Category: Political Issues

Controversy rages currently between the long-established professional media organisations and upstart Demotix over the decision by the latter company to issue photographers with its own ‘press pass’. Since 1992 there has been a voluntary UK Press Card scheme, organised by an independent authority which licences 16 national organisations which represent journalists and other media personnel working “professionally as a media worker who needs to identify himself or herself in public” and entitles them to issue a ‘UK Press Card‘ formally recognised by all police forces in the UK (the scheme was launched by the Met) and many other bodies.

In general it has been a good scheme that has benefited photographers, police and public, although it hasn’t always given us the cooperation with the police that it supposedly entitles us to, and even some high-ranking officers have sometimes shown an abysmal ignorance about it.

I didn’t need any press card to cover the latest event I put on Demotix

But I’m certainly very much in favour of the UK Press Card scheme, which has generally worked well, and in which I have a certain interest having carried a card for many years, at first from the PPA and latterly from the NUJ.  Its major use for me has been to reassure members of the public who I am photographing, and if they have any concerns it provides a means that they can check on me through the police via the verification hot line whose number is given on the card. So far they haven’t bothered to do so – looking at the card has been enough.

It does also occasionally get me into areas which are closed from the public at some events, as well as free entry to some exhibitions etc. This has been a privilege I’ve always been careful not to abuse, only using it when I was actually writing or photographing the events concerned, although some colleagues and other card-carriers are considerably less scrupulous. Over the years some or most of the 16 “gatekeepers” have issued this card to many whose work can in no way justify it (a suggestion that many will admit in private but attack anyone who mentions it in public.)

Although I carry the card all the time when I’m taking pictures, at probably 95% of events I photograph it stays in my pocket. Usually if you look as if you know what you are doing and behave sensibly you can work without problems. The other 5% of times – mainly dealing with police or when I’m photographing events involving children –  it does become useful or essential and without it I couldn’t work effectively.

Demotix wasn’t around in 1992 and doesn’t I think belong to any of the associations involved in the UK scheme, although it could possibly join at least one of them.  I first came across their card a few months back, before they began to issue them more widely, when I saw one hanging around the neck of a colleague when we were covering the same event in Trafalgar Square, and asked him about it.

Like it or not, our industry – if that’s the word for it – is changing, and like many others involved in it he simply does not earn enough from it as a proportion of his earnings to qualify to join the NUJ.  To keep up his professional media work (and his work is professional) he has to do other things that make more money as well.

The same is true of many others who put work on Demotix, where you can often see journalistic work of a very high standard from the UK and countries around the world – overall a considerably better standard of work than in many newspapers and in particular recent issues of the NUJ’s own magazine.

Again I have to declare an interest as I often post work on Demotix, largely because it enables me to tell my stories at some length and depth to an audience. On Demotix I can write a story – perhaps 500 or a thousand words and upload it with 15-25 pictures to form a slide show and have it available on-line in less than an hour from when I’ve finished it. A very high proportion of those that I post become ‘front page’ stories promoted by Demotix and seen by a decent number of people. Though still considerably fewer than see them on My London Diary or in posts here.

The only really unfortunate thing about Demotix is that sales are low, and I make very little money from it. I keep hoping things will change.  I actually started with them following a suggestion on how photographers could look at new ways to make a living from photography made at an NUJ photographers’ conference, but it hasn’t so far worked out.

The statement that appears on the NUJ site warning about the Demotix ‘press pass’ is unfortunately a very poor piece of journalism, getting too many of the facts wrong, particularly in the headlines. Demotix isn’t “selling” its ‘press passes’ and it isn’t an “amateur journalists’ website”. As Demotix CEO Turi Munthe stated to Journalism.co.uk,”The vast majority of Demotix’ regular contributors are pro or semi-pro photojournalists around the world, whose work has appeared in every major news outlet in the UK.”

It’s important also to remember that although the NUJ piece treats it as if it was entirely a UK matter, Demotix has photographers around the world in 190 countries sending it stories, including some that have no proper press card scheme.

I haven’t got a Demotix card but if I didn’t have a UK Press Card I would apply to Demotix for one. Before the UK Scheme I worked using cards provided by several bodies both from the UK and one USA company, all of which had my name and photograph, the name of the organisation I was working for, an expiry date and a contact phone number that could be used to check up on me. I cam see no problem with any organisation issuing members with such an identity card so long as they control it properly. It does really simply show that the person holding it is working gathering news for Demotix.

Although the Demotix card has been stated to look rather like the UK Press card, it would be hard for anyone familiar with that to be misled. What perhaps makes it contentious is the large black text PRESS on a yellow background similar to that on a UK Press card, but at around twice the size.

I’ve not checked recently, but it used to be possible for those who met the Demotix criterion of ‘ten published stories’ on the site to download a free PDF to make into their Demotix card, although there were many requests for Demotix to have them produced professionally and made available at low cost to those who qualify, and that seems now to have been done. This isn’t “selling” them any more than the annual fee I used to pay for my UK Press card from the PPA was.

I’d like Demotix to have greater quality control generally; stories are currently vetted by editors at least until photographers establish themselves as reliable, and most contributions do reach a reasonable standard. Perhaps 10 published stories is setting the bar a little too low, and they should consider only issuing them to photographers who have published at least this number and had at least one making the ‘front page.’

But I’m not entirely happy with the UK Press Card scheme either, and not just because some people who never emerge from an office get one. Although at the moment we seem – thanks to a lot of work by the NUJ in particular – to be getting the police who backed it in the first place to recognise it, there are still far too many other places where it isn’t recognised, with people – often I think thorough ignorance of the scheme – demanding their own accreditation. If the scheme were more generally known and accepted and the card recognised there would be considerably less danger of people being confused by a company card such as the Demotix example.

But underlying all of this dispute is the fact that the UK Press Card scheme is based on the status quo of 1992 in an industry that has changed considerably in those 18 years.  The scheme and the NUJ too has failed in some respects to keep up with this changing nature and in particular the huge change from staff to freelance work. Many freelances have to combine various skills – and not all necessarily in journalism – to earn a living. The union should be much more actively promoting professionalism in journalistic work not just in the traditional media but also in blogging and various other on-line manifestations of the new journalism which include companies like Demotix.

We perhaps too need to concentrate more on audience than on earnings when assessing who should qualify for a press pass. Last October my page views for all my web sites for the month were over 250,000 for the first time and are now consistently around that level, and this site reached the 100,000 mark in June and is still increasing. Thanks to all of you for reading this  but this site currently makes me no income. To me it’s still journalism, just the same as when I was writing and photographing and getting paid for it (and fortunately elsewhere this just occasionally still happens.)

————————————————

I’m still wondering whether I should add a donations button to these posts, or even possibly move to another platform where I could add some fairly unobtrusive advertising. But I’d prefer not to.

You can however support me in other ways. First and most easily simply by recommending the site, telling your mates, writing about it and linking to it if you have a blog or web site or use Twitter or Facebook etc.  If you have any connection with using or commissioning photographs then all my work on all of my sites is available as high res for repro, and I’m generally available for work in the London, UK area. And of course you can buy prints of anything on the site at fairly reasonable prices as these things go – both older black and white work such as my Paris Pictures (that page has a link to sales and information on the bottom) or any more recent work.

Finally I’ll mention Blurb books – and I’ve a new one coming shortly when I’ll mention them again. I don’t make a great deal on these, as I’ve kept the markup very low since Blurb isn’t cheap, and my motivation wasn’t to make money but make my work available to anyone interested. Currently two very different books are available:

  

Before the Olympics:
The Lea Valley 1981-2010
Peter Marshall
Softcover UK £16.45

Over 240 images from the Lea Valley in an 80 page book, including many from the area now redeveloped for the London 2012 Olympics.

and

1989
Peter Marshall
Softcover UK £10.95

20 lack and white photographs from 1989 and accompanying text from an imaginary diary of a walk in north London with a famous deceased author.

The links lead to pages with previews of each work – and where you can also order them.
Post and packing is extra.

The anti-capitalist protest following the decision by the Director of Public Prosecution Keir Starmer not to prosecute the police officer recorded on video assaulting Ian Tomlinson minutes before the death of this previously fit and healthy man, not a demonstrator but simply on his way home from work, was bound to be an angry one. As expected that anger on this occasion, which included several periods of silence in Tomlinson’s memory, was confined to words, both spoken and on some of the banners and placards.

The United Campaign Against Police Violence marching to where Ian Tomlinson died

The decision wasn’t unexpected, which makes it even more shocking. Our political establishment couldn’t let it go to trial because it seemed inconceivable that any jury would fail to convict. Like in the more than a thousand cases of death in police custody since 1969 there would be some kind of cover up, though this was more obvious than most. Not one single police officer has been charged with either manslaughter or murder in even one of these cases. Of course not every single one of these largely unexplained deaths were caused by illegal actions by police, but it is hard to dismiss the evidence that many if not most were.

The police cover up, they lie to support each other. They use pathologists (as in the Tomlinson case) who are known to be incompetent. Above all they hold things up so that lesser charges can no longer be brought and memories fade.

If the boot had been on the other foot (or rather the baton in the other hand) we would have seen the case in court within days and a verdict within a few months. Instead, the case of Ian Tomlinson has taken more than 15 months to  come to a decision not to prosecute. Even that is fast – the family of Sean Rigg whose sister spoke at the event are still waiting for the inquest result two years after his unexplained death minutes after being taken in to Brixton police station.

Samantha Rigg-David speaking outside the DPP’s office

So anger isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that so many seem satisfied to put up with the situation without doing anything about it. Perhaps the fact that most of the victims are black and most are working class comes into it.

Photographically  one problem was that the anger expressed itself very obviously in the language on some of the banners. Not a problem in some ways, but it can make the publication of images difficult.

In the above picture the banner was not quite fully visible and could read ‘FOLK THE LAW NOT THE POOR’ but in most other images it was less equivocal! At least one other banner included another word not generally used in polite company, and had I been videoing the event the sound track would also have presented problems, particularly during the march.

The above picture also shows another problem I had, related to fingermarks on the lens and shooting as I was with the sun not far out of image, there is a kind of diffuse arc over a part of the building just left of centre towards the top of the image.  Unfortunately it wasn’t really visible on the camera back unless I zoomed in, and I didn’t notice it until later.

The other aspect of the banners that worried me slightly was the possibility of defamation, as some quite clearly called a named office a murderer.  However given the circumstances it is hard to imagine any possible case being taken over this.

But perhaps rather unusually I should give a warning that the pictures from this event on My London Diary may contain language that some may find objectionable, though in my opinion considerably less objectionable than the decision by Keir Starmer.

It wasn’t the story of Goldilocks, but the size of stones to be used to hurl at the victim sentenced to stoning under Sharia Law in Iran.  Men to be stoned are buried to the waist before the executioners – mainly prison guards start to hurl the stones with all their might, while women are buried to the neck. If the stones are too small, they will injure but not kill. If the stones are too large they might kill the victim immediately. They need to be just right, so that the victims keep alive to suffer for perhaps twenty minutes as they are reduced to a bloody pulp by stone after stone.

A woman plays the role of Sakine in Trafalgar Square

The sentence passed on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for her alleged adultery has shocked the world, thanks to her lawyer,  Mohammad Mostafaei and the groups that have campaigned on her behalf, and the outcry has been so great that Iranian sources have stated she will not be stoned, but is expected to be hanged. Hanging in Iran is still a barbaric practice, with the person struggling for breath for many minutes hanging with the noose around their neck, as they are slowly strangled by the weight of their body.

Mostafaei fled Iran after he was questioned and released, but heard that police had already arrested his wife and her brother and were about to arrest him. He has now applied for asylum in Turkey.

Sakine was initially tried and found guilty of  having an “illicit relationship” with two men after the murder of her husband, on the basis of a ‘confession’ extracted under duress and which she has since retracted. Sentence of 99 lashes was carried out for that offence in 2006, but the courts also decided to reopen her case and charge her with adultery, finding her guilty on a majority verdict apparently based on a judge’s opinion of her rather than any evidence.

Of course hers is not an isolated case, and at least 12 and possibly as many as 50 others are in prison in Iran awaiting stoning.  The death penalty there under the Iranian interpretation of sharia law applies to murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy (the abandonment of Islam) and drug trafficking as well as  adultery.

Maryam Namazie speaking
It was hard to find any way to express an appropriate disgust while photographing, and for me at least, the simple image of the stones was most effective. Of course I also photographed the event in Trafalgar Square – people standing with placards, including a small group wearing coloured full body (Zentai) suits who came and joined in briefly, the speakers and a little bit of street theatre, though I’d wandered away briefly when this started and missed the key element!

More about the Day of Protest Against Stoning on My London Diary.

The march came up Whitehall in silence and then burst into applause at the Cenotaph

I was surprised this morning to receive an e-mail informing me about a page attacking journalists on a web site which calls itself the English National Alliance, and even more surprised to find my picture at the bottom of the page with the caption;

“Peter Marshall.
Socialist
Anti English Journalist
and Photogpraher“

Well, at least there they had spelt socialist correctly, as in the title and address of the page it was “socilaist”. And of course I’ve no objection to being called either a Journalist or a Photographer, but I’m certainly not anti-English.

The complaint against me was that I had written about a ‘Patriot’ demonstration in May, and had:

“lied to try and create interest more in himself as a journalist than the event, by stating that the patriots were involved in a scuffle at 10 Downing street, which was a total fabrication on his part…”

Unfortunately the writer had simply got it wrong, and has mixed me up with another photographer who had written about the event.

What I actually wrote in the only part of my article which mentioned Downing St was this:

“The march set off noisily, but as it turned into Whitehall and approached the Cenotaph it became a silent tribute to British troops, which was followed by applause, with the chanting resuming as they came past Downing St and on to Trafalgar Square.”

No mention of any scuffle, and several people on the left have criticised me for being too kind to the marchers for writing what I thought was a truthful account.

As usual I set out to describe the event as clearly and objectively as I could and give reader a fairly good idea of what happened, of why people were marching and the ideas they were putting forward. I did also describe the behaviour of some of the marchers towards the journalists present, particularly at the end of the event and the chanting of racist slogans by some. And as well as my description of the event I also made my own point of view clear – something which I think is also vital for journalists to do.

Interestingly when I met some of the march stewards earlier this month they thanked me for the fairness of my account of the event, and also told me that they had too been appalled by some of the behaviour I’d commented on.

The story about “a scuffle at Downing St” did not come from me, but was written by another photographer at the event in a completely separate story.  I saw nothing of the incident he describes,  where marchers were held back by police as they surged towards a woman who had shouted “racist scum” at them. I have no reason to doubt his account, but I didn’t see it, so I didn’t report it.

My story, headlined Peaceful March by EDL in London, includes this paragraph:

Many of us who are not members of the EDL would like to see a proper celebration of traditional British culture and would certainly support the wider use of the English and other British flags and the proper celebration of our national Saints Days. And while parts of our history have involved the exploitation of other cultures, there are also many aspects of which we can justly be proud, particularly for example in the areas of science and technology.

Which I think is hardly anti-English.

But more importantly than a misplaced attack on me, the ENA article is an attack on all journalists and on the freedom of the press.  It’s a call for censorship and control of the media:

On all future demonstrations and protests Journalists must be challenged and sent packing if they are NUJ members and also start gathering photographic evidence against them as well where possible so we can identify them constantly and banish them from our events.

…..

By creating ‘welcome cards’ we can ensure that unbiased Journalists are allowed into the ranks of Nationalist protesters with us so that they can tell the truth of the protests and demonstrations and start getting the message out that we are growing in stature, strength and support and will no longer tolerate a socialist minority dictating to us or spreading lies about the patriotic cause through their media access.

It clearly is a call for the kind of controlled press that is a feature of totalitarian societies both of the right and the left, and a complete denial of the freedoms which are one of our proudest English traditions. And it is a call we need to fight against – and this is a fight in which anyone concerned with upholding English traditions and freedom will join with us.