photographers face police harrassment

[Frazzel]

from the NUJ website:
'The NUJ is raising with the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police the latest 'stop and search' harassment of a professional photographer in west London this week while he tried to take pictures of demonstrators blockading import depots which distribute goods produced in Israeli settlements in Palestine's West Bank. Police searched him on two separate occasions, allegedly looking for keys used by protesters to chain themselves to depot gates. On each occasion they found nothing.
NUJ legal officer Roy Mincoff commented: "This is an example of straightforward harassment which is totally unacceptable in a country which presumes to lecture other regimes on freedom of expression. We are tired of being assured by senior police officers and politicians that photographers and reporters will not be interfered with when carrying out their legitimate work. It seems that lower down the chain of command, police officers are simply not listening to these policy declarations. Or, perhaps, it is about time that senior officers started talking a bit louder. The right of journalists to go about their work without police or other harassment is one of the tests of a free society. Britain is failing that test, and society is the poorer as a result."