Photography and Filming in Council Meetings, The Local Audit and Accountability Bill Options

[Simon Kirby]

The Local Audit and Accountability Bill is currently going through the final ping-pong stage which looks likely to create a right to film council meetings. At present if you want to film or take a photo at a council meeting there is a significant risk that an uppity clerk could call the police and have you arrested. You'd not be doing anything illegal and the police don't actually have any power of arrest if all you're doing is quietly filming or snapping the proceedings, but it's happened that people have been carted off to the cells in handcuffs for just that, only to be released without charge. Utterly appalling in what is supposed to be a free society.

You already have a right under the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 to attend meetings of the full parish council and its committees, though that right doesn't extend to sub-committees, but it's helpful here to understand what a committee and sub-committee is - a committee is a meeting which has its power to make decisions delegated directly by the council, and a sub-committee is a meeting which has its power to make decisions delegated by a committee.

So for our own town council its committees are the Policy & Resources Committee; Community Services Committee, Civic Pride, Arts & Leisure Committee, and the Planning & Highways Committee, but also the confisingly-named Urgency Sub-Committee which is technically a committee. You don't currently have a right to attend a Grants Sub-Committee or a Staff Sub-Committee.

So you shouldn't actually need a right to take a photo or video of a councillor or officer in a council meeting because it's not disruptive and the only power the council has is to evict you from the meeting if you're being disruptive, but in practice councillors and officers can be very unhappy indeed about their business being exposed to public scrutiny and criticism - but that's the cornerstone of a free society and it's very important to assert that right.

I think you might be surprised at some of the harridan harpies and knuckle-dragging halfwits that people local government. Voting for someone on the strength of their party affiliation alone does not create good local government and exposing the arrogance, vanity, self-serving, and good old-fashioned ignorance, fear and prejudice that exists in local councils should do wonders for accountability.

[Strafin]

To be fair though, if womeone turned up at your work and wanted to film everything in case you screwed up you wouldn't like it either. I know it's not "work" exactly but that's the closest thing I could relate too.

[Biker1]

To be fair though, if womeone turned up at your work and wanted to film everything in case you screwed up you wouldn't like it either.

It's happened where I work!!

[Exhausted]

It's happened where I work!!

There is quite a difference between filming at work and filming a public meeting.
The former is usually about filming repetitive tasks as few companies would want to lose their competitive edge by filming board or management meetings. That said, there are dozens of cases where programmes on TV do just that. Clearly though and I am struggling to understand why, the Parkway people don't allow it although the emergency services seem to revel in it 'Cops on Camera' or whatever they call it...
As far as filming a council meeting, they are our elected servants and there should be no reason why the proceedings shouldn't be captured 'on film' so to speak. I agree that filming members of the public at those meetings should be avoided however. The concern that councils may have are that the recording could be doctored for youtube. Not that the pompous lady in the test film could come across any less 'spitting image'.

Are the council offices private property. If yes, they have a right, presumably in the way that the Parkway has, to prevent the use of a camera.

[MontyPython]

As far as filming a council meeting, they are our elected servants and there should be no reason why the proceedings shouldn't be captured 'on film' so to speak. I agree that filming members of the public at those meetings should be avoided however.

Yes there should be a ban where either the public are speaking or their objections to a planning application are being revealed - unless the member of public specifically waives this right to privacy.

The concern that councils may have are that the recording could be doctored for youtube. Not that the pompous lady in the test film could come across any less 'spitting image'.

What like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heR8c_7Venk

[Simon Kirby]

Yes there should be a ban where either the public are speaking or their objections to a planning application are being revealed - unless the member of public specifically waives this right to privacy.
R8c_7Venk[/url]

You have no general right to privacy. The meeting is open to the public, for good reason, and so anyone can step in off the street and see you there, and can read in the minutes what you said, so I can't see what the objection can be to being caught on film.