Hi guys. Today I’m going to take a well earned break from the current craziness happening in the U.K. Today I’m going to be writing about photographer’s rights. More to the point, infringement of those rights, by ignorant British organisational representatives and other individuals. When I say ignorant, I mean their ignorance of the law in this country.
Additionally, you can quite often encounter arrogance, mainly because of the belief in the U.K.; that if you have money, then your better than everyone else. If only they had used some of that money to better educate themselves surrounding the laws in the U.K. rather than adopting the attitude of; my point of view is the only one that counts. You know the type, self entitled Ken’s.
This sort of behaviour is by no means exclusive to company executives or senior management. You can quite often see this behaviour from ordinary workers and more importantly security personnel. Why are they so misinformed? Security personnel for example, if not employed directly by the company, are required to be licensed under the Private Securities Act 2001.
This industry is regulated by the SIA, an organisation that reports to the same government department as the police; the Home Office. It would therefore be incomprehensible to me that these personnel are so ignorant of the law. I have 2 theories on the matter, either the training is completely inadequate and is nothing more than a money making scheme, like most schemes of this nature in the U.K., or the personnel are told to behave in this manner in order to intimidate the photographer.
I’ll now explain the behaviour of other group of individuals, that are completely ignorant of the law surrounding photography, organisational management and employee’s. I believe these individuals to be the worst offenders, mainly because they are spoon fed information from their employer and regurgitate this disinformation in parrot fashion. At no point questioning or even a thought as to its validity, truly dangerous.
I was watching a YouTube video, from someone I really enjoy following. He is a few years older than me, with a very unique style and for the most part records his experiences daily. Like me throughout my photographic life, he has also suffered abuse and even violence from ignorant Ken’s. Additionally like me, he is not backward in coming forward, prompting telling them where to go. However, he has not yet adopted my position of just ignoring them completely.
Soto create his current content, he contacted via telephone a National Trust park, asking them for permission to fly his drone. Now bare in mind that they do not own the air space, that is regulated by the CAA. Furthermore there are no flight restrictions in that area. Despite this they flatly refused, he did not say if they had given him a reason. So like most organisations believe I going to assume this is because they own the land and by default the air space.
I have on a number of occasions informed you there is a provision under S33 Criminal Justice Act 1972, that clearly states:
“Public place” includes any highway and any other premises or place to which at the material time the public have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise ”.
So, in actual fact he could have gone anyway and flew his drone.
Not deterred, this guy decided to do a little research, which certainly paid dividends. He discovered that the road accessing the park and running through the park, was in fact a public highway. The highway is maintained at the public expense. Eureka! Public land nothing they can do to prevent his lawful activity, fantastic.
He drives to Clumber park, parks his vehicle on the public highway, but does walk to the entrance, to courteously inform the staff of his intention. Surprise surprise, an immediate rejection with a member of staff stating: “your not allowed”. Attempting to explain his legal position is met with contemptuous rejection of his legal explanation. I don’t understand why this legal professional, was collecting parking charges at the entrance to the park. Perhaps it was her day off in court.
Undeterred, knowing his legal rights, returns to his vehicle and launches the drone. Setting about recording his experiences. Just has he has completed the content and returning the craft, he is approached by two individuals. Baring in mind he is parked on a public road, one of the employees let’s call him a manager, says: I’m going to have to ask you to move on. Then states: your vehicle is creating an obstruction. Really, the absolute arrogance and self entitlement of this guy, believing has the authority to ask someone to move on, and tells him that he cannot park on a public road. Neither of which he has any authority to do, unbelievable, who does this guy think he is.
This encounter is then followed by threats of the duty manager attending, because he is flying over their land and that violates the public’s right to privacy. Where do these fools come from, they stand and argue their point of right and wrong, with no comprehension of the law, or more importantly whether what he is saying is correct. THERE IS NO RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN A PUBLIC PLACE
The YouTuber, knowing for a FACT he’s correct, stands his ground and returning a legal argument, countering the absolute drivel makes the manager look an absolute idiot, although he doesn’t realise that. Despite this, the manager continues to twitter on about National Trust policy.
National Trust policy applies to their employees only, it has no basis in law on members of the public, especially when stood on public land. After a lot of back and forth, they part company. The YouTuber laughing in amazement, and the manager returning to his vehicle, still believing the complete and utter nonsense he has spouted. But that’s not all, unbelievably after what has just happened, the National Trust state; they allow photography in the park.
I have forwarded a copy of this article to Clumber Park and I await their response. I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, before you engage in an argument like this, make fully sure your in the right, otherwise you just look like a moron. Once again I amazed how many lawyers one organisation employs, whose knowledge of the law is zero.
If you wish to view this video, it is very amusing you can click the following link eureka
-Gianni