Solicitors acting on behalf of the National Union of Journalists have issued a letter of complaint to the new information commissioner Christopher Graham after the Metropolitan Police failed to deliver all files held on five UK journalists.
Data Protection requests were issued nearly eight months ago. The Metropolitan police have repeatedly denied they hold files of UK journalists on the criminal intelligence or other databases.
Evidence has emerged that files are being held but have not been released despite repeated requests. The NUJ letter now calls on the information commissioner to investigate the matter and confirm that the Meptropolitan police will not delete files before being made public.
In August 2008, environmental protestors set up camp in Kent, England, to protest the current and newly proposed E-On coal-fired power stations at Kingsnorth.
Part Two of two films, Covering Climate Camp continues to document the press coverage and subsequent press freedom restrictions. As the policing gets heavier, journalists trying to cover the story for independent and mainstream news organisations face surveillance, harassment, endless stop-and-searches and assault - they are even followed by a police unit to a McDonald's restaurant.
In August 2008, environmental protestors set up camp in Kent, England, to protest the current and newly proposed E-On coal-fired power stations at Kingsnorth.
Part One of two films, Covering Climate Camp documents not the protest movement, but the journalists trying to cover the story for independent and mainstream news organisations.
In some of the worst scenes of police interference the press were subjected to stop-and-search, harassment, aggression and violence, which led to the National Union of Journalists and the industry media publically slamming the police on the grounds of press freedom restriction.
On Monday 8 December 2008, protestors blockaded and shut down the London Greek Embassy in a solidarity protest for the Greek teenager Andreas Grigoropoulos.
This video rush depicts what happened on that day.
Since the young activist's death, who was shot by police officers, most main cities across Greece have exploded in rioting and clashes between police and protestors.
The shooting of Andreas seems only to have been the ignition of the unrest in Greece as mass opposition to social and economic reforms have also sparked a general strike.
Following damning reports of journalist obstruction from Press Gazette, British Journal of Photography and the National Union of Journalists, the Metropolitan Police have commited to investigating the incident that was caught on film.
Monday 8 December 2008: The London Greek embassy was blockaded by protestors to highlight the current political situation in Greece, after police shot dead a 16-year-old boy.
This short clip shows an armed diplomatic motorcycle police officer obstructing myself and one photojournalist while trying to cover the event.
Monday 8 September 2008: Today Jeremy Dear, the General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), moved a motion at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) live on the BBC Parliament Channel in Brighton on the issue of civil liberties and police surveillance and harassment of working journalists.
Along side this, the NUJ has released a short film called Press Freedom: "Collateral Damage" which tackles the issue of police surveillance of bona fide journalists who document political dissent.
The film is a damming account of the Orwellian techniques and methods of the Metropolitan Police Forward Intelligence Team (FIT Squad) over the last few years.
This film includes evidence of the FIT Squad targeting working journalists and footage of police attacking journalists when covering protests. The film also has an interview with Jeremy Dear and photographers outside New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.
The FIT Squad is a police unit that is trained to gather evidence at football matches, political protests and over the last year it has been used by officers in some parts of the country to target local youth on council estates for alleged anti-social behaviour.
The beacon of a free and democratic society is a free press, unhindered by intimidation, surveillance and violence, if the press is no longer free to operate and document political unrest the country is no longer free or democratic.
Press Freedom: "Collateral Damage" is just a taste of an ongoing project initiated in February 2008, using four years of personal archive footage, to be finalised as a feature documentary spanning five years of international protest and police coverage - eta: Autumn 2009.
