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Is UK Planning to Make Photography Illegal?

by kate | February 26, 2007 at 09:07 pm

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I can't figure this story out. I admit that I am not a professional "restrictions on photography in the UK" researcher, but all I can find when I google this phrase is a serioius number of links to an online petition to protest such an action. Understandably! Except I don't know anything about what the proposal is - or even whether it is real. Do you?

I read about it first on nettime, courtesy of Damian from the Glasgow School of Art. There is a lot of chatter about it on photography community forums and website, the earliest of which seems to stem from around January. Fill me in!

Here is the information I saw from the petition website.

There are a number of moves promoting the requirement of 'ID' cards to allow photographers to operate in a public place.It
is a fundamental right of a UK citizen to use a camera in a public
place, indeed there is no right to privacy when in a public place.These moves have developed from paranoia and only promote suspicion towards genuine people following their hobby or profession.

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hockeyshooter

at 02:03 on February 28th, 2007

Downing Street has denied that there is any legislation banning photography in public places under consideration. Read this article in UK magazine Amateur Photographer.

kate

at 11:12 on February 28th, 2007

Wow! Thanks for the information, hockeyshooter. This whole thing is just a giant misunderstanding and has spiralled out of control. 11,000 people signed this petition!! And there was no government legislation proposed at all - just some lame idea put forward somewhere along the line to produce ID cards marking photographers as "bona fide non-commercial".