[On 30 August] as my colleague Marc Vallée and I were leaving Climate Camp we found a group of people arguing around the SWP stall that was selling newspapers and leaflets outside the entrance to the camp.
As we went in to take photographs the group arguing with the SWP quickly turned their attention to us, shouting loudly that we had not asked their permission before photographing them. They were immediately aggressive and threatening, I managed to calm the ones around me and walk away, however, one young man was persistently threatening towards Marc.
They stood a few metres away from the camp, talking for several minutes as Marc explained that he was an independent freelance journalist and that as a matter of principle he would not delete any photographs. The young man insisted that he did not like his photograph being taken and that Marc delete any photographs he had of him. He repeatedly threatened to grab Marc’s camera and delete the pictures himself or smash the camera.
After a while we felt that the situation had calmed enough to walk away. Marc said that they should both shake hands and walk away and offered his hand. The man did not take it and as we turned to leave he tried to grab the camera off Marc’s shoulder.
I stepped in shouting ‘Oi’ and as I did the man took a step back and kicked me hard in the stomach. We backed away and then walked away from the camp, checking that they were not following us.
Read the rest on Jonathan’s blog…
Posted by Rich Simcox
Tags: Climate Camp, ethics, Jonathan Warren, Marc Vallee, NUJ, Photography, press freedom, protest
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 9:20pm and is filed under press freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Disturbing stuff. And while paranoia among protesters about people taking photos of them may be understandable in the light of past incidents of harrassment, the treatment meted out here to working journalists and trade unionists trying to do their jobs properly suggests that some in the green movement still need some basic lessons in class-consciousness.