This morning I read an interesting BBC News article titled Innocent photographer or terrorist? that tackles the issue of illegal stop and searches of photographers and the growing incidence of this in the UK. A good accompaniment to my previous post, The Photo Police.
It reminded me of this handy little booklet on Photographers’ Rights in the UK produced by Linda Macpherson in conjunction with The Camera Club of London.
Some years ago it was said in a judgement that there is “no law against taking a photograph”. This implies a general freedom to take photographs that, sadly for photographers, does not really exist. There are, in fact, many legal restrictions on the right to take a photograph, and it would be more correct to say that one is free to take photographs except when the law provides otherwise.
So the question is, when does the law provide otherwise?