Legal Research

Photographers treated as terrorists

By David Canton

There has been a disturbing trend towards authorities in various countries stopping, questioning, and even arresting people who are simply taking photographs of public places. Somehow taking a photo equates in some people’s minds to gathering information for terrorist purposes. Often the police or security guards in question insist that the photographer is breaking the law - which is usually not the case at all.

A recent example is where a photographer was detained and arrested for taking photos of an Amtrak train. His reason? He was taking photos to enter an Amtrak photo contest that called for people to take and enter photos of Amtrak trains.

The absurdity of this is captured by a Colbert Report video.

For those interested in this topic in general, take a look at the Photo Attorney blog, and in particular, the series of posts entitled Photography Not Allowed

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on February 04, 2009 (boomark / email).