There has been a recent spate of reports about the illegal harassment of innocent photographers, train and plane spotters, and of peaceful demonstrators exercising their rights of peaceful, lawful protest etc. by officious, jobsworth, ignorant or poorly trained private security guards, Police Community Service Officers or by genuine Police Constables,

There are also ongoing "Climate of Fear" propaganda campaigns, which seek to make innocent public photographers or mobile phone users into terrorist suspects.

These all deserve public apologies and disciplinary or criminal investigations into those responsible for them,

See Photography does NOT equal Terrorism"

It is worth remembering, however, that there are actually some places where photography is illegal.

Written answers Monday 16 Jun 2008 : Column 667W



Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Government Communication Headquarters: Photography Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative) To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reasons and on what authority photography at the Government Communications Headquarters has been prohibited David Miliband (Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; South Shields, Labour) holding answer 13 June 2008 Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911 makes it an offence for any person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state to approach, inspect or be in the neighbourhood of a 'prohibited place' or to make or otherwise obtain a sketch (a term which encompasses a photograph) which might be directly or indirectly useful to a potential enemy. All Government Communications Headquarters sites are prohibited places for the purposes of the Act.



This Labour Government abuses the supposed Parliamentary legislative safeguard, of having a Secretary of State personally scrutinising and signing an Order, or having to be Notified of a Request, to suspend normal laws, in a narrowly defined geographical area, on a temporary basis only, which they, as our supposedly democratically elected representatives have the power to Authorise, Amend or Refuse or Revoke.

They have demonstrated this abusive preference for general repression through Kafkaesque secret laws, which the general public cannot know whether they are being applied in a particular place, at a particular time or not, by their refusal to list when and where Terrorism Act 200 Section 44 stop and search without reasonable suspicion powers are or have been in force - see Home Office Terrorism Act 2000 s44 authorisations FOIA request correspondence archive.

We wonder if the Government will, in its usual secretive manner, also attempt to keep secret, what is already known to our enemies and allies through aerial and satellite reconnaissance i.e. the locations of such "Prohibited Places".

Perhaps it is time for another Freedom of Information Act request.

[UPDATE July 3rd 2008 - "The Home Office does not hold the information that you have requested." see this Spy Blog UK FOIA requests blog article - The War on Tourism and Photographers - where are the Prohibited Places under the Official Secrets Act 1911 ?]

These "Prohibited Places" are defined in the Official Secrets Act 1911 section 3 Definition of prohibited place: