Category: Access & Censorship

PDNPulse: New Details on Unreleased Prisoner Abuse Photos

Boing Boing says:

“Charlie Skelton, reporting for the Guardian from outside the apparent location of this year’s Bilderberg Conference [ed: s33kr1t high-powered meeting of financial leaders and politicos], has been intimidated out of the area and is still being hassled on the Athens subway – series of reports and photos of the goons, who are by turns terrifying and comically incompetent.

Boing Boing says:

Here’s a scan of the NYPD Operations Order “Investigation of Individuals Engaged In Suspicious Photography and Video Surveillance,” a document issued last month by the Department telling cops in no uncertain terms to stop hassling photographers who shoot in public places, and to get a warrant before searching a camera

PDNPulse

washingtonpost.com says:

In announcing the shift today, the White House said in a statement that Obama “strongly believes that the release of these photos, particularly at this time, would only serve the purpose of inflaming the theaters of war, jeopardizing US forces, and making our job more difficult in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.”

dvafoto says:

The Financial Times has video of correspondent Jamil Anderlini being stopped from reporting in Sichuan Province, China, in advance of today’s 1-year anniversary of the tragic earthquake that hit the province.

Prison Photography says:

Denison goes on to explain that the officers told him he couldn’t photograph. He told them he could and they acquiesced with the retort “For now.” Shortly before leaving Denison crossed the road to take a picture of an architectural detail. At this point two officers ran down the street, commanding him to cease photographing and then detained him for 45 minutes despite his full credentials, letters of recommendation and helpful explanation of his project and sponsors. Only after word was received that his name wasn’t on the suspected terroist list was he free to leave, albeit with a completed 5090(X) form.

Thomas Hawk says:

Photography is not a crime and cops who treat it like it is should be disciplined.

WHAT IM SEEING dot com says:

Before I could get the 1st shot off, Fare Inspector #32 started marching towards me, hands in the air, yelling at me to “STOP TAKING PICTURES!!” So I put away camera, walked towards him and answered his statement with a question. I asked him if he could site me the specific Muni code that prohibited a Translink Card carrying passenger from taking pictures of Muni Personal on Muni Property. He could not. Instead he responded that I “needed his permission” and demanded to see my “credentials” and the pictures on my camera. He added that in fact, if I was unwilling to turn over possession of my camera to him he would seize my camera and have me arrested.

via Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk says:

It seems to me that this musuem’s policy is simply another example of a museum who lets some power hungry curator draft some totally daft policy that is both unenforceable and in direct conflict with it’s mission statement.

From Prison Photography:

Not once did I envisage the current situation whereby the act of photography could bring about the threat of detention and imprisonment. Such impingement on basic rights of expression has been known in some of the dictatorial and despotic regimes of modern history … but not so much in the West, right? The times they are achangin’.

Check it out here.

From guardian.co.uk:

Austrian tourist who photographed bus and Tube stations says ‘nasty incident’ has put him off returning to London

Check it out here.

via BoingBoing.

From Photofocus:

Several freelancers as well as some credentialed photojournalists were jailed for days without charge or trial in the days immediately after September 11. New York Mayor at the time, Rudy Giuliani, seemed to declare war on photographers. He had the police block off more than a square mile surrounding the World Trade Center, calling it a crime scene. The Mayor ordered that anyone with a camera who even stopped or stood still near the area should be arrested and jailed.

Why did he do this? Was the former Mayor trying to get back at a press who was not always kind to him? Giuliani likes to think of himself as a serious photographer. Did he want to save the photo opportunities for himself?

Check it out here.

From Reporter, VA clash over patient interview – CNN.com:

The “cops” demanded that he turn over his tape, Schultz said. The public affairs officer, angered when another veteran offered Schultz his phone number, demanded that Schultz hand over all his equipment or “I’m going to get ugly,” he said.

Check it out here.

From Street photography and the law :: Photocritic photography blog:

The law can essentially be summed up like this:
1. You can take a picture of anything you see – especially when you are in public.

Check it out here.

From Press Allowed To Cover Return of Dead Soldiers | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source:

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the media was permitted to witness a casket containing the body of a dead soldier arrive on U.S. soil. What do you think?

Check it out here.