marc vallée

Yesterday I attended the Joint Committee on Human Rights at House of Commons.  Vernon Coaker MP, Minister of State for Policing, Crime and Security gave oral evidence to the committee on policing and protest.

This follows on from the evidence Jeremy Dear the General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) gave to the committee on police surveillance and harassment of journalists and photographers in October and the evidence that Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison MBE from the Metropolitan Police, Deputy Chief Constable Sue Sim from the Association of Chief Police Officers and Constable Neil Hickey from the Police Federation of England and Wales gave in November.

Audio: Policing and Protest 09.12.08.

You can hear what Vernon Coaker had to say by clicking on the above link.   Nine minutes into the to the meeting the issue of photogapher rights comes up and the committee comes back to this issue a number of times and it’s well worth listening to the whole tape for that.

After what happened to me the day before when covering a protest in west London I have to say sitting in committee room five in the Palace of Westminster listing to the minster give evidence was a bit surreal at times but interesting all the same.