We Are The Press

A win for the good guys in the War on Photography last week as a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that a Boston lawyer did indeed have the right to videotape some police officers as they made a drug arrest. The ruling hinged on the observation that First Amendment protections apply to regular citizens just as much as they apply to professional or 'real' reporters because crucial aspects of important news stories are now often likely to be captured by citizens with a camera who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

This debate may seem very abstract but it's really not. Note that in Quebec they are seriously considering creating a special class of legally sanctioned 'real' reporters. Anyone not a member of this special class could theoretically be banned from reporting on news events, and no doubt this would apply to photographers as well.