Taking pictures in public places and among police officers: what are my rights?

you are going to have to ask in some Irish journalists forums for specific advice on Ireland.

However as you probably already know what the law says and how the authorities use it on the ground may be two different things..... see
http://www.demotix.com/forum/photographer-arrested-taking-picture-brawl-public-place-uk

so the law and reality may be subtly different.

you need advice from other journalists in Dublin.

you are going to have to ask in an Irish forum... the laws vary from place to place. Also as we all know how the authorities actually work on the ground is not always strictly to the letter of the law and in many cases they just use a different approach such as "obstruction" or "breach of the peace" etc to get you.

There is a post in the Journalism section of this forum about a UK full time press tog who was arrested for taking pictures of a fight in a public place! Then later released with an apology.

This might be a good place to start asking people
http://forum.webdistortion.com/archive/index.php/t-160.html

Hi Chris,

many thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I know how sometimes the authorities interpretate a law at their needs as you mentioned. I didn't push too much the patience of that Officer and I thought maybe I was going to a Dublin Garda station to ask for information, then I just changed my mind because I was sure they could say anything to justify themselves and get myself in more troubles

From what I understood reading in several websites, everybody has the right to take pictures in a public places. I sent also an email to the National Union of Journalist in Ireland to share with them.

I believe we should put all these remarkable experience together as proof that sometimes the System doesn't work as it should be expecially if in the count there are values of freedom.

Thanks for the link I will have a look.

Donald

Darran, re web sites.... make sure they are IRISH ones AND that the person making he statements has some credibility.

For example an American supposedly professional journalist claiming a lot of experience in Ireland said, on Demotix when some on was asking why it was taking a long time to get paid for images taken in Dublin, the following:

"After following your posts re non-payment of use of images I did some researching on this site and learned that Demotix is owned by folks in London, UK - so there. Perhaps British photographers get paid for use of their photos but non-Brits, especially those of Irish decent covering stories in Northern Ireland don't get paid...just a theory. I won't be uploading anymore of my photos to this site."

Which is as you know complete crap. So research carefully

Quite to my surprise I have just discovered the UK based NUJ also covers Southern Ireland see
http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=405

Or
http://www.presscouncil.ie/

They may be able to help?

Hi Donald,

I cannot say more than what Chris has said except for two things:

1) learn how to be discreet and 2) learn how to shoot from the hip - wide angle, f8 or more and raw. The raw so you can heavily crop with min loss of information.

But you're right never argue with the police: this subject has been discussed before, for example: How to be safe during demonstration. Or the various topics on anonymity.

best and stay safe

Lawrence

Thanks Lawrence and Chris for your advices.

Have a nice day guys,

Donald

It depends entirely where you are -- country, city or otherwise.

In reality, in the USA we have the right to shoot whatever we want in public places, but not everyone realizes we have a constitutional rights to that. If police or soldiers are in your face and not in a good mood, it may be best to politely go elsewhere or at least wait until they leave.

In the US, there is a bit of a gap between what our stated rights are and what happens in reality. It's similar to the difference between what the military says and what it does. It's a calculated risk and one needs to ask if the picture is worth it.

L JC B had good advice. Set camera to silent mode helps too.

I was at a Palestinian riot in the summer, the rioters told me "we will kill you if you take pictures" - they were serious, so f8, wide angle, silent mode, relaxed walk around and shoot from the hip.

I got one good shot

I never found a law anywhere that says "thou shalt not take photos" - just got to be aware of the situation.

reply sent to moderator (again)

Chris, the spam bot has gone hay wire - short of sending a twitter long message forget it. But since everyone at Demotix must be busy with the new set up, I am not complaining too much for now. best L