And thus we confront one of the contemporary conundrums of images and culture. More than any time in the history of photography, images and metadata provide incredibly powerful ways to increase transparency and uncover “truth.” But the potential for malicious or misuse is high. And ironically, publicizing these incidents often brings attention to fringe ideologies.
The city of Los Angeles is banning photography at free concerts in a public park, and photographers aren’t happy about it. Several prominent photographer, journalist, and civil rights organizations have joined forces in writing a letter that protests the policy.
Two days after Capitol Hill police told journalists to delete their photos during a protest over the ongoing fight to replace Obamacare, several media advocacy organizations have taken a stand.
Bad news, photographers: your airport experience in the United States is now more tedious if you’re planning to carry a camera onto the plane. The TSA just announced that all electronics larger than a cell phone need to be placed into a bin for separate screening.
W Aaron Waychoff, creator of the Falsom Upside-Down ⊥ “Resist” campaign, was inspired by this 2016 post; he writes, “I’ve made a proof-of-concept encrypting digital camera based on the open source, widely adoped GnuPG. This project uses public key encryption to encrypt every photo the camera takes before writing the encrypted version to memory. Of particular note, there are absolutely no UI changes over what an ordinary point-and-shoot camera provides. No extra keyboards or touch screens are needed as no passwords need be entered.”
On Friday, a panel of judges for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the First Amendment protects individuals’ right to film police officers performing their official duties. The 3rd Circuit now joins the 1st, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th Circuits in concluding that the Constitution guarantees a right to record. No federal appeals court has yet concluded that the First Amendment does not safeguard the right to film law enforcement officers conducting police activity in public.
A federal judge on Friday struck down Utah’s so-called “ag gag” law, siding with animal-rights activists that the statute — which prohibits unauthorized filming of agricultural operations — violates free speech rights.
Since 2003, the popular photo hosting service Photobucket has been letting users upload and host images for free on their servers. They have over 10 billion images stored by 100 million registered users. But now they’re going to start charging, and that means billions of images around the Web are now broken.
It’s easy to forget that the the modern press briefing — in which a member of the government routinely meets with select members of the press — is a relatively new custom in the history of the presidency. It’s also easy to forget its informality has always been an illusion.
Photojournalists are now taking new measures to protect their data and their sources in the event of hacking, surveillance or seizure of their digital devices by border patrols, intelligence agencies or other, non-state actors. In PDN’s June issue we asked photojournalists how they secure their laptops, phones and cameras.
But you won’t find the story splashed on front pages and leading news bulletins around the globe — Yemen’s grinding two-and-a-half-year civil conflict, between Houthi militants and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of Arab states that support the former Hadi government, is often called “the silent war” because it receives relatively little attention in the media.
Yet that’s not for want of trying: for the past two months CNN and dozens of other journalists have been actively pushing to gain access to the hardest-hit parts of the country.
OC Weekly reports that Laguna Beach decided to change its photo policy language after people complained about the confusing wording, which was broad enough to require payment for all forms of personal photography.
Mosse says he was on the island to film an episode of Bloomberg’s “Brilliant Ideas” series. He was observing an anti-immigrant rally when he was arrested by undercover Greek police. In an Instagram post, Mosse says he was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and taken to jail.
The targets include lawyers looking into the mass disappearance of 43 students, a highly respected academic who helped write anti-corruption legislation, two of Mexico’s most influential journalists and an American representing victims of sexual abuse by the police. The spying even swept up family members, including a teenage boy.
Speaking of her trip to Syria, Govender said: “We were surrounded by soldiers, and everywhere we went there were people watching us. It was chilling. It was scary to imagine Shiraaz in captivity, alone. We want him to know that we are looking for him, we have not forgotten him,” said Govender.
Since Politkovskaya’s death, much of the paper’s coverage of Chechnya has been done by Elena Milashina, a thirty-nine-year-old reporter who has numerous confidential sources inside the republic, and who is no stranger to threats for her work
Sharing an original document when asking questions of government officials, as The Intercept appears to have done, can expose metadata and high-tech watermarks that may reveal a leaker’s identity. And an affidavit asserts that The Intercept revealed to a second contractor that the document was mailed from Augusta, Ga., where Ms. Winner resides.
Trump’s war on the press isn’t just name-calling. It has a more insidious intent: to discredit a profession he fears, because he sees journalism as a challenge to his authority. Trump wants to undermine trust in those who earned the name “muckrakers” by exposing muck and giving voice to disenfranchised working people long before Trump knew the meaning of those words.
Poynter 
The Salt Lake Tribune 
Longreads 
PDNPulse 
mobile.nytimes.com 
www.nytimes.com 