies, if the court allows the case and convictions follow, it has catastrophic implications. Any activist involved with planning any kind of illegal direct action could be charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass.

As White says: “You could pick up anyone you wanted. We’re getting into thought crimes now.” Is that what the police are after?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/oct/13/climate-activists-nottingham

Saturday 10 October 2009: The English Defence League (EDL) appeared on the streets of the UK again, this time in Manchester. A video by Jason Parkinson http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com

Please check out his latest video:

http://current.com/items/91161032_english-defence-league-unite-against-fascism-manchester-protests.htm

Saturday 10 October 2009: The English Defence League (EDL) appeared on the streets of the UK again, this time in Manchester. A video by Jason Parkinson http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com

Vote for Richard Simcox, for ‘The Journalist’ editor.  The magazine of the National Union of Journalist NUJ

Richard Simcox is a professional journalist and committed trade unionist who currently edits the Public and Commercial Services union’s activists’ magazine.

He started his career in local newspapers covering the staples of courts, councils and golden weddings – and more besides.

He has been an active NUJ member for as long as he has been a journalist, serving as an FoC, a member of the Newsquest group chapel, a branch activist and a conference delegate.

Richard Simcox Biography

Any photographers out there who want a giggle ….

check this out! “working in the print media industry today”

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090929103500534

Man arrested for taking pictures of trains, Let’s revue the facts:

1/ AmTrack (the US main train operator) announces a photography contest
2/ Photographer Kerzic takes photographs for AmTrack’s photography contest
3/ Amtrack police arrest Kersiz for taking photographs

Here is a video report from Stephen Colbert (at The Colbert Report) about a photographer who was arrested as he was taking photos of trains.

http://tinyurl.com/dy4jal

To do an action and not be able to communicate it, is almost not to do the action at all
You need a photo of the spanner going into the works.

You need a photo of the campaigners going over the fence.

You need video of the activist saying why they did it.

You need a picture of the target and the target at work.

All these things are needed to communicate why, what and when the thing happened – if they aren’t there then the public effect of the action will be but a fraction of what it could be.

The economic damage of the spanner going into the machine will be real, but the inspiration of the action is in many ways as important as coverage like this is probably the reason/motivation for the current action – and it is only a series of actions that will change society, not isolated and invisible single actions. Using media to amplify your message is key to the content of your action.

You could invite mainstream media along

* but they likely won’t come

* they will tell the target and/or the police

* they will not be part of any illegal activity so won’t get the shots they need to tell the story.

* when you are done a editor higher up (hand in hand with their lawyers) will change the message to be something you will not only be disappointed with but probably furious with – it’s the nature of mainstream media to misrepresent any social change activity that isn’t sanctioned by the mainstream –  this is unlikely to change.

Media is key to the message, perhaps all media is good media, but some is more useful for radical purpose than others. Lets make DIY work and make our own media

Hamish’s Blog

NUJ Download ADM Preliminary Agenda 2009 [PDF]

http://www.nuj.org.uk/getfile.php?id=744

Motion #12 page 4

This ADM condemns Kent police’s seizure, without a warrant, of a UK indymedia server in Manchester on January 22, 2009, and the ongoing failure to return it to the owner.

This ADM recognises the inherent value of open news publishing on the Internet, particularly UK Indymedia and its collectively organised sister sites all over the world. ADM welcomes efforts by the New Media Industrial Council to work with the London Indymedia collective to create better links between the union and those working for the site, who include NUJ members.

This ADM calls for better legal safeguards for all online content and instructs the NEC to provide appropriate support to Indymedia through our members working with the site.
Cost £1,000 London Central also received from New Media Industrial Council

and ….

Motion #91 page 19
This ADM condemns the excessive policing of the G20 demonstrations in London and other demonstrations in the UK. Peaceful protesters were subjected to unacceptable restrictions on their rights to assemble and demonstrate, journalists were prevented from doing their jobs and some  protesters and journalists were victims of police brutality. ADM offers its condolences to the family of Ian Tomlinson who died during the demonstrations.

ADM welcomes the brave efforts of NUJ members to highlight the police behaviour in the face of such restrictions and, in particular, congratulates Indymedia for its comprehensive coverage and Marc Vallee and the Guardian newspaper on their important investigations. ADM also welcomes the efforts by the union’s officials to work to change the police behaviour towards  journalists and the legal support provided to those who need it. ADM, however, also notes that some journalists played a less than constructive part in advance of the G20 demonstrations and in the  immediate aftermath – printing police statements as fact that turned out to be, at best, hyperbole and, at worst, downright lies.

ADM reminds all members that journalists should make every effort to verify information provided by sources and that this applies to the police as much as everyone else. ADM notes that the presumption of violence on the part of protesters and the stereotyping of all anarchists as violent has consistently proved to be inaccurate and unfair.

ADM instructs the NEC to work with the Ethics Council to prepare guidelines for members on how to properly report on demonstrations – including the period just before the events – and how to cover police statements appropriately. ADM further instructs the NEC to seek to address the union’s concerns about inaccurate statements – a practice that has damaged the reputation of both the police and the media – to the police and  to seek to convince them of the need to provide journalists with accurate information.
Cost: £1,000 London Central

National Union of Journalists
http://www.nuj.org.uk

Seventeen declarations

1. The internet is different.

It produces different public spheres, different terms of trade and different cultural skills. The media must adapt their work methods to today’s technological reality instead of ignoring or challenging it. It is their duty to develop the best possible form of journalism based on the available technology. This includes new journalistic products and methods.

2. The internet is a pocket-sized media empire.

The web rearranges existing media structures by transcending their former boundaries and oligopolies. The publication and dissemination of media contents are no longer tied to heavy investments. Journalism’s self-conception is—fortunately—being bereft of its gatekeeping function. All that remains is the journalistic quality through which journalism distinguishes itself from mere publication.

3. The internet is our society is the Internet.

Web-based platforms like social networks, Wikipedia or YouTube have become a part of everyday life for the majority of people in the western world. They are as accessible as the telephone or television. If media companies want to continue to exist, they must understand the lifeworld of today’s users and embrace their forms of communication. This includes basic forms of social communication: listening and responding, also known as dialog.

4. The freedom of the internet is inviolable.

The internet’s open architecture constitutes the basic IT law of a society which communicates digitally and, consequently, of journalism. It may not be modified for the sake of protecting the special commercial or political interests often hidden behind the pretense of public interest. Regardless of how it is done, blocking access to the Internet endangers the free flow of information and corrupts our fundamental right to a self-determined level of information.

5. The internet is the victory of information.

Due to inadequate technology, media companies, research centers, public institutions and other organizations compiled and classified the world’s information up to now. Today every citizen can set up her own personal news filter while search engines tap into wealths of information of a magnitude never before known. Individuals can now inform themselves better than ever.

6. The internet changes improves journalism.

Through the Internet, journalism can fulfill its social-educational role in a new way. This includes presenting information as an ever-changing, continual process; the forfeiture of print media’s inalterability is a benefit. Those who want to survive in this new world of information need a new idealism, new journalistic ideas and a sense of pleasure in exploiting this new potential.

7. The net requires networking.

Links are connections. We know each other through links. Those who do not use them exclude themselves from social discourse. This also holds for the websites of traditional media companies.

8. Links reward, citations adorn.

Search engines and aggregators facilitate quality journalism: they boost the findability of outstanding content over a long-term basis and are thus an integral part of the new, networked public sphere. References through links and citations—especially including those made without any consent of or even remuneration of the originator—make the very culture of networked social discourse possible in the first place. They are by all means worthy of protection.

9. The internet is the new venue for political discourse.

Democracy thrives on participation and freedom of information. Transferring the political discussion from traditional media to the Internet and expanding on this discussion by involving the active participation of the public is one of journalism’s new tasks.

10. Today’s freedom of the press means freedom of opinion.

Article 5 of the German Constitution does not comprise protective rights for professions or technically traditional business models. The Internet overrides the technological boundaries between the amateur and professional. This is why the privilege of freedom of the press must hold for anyone who can contribute to the fulfillment of journalistic duties. Qualitatively speaking, no differentiation should be made between paid and unpaid journalism, but rather, between good and poor journalism.

11. More is more – there is no such thing as too much information.

Once upon a time, institutions such as the church prioritized power over personal awareness and warned of an unsifted flood of information when the letterpress was invented. On the other hand were the pamphleteers, encyclopaedists and journalists who proved that more information leads to more freedom, both for the individual as well as society as a whole. To this day, nothing has changed in this respect.

12. Tradition is not a business model.

Money can be made on the Internet with journalistic content. There are many examples of this today already. Yet because the Internet is fiercely competitive, business models have to be adapted to the structure of the net. No one should try to abscond from this essential adaptation through policy-making geared to preserving the status quo. Journalism needs open competition for the best refinancing solutions on the net, along with the courage to invest in the multifaceted implementation of these solutions.

13. Copyright becomes a civic duty on the internet.

Copyright is a central cornerstone of information organization on the Internet. Originators’ rights to decide on the type and scope of dissemination of their contents are also valid on the net. At the same time, copyright may not be abused as a lever to safeguard obsolete supply mechanisms and shut out new distribution models or license schemes. Ownership entails obligations.

14. The internet has many currencies.

Journalistic online services financed through adverts offer content in exchange for a pull effect. A reader’s, viewer’s or listener’s time is valuable. In the industry of journalism, this correlation has always been one of the fundamental tenets of financing. Other forms of refinancing which are journalistically justifiable need to be forged and tested.

15. What’s on the net stays on the net.

The internet is lifting journalism to a new qualitative level. Online, text, sound and images no longer have to be transient. They remain retrievable, thus building an archive of contemporary history. Journalism must take the development of information, its interpretation and errors into account, i.e., it must admit its mistakes and correct them in a transparent manner.

16. Quality remains the most important quality.

The internet debunks homogeneous bulk goods. Only those who are outstanding, credible and exceptional will gain a steady following in the long run. Users’ demands have increased. Journalism must fulfill them and abide by its own frequently formulated principles.

17. All for all.

The web constitutes an infrastructure for social exchange superior to that of 20th century mass media: When in doubt, the “generation Wikipedia” is capable of appraising the credibility of a source, tracking news back to its original source, researching it, checking it and assessing it—alone or as part of a group effort. Journalists who snub this and are unwilling to respect these skills are not taken seriously by these Internet users. Rightly so. The Internet makes it possible to communicate directly with those once known as recipients—readers, listeners and viewers—and to take advantage of their knowledge. Not the journalists who know it all are in demand, but those who communicate and investigate.

Internet Manifesto : How journalism works today. Seventeen declarations

Climate camp’s media mismanagement

John Vidal lambasts the protesters’ heavy-handed media strategy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2007/aug/21/climatecampsmediamismanagme

The climate camp at Heathrow is coming down and the core group, which set it up and steered the event, is celebrating what they say has been a successful week of protest education and discussion. Good luck to them, but don’t buy the guff that it was a model of a new low carbon-based society or the birth of a utopian political movement.

I went to the camp twice, and to the HQ of the metropolitan police once for a briefing last week. Frankly, it was easier and far more pleasant getting into Scotland Yard. A small but anonymous faction of the old protest movement at the climate camp had decided from the start that the ‘corporate’ press is actually the enemy, and therefore has to be excluded. There was to be no appeal and the policy was rigorously enforced via a media police team. As a sop, the press was allowed a guided tour of certain parts of the camp for one hour a day.

This was plane stupid. Just when the campers were saying that climate action had to become a mass movement and were appealing to the public to join them, they were deliberately keeping the media out – the very people needed to open up the debate.

I refused to go on the absurd camp tour. On a personal level, every journalist and photographer I talked to felt insulted. Why is a journalist – good or bad – not classed as a citizen? Why could not journalists inform themselves by going to the lectures and debates? Why should they not enjoy the same rights as anyone else? Why was my partner allowed into the camp but not me? Why could I only talk to people I had known for years only in the company of a minder?

If there is one thing more aggravating than a British policeman stopping you on suspicion that you are a terrorist when he knows for a fact that you are not, it’s a jobsworth protester trying to have you thrown out of a site that he himself has squatted.

…… Full article

Costing the Earth Radio4 ‘flagship’ environmental program

Listen again at:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mbgwf

All over the country renewable energy schemes are being thwarted by local people determined to stop wind farms and bio-mass plants being built on some of the most beautiful doorsteps in Britain.

In the first of a new series of ‘Costing the Earth’ Tom Heap asks if radical action is needed to break through the blockade. Should the new planning laws intended to rush through urgently needed road and airport projects be extended to all green energy projects? Or should developers make more effort to get local people on board? If locals can see an immediate financial benefit will they drop their opposition?

Tom Heap travels from Sussex to Orkney to meet the protestors and find out how they can be brought on board the green energy revolution.

and ….

for the Archers Fans out there [well, I’m one anyway ….] Some of the villagers are engaging in a spot of guerrilla gardening.  Splendid 🙂

Two photographers, Jonathan Warren & Marc Vallée were assaulted OUTSIDE the climate camp yesterday. It is disgraceful and as much the fault of the climate camps misguided policy on journalism, as it is of the folks that attacked them.  It was outside the Euston Station in 1999, during the WTO protests, that I was severely beaten up and lost most of my teeth and a jaw fracture.  What was even worse for me is that these bastards ‘looked like’ so many of my own kind, and wore little anarchy badges.  This also resulted from an unreasonable attitude by some campaigns to photography.  When I got home, there were 14 messages on my answerphone, asking for my pictures to help with police complains and asking for defence in court!!!!!  This will never change while some people think that they can moderate what gets published by intimidation and violence. Just like the heavies, police and governments do in their ‘media management’.  Bastards!!

Open Letter to the Climate Camp:

http://jwarren.co.uk/blog/climate-camp-open-letter

What happened
Yesterday afternoon as my colleague Marc Vallée and I were leaving Climate Camp we found a group of people arguing around the SWP stall that was selling newspapers and leaflets outside the entrance to the camp.

As we went in to take photographs the group arguing with the SWP quickly turned their attention to us, shouting loudly that we had not asked their permission before photographing them. They were immediately aggressive and threatening, I managed to calm the ones around me and walk away, however, one young man was persistently threatening towards Marc.

They stood a few metres away from the camp, talking for several minutes as Marc explained that he was an independent freelance journalist and that as a matter of principle he would not delete any photographs. The young man insisted that he did not like his photograph being taken and that Marc delete any photographs he had of him. He repeatedly threatened to grab Marc’s camera and delete the pictures himself or smash the camera.

After a while we felt that the situation had calmed enough to walk away. Marc said that they should both shake hands and walk away and offered his hand. The man did not take it and as we turned to leave he tried to grab the camera off Marc’s shoulder.

I stepped in shouting ‘Oi’ and as I did the man took a step back and kicked me hard in the stomach. We backed away and then walked away from the camp, checking that they were not following us.

What happens next
We realise that these few people and one incident are not representative of the camp as we have covered the movement for some years now. However, we believe that the camp’s policy towards photographers and the media have created an environment that sets the stage for this behaviour to happen. The atmosphere created by your policies and attitude towards photographers worryingly parallels the anti-terror laws and attitude that we find the police using against photographers.

It is unacceptable to use violence and the threat of violence to intimidate journalists. We do not allow the police to do it and we will not allow protesters to do it either.

We would be well within our rights to go to the police and press charges, however, we are not willing to jeopardise our close relationship with so many of those in the protest movement.

We ask the man who assaulted us to come forward and apologise and that the camps organisers unequivocally condemn his actions. We would also ask the Camp’s organisers to seriously consider their responsibility for the negative atmosphere they have created within their movement towards journalists.

The media are not your enemy, but nor should we be your implicit friends either. We are independent and will report all sides of the story truthfully without fear or favour and that should be what you want of us too.

Signed,

Jonathan Warren
Marc Vallée

The Independent Video on police harassment of photographers

[vimeo vimeo.com/6273469]

http://www.vimeo.com/6273469

The Agitator2 from Joe Morris on Vimeo.