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Arrest of photographer at Kent protest raises press freedom fears

Andy Aitchison tells Guardian of concerns after being held in custody for seven hours

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/30/arrest-of-photographer-at-kent-protest-raises-press-freedom-fears

Edited by geogphotos
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Literally just about to post on this. Seems like a blatant attempt to cover up independent, objective reporting of a news item in order to prioritise govt agenda. Will be interesting to see how (if) other papers report on this.

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His website is clean and informative. Has been working as a full time pro for nearly 20 years, has photographed Prince Charles, would almost certainly have had a press card. Priti has has lots of bad PR, perhaps the police thought they were doing her a good turn. One of his pictures was in the Guardian's picture of the day. Worrying times for photographers. Just think, most of us would have shot the protest if we were local, I certainly would of. In most cases like this a photographer is held then released without charge or de arrested, as they just want the photographer out of the way while the protest is active. Time will tell.

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Well, just googling only The Guardian, The Independent & Kent Online have picked this up, at least that's all that I can find. Googling his name along with, say, The Daily Mail or The Telegraph yields nothing. Is it because he's been charged and they're not allowed to? A strange silence otherwise. He is definitely a member of the NUJ as he showed his press card to the police when they came to his home to arrest him many hours later. The NUJ and local Conservative  MP Damian Collins are apparently keeping a close watch on the case, let's hope so.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/30/arrest-of-photographer-at-kent-protest-raises-press-freedom-fears

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/journalist-photographer-asylum-camp-napier-barracks-andy-aitchison-b1794907.html

 

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/press-photographer-arrested-after-covering-protest-241673/

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7 minutes ago, Sultanpepa said:


This second attempt to stifle legitimate photojournalism is more worrying, particularly  the police reportedly stating they do not recognise a NUJ press card. Their actions indicated they didn’t. 

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Scary times for democracy. I'm sorry to hear of your troubles across the pond. 

 

While he defied your King, I'd guess you'd all agree with Thomas Jefferson:

 

"were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

 

A free press is essential to democracy, particularly when they strive to relate what's actually going on. Let's hope they prevail. 

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4 hours ago, Marianne said:

Scary times for democracy. I'm sorry to hear of your troubles across the pond. 

 

While he defied your King, I'd guess you'd all agree with Thomas Jefferson:

 

"were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

 

A free press is essential to democracy, particularly when they strive to relate what's actually going on. Let's hope they prevail. 

 

 

A free press is part of it, but La Prensa here is the voice of a family that's very annoyed that it isn't getting its own in as presidents these days.  They're rather freer than they admit. 

 

I think one thing that happens in Europe that hasn't traditionally happened in the US is that you do have papers with politics who do operate in a journalistic culture where other papers have other politics.   US journalism has areas where it's just not trustworthy -- Latin American coverage tends to be either missing, partisan, or simplistic. 

 

There's some historical evidence that at least part of the American colonies wanted to leave the UK because the UK was becoming hostile to slavery.  South Carolina grew its own tea so had no problem with the tea tax, but did have a problem with not being able to visit London with their slaves (Google Somerset v Stewart -- and the judge who make that decision raised his son's African Anglo daughter).

 

Nicaragua is 6 million or so people.  There are various flavors of official and oppositional news, both frequently full of lies, so everyone checks with people who were there so see what probably maybe really happened.   We're in a age where everyone has Photoshop.   Freedom of the press without ethics is problematic. 

 

If we have a significant portion of the US population believing that Trump is their salvation and that special courts have given Special Forces troops  warrants to arrest all the prominent liberal and take them to Guantanamo for tribunals and hanging, the problem is the US educational system, not freedom of the press.   The South ended up making talking about abolition of slavery a capital offense during the Confederacy and had strict control over the press compared to the North where the press was free to publish battle plans if they found out about them (Grant commented ruefully about this in his memoirs).

Edited by MizBrown
typo
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Very disturbing to read.  I was also sad to read that he handed over his files (cards?)  I would never do that without a court order.

I hope he finds a good lawyer.  I would be less surprised to have read about this happening in the U.S., but the UK?

 

Chuck

 

I feel the need to add:  I have a feeling that there is more to this story than the daily's have reported.  The entire story does

not make any sense?

Edited by Chuck Nacke
grammer
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The NUJ has just sent an email to all its press card holders reminding us of the strict terms for holding and using a press card.  They also remind us that a press card can be revoked at any time.

 

Here is a paragraph from a long communication

“Remember only to use the press card on occasions when you are reporting an event. Do not use your press card when your involvement in an event is other than as a reporter and observational role – for example, you cannot use your card if you are organising an event orpresent as a protestor or activist”


 

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