Violence from the far right against press photographers is getting worse, with the last few days in particular leaving them fearing for their safety, the journalists’ union has said.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) called for those intimidating news gatherers to be prosecuted, after a number of photographers, reporters and camera crew have been abused, attacked and had their equipment destroyed or stolen.
Bectu, the union for those who work behind the scenes in broadcasting, also backed the call, condemning “the appalling harassment and abuse” media professionals had faced in riots in the last week, as far-right violence has erupted in dozens of pockets of the UK, including Southport, Sunderland, Hull, Stoke-on-Trent and Rotherham.
This was a continuation of a trend, said Natasha Hirst, the chair of the NUJ photographers’ council and the president of the NUJ, who also works as a photographer.
Hirst said: “We’ve seen it increasingly over the last few years that anyone who is obviously a journalist, in terms of being photographer, videographer or TV crew, that they tend to get targeted, especially by far-right protesters.”
There needed to be increased public awareness about the role of journalists, she added. “Without us doing the job that we do, we do not have a functioning democracy, we don’t have accurate, reliable information that people need.”
One seasoned national news photographer had been walking down a quiet sidestreet during the riot in Middlesbrough on Sunday when a far-right mob turned a corner behind him.
The photographer said: “A guy with a balaclava said: ‘Oi camera, give it here.’ There are situations where it’s fight or flight, and neither of those were an option because there were about 150 of them in a confined area of a terraced street.”
He managed to slip through the crowd with people shouting “Get him!” and “Stop him!”
Many broadcasters pulled out of the location due to the dangers. The same day, the news photographer was forced to flee across a road as a news crew were robbed of their video camera, and later he was accosted again by a gang of young men, who managed to see he had a camera hidden underneath his jacket.
“I pushed past them, ran down the road and there was a terraced street with one door open, and I just ran straight through that doorway, straight into their living room,” said the photographer.
With not enough police to contain the situation and no counter-protesters to distract the rioters, unarmed and unprotected photographers and news crews became their target.
He added: “I take myself as a very good read of people and I have the experience to be able to judge whether I should be somewhere or and I shouldn’t be somewhere. But this was free-ranging, there were no restrictions upon the people who were causing damage, disruption and violence to people.”
The photographer, who has spent more than 30 years working in the UK and internationally, including in war zones, said it was “equally scary” as being in the thick of a militarised conflict.
“It was a situation like no other in the UK,” he said. “This was threatened violence through brute force and physical contact, which makes (the danger) personally more direct and real.”
Returning later to his car, he found it completely smashed and not able to be driven.
“It was a dark time,” he said, adding: “If you can’t see it you can’t photograph it. And there lay the inherent danger. Our job is to produce good honest and trusted visual journalism. But that does have to be balanced with our own safety in mind.”
But it is not only the far right who are targeting photographers.
An agency photographer said he was looking through the lens of his camera at a riot in Bolton on Sunday, “then all of a sudden, I feel this punch in my left arm, and then it knocks my hand to the side”.
He saw it was an Asian man in a balaclava with a group of about 10 other Asian men, part of a counter-protest against the far right.
The photographer said: “Quickly, it looks [as if] he goes for another punch, but misses and says: ‘Stop taking fucking photos. We don’t need any photos, get the fuck away.’”
Shortly after, part of a brick was thrown at him – and missed.
He said he was going to skip the next riot out of fear he would be recognised but would need to be back out in the field soon. “That’s sort of the livelihood I’ve got. I have to go out to pay the bills,” he said.
