News photography in London Royal Parks ? “Not without a news permit Sir”
27/09/2010 7 Comments
I was in London on Saturday 25th September with four other photographers at Waterloo Place where the Families Fighting for Justice march had just finished
We walked down the steps to The Mall to take a look because some filming was going on (Rowan Atkinson I believe although the following meant I can’t actually confirm that)
As soon as a security man saw the long lenses and cameras he told us we couldn’t take photos without permission as The Mall is within the Royal Park boundary and asked us to talk to the Royal Parks representative there
Walked over to her and was told – no commercial photos allowed. When I asked about news or editorial pictures, was told still no go
I asked (somewhat frustratedly) what would happen if, say there was an incident of some kind and was told that I should buy an annual news permit then I’d be covered for that eventuality
When one photographer said he wouldn’t use the pictures for anything except his own viewing, the Royal Parks rep then said politely “sorry, it’s private property so no photo permission anyway”
After that, we (and all the members of the public) were asked to move to the steps at the lower end of Waterloo Place – then just we photographers were told to photograph from the top of the steps by Waterloo Place as that’s where the Park Boundary actually is
So…
I suspect that a significant number of the photos in the world’s press and media of last weeks Papal visit won’t have been taken by full time professional photographers – but by members of the public and quite possibly along the sides of The Mall
Anyway – I’ve looked at the Royal Parks website and it does indeed say that a News Permit is currently needed to cover even “editorial” items – costing £100 per year (a lot of money to spend on the basis of covering oneself just in case something happens – although to be fair it would allow coverage of pre arranged press calls and events)
Questions that arise:
How can the Press be free if you have to buy a News Permit just in case something happens in certain places ?
What would happen in the event of a “hard news story” in a Royal Park ? Surely the people with the most chance of grabbing the first pictures are more likely to be members of the public or tourists and park visitors (or “Citizen Journalists”) rather than a professional reporter or photojournalist ? (and those members of the public would, I’d have thought, be unlikely to have bought permits)
I now understand that the reason the other photographer was stopped from taking photos for personal use is likely to have been that it would have contravened the exclusivity that the film company had paid for. In which case, even if I’d had a news permit in advance, I’d have been unable to photograph anyway since that too would have contravened the exclusivity
Apparently these permits have been in place for some time now, so why is it that a large number of people seem to know nothing about them ?
However, the good news is that the Royal Parks Press Office have today confirmed that the news permit system is currently under review with the intention of bringing in a more appropriate or flexible system in 2011 that actually does cater for Press and News photography properly
From a personal perspective, I’d like to see the idea of news permits dropped because a permit system for news photography seems to be rather contradictory and difficult to enforce – although, perhaps a solution is to officially recognise the UK Press Card in the Royal Parks. (Organisations including the British Association of Journalists (BAJ), The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the other gatekeeper organisations for the UK Press Card would be some of the appropriate sources of feedback and guidance for the Royal Parks to contact) along with other photography interest organisations as well
(c) Peter Webb – www.webbpix.com – All rights reserved. No reuse without prior permission
Royal Parks website and the information about News Permits linked here
