Tugmistress
03-Mar-09, 16:27
A new law came into force on 16th February 2009 that could affect photographers. There’s a lot of confusion about the law and how it can be applied, and some people think it means it is now illegal in the UK to photograph policemen.
This isn’t the case. You already have notes about security issues around the Terrorism Act 2000 in your Sellers’ Pack Copyright section. Now – the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 has new section 58A – which basically means that if you take photos of the security services or police or armed services and that your intention is to assist terrorists with those pictures then you are committing a criminal offence. The issue is the interpretation of that law and how the police may use it.
After an email to the home office, this was reply ...
“Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 (which comes into force on 16 Feb) inserts a new section 58A into the Terrorism Act 2000. Section 58A creates a new offence of eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of the armed forces, intelligence services or police which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The new offence is intended to help protect those in the front line of our counter terrorism operations from terrorist attack.
“For the offence to be committed, the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practical assistance to terrorists.
“Taking photographs of police officers would not (except in very exceptional circumstances) be caught by this offence. Any prosecution would need to meet the public interest test applied by prosecutors and there is also a statutory defence that the person had a reasonable excuse for eliciting, publishing or communicating the information.”
We hope this clarifies the situation. There is ongoing debate about the rights of photographers to take pictures in public places and any updates we have on this subject we will endeavour to bring you. The BFP newsletter is on the case with this subject and has some really useful info each month about it.
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This isn’t the case. You already have notes about security issues around the Terrorism Act 2000 in your Sellers’ Pack Copyright section. Now – the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 has new section 58A – which basically means that if you take photos of the security services or police or armed services and that your intention is to assist terrorists with those pictures then you are committing a criminal offence. The issue is the interpretation of that law and how the police may use it.
After an email to the home office, this was reply ...
“Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 (which comes into force on 16 Feb) inserts a new section 58A into the Terrorism Act 2000. Section 58A creates a new offence of eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of the armed forces, intelligence services or police which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The new offence is intended to help protect those in the front line of our counter terrorism operations from terrorist attack.
“For the offence to be committed, the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practical assistance to terrorists.
“Taking photographs of police officers would not (except in very exceptional circumstances) be caught by this offence. Any prosecution would need to meet the public interest test applied by prosecutors and there is also a statutory defence that the person had a reasonable excuse for eliciting, publishing or communicating the information.”
We hope this clarifies the situation. There is ongoing debate about the rights of photographers to take pictures in public places and any updates we have on this subject we will endeavour to bring you. The BFP newsletter is on the case with this subject and has some really useful info each month about it.
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