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Production Orders- A Threat to...
podcasts |During the recent Leveson inquiry the police urged Lord Justice Leveson to weaken the laws protecting journalistic material, and photographers and video journalists face continuing uncertainty over the lengths to which the Police will go to seize their footage. In this latest podcast Nicholas Jones speaks to two campaigners about the need to protect journalist's material.
The National Union of Journalists is keeping up the pressure on the government to refuse police additional powers to strengthen what are known as production orders. It has been campaigning against changing the Police and Criminal Evidence Act which would give them even greater powers to seize material from the news media.
As it stands, the Police currently have to prove they had tried themselves to obtain the necessary images or evidence, however if the proposed changes are introduced, this caveat would be removed and their ability to seize Special Procedure Material would become a matter of routine, seriously and negatively impacting UK press freedom.
This latest CPBF podcast explores the threat facing those who report, photograph and film events where public order is at stake and hears of the efforts by the NUJ's legal officer Roy Mincoff and Photojournalist Jason Parkinson, to keep Police powers at bay.
DATELINE: 27 February, 2014
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