Is this true?

The Criminal Justice Act1988, s139(7) (and lots of other legislation too) defines a public place as “public place includes any place to which at the material time the public have or are permitted access, whether on payment or otherwise.". A theatre, pub, club, school, swimming baths, park e.t.c. are public places. Having said that, the owners/proprietors of any any premise to which the public are admitted can set their own rules about entry and behaviour whilst on those premises. If you breach those rules then, as I said earlier, you become a trespasser and can be treated as such.

Andrew

They used to be, yes. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks are now called Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.

Andrew

You beat me to it Andrew, the CRB is now called a DBS and there are two forms, a basic disclusore (£25) that anyone can get or an enhanced version (£44) that only an employer can apply for (they send you a link).

Once you have an enhanced disclosure you can then pay to have it on whats called an update service which is £15 a year so it never goes out of date and is transferable.

The CRB is only worth the paper it's written on at the time of the check being carried out, once the check comes back clear and you start work somewhere, if you were then arrested for something afterwards then the employer may never know as some employers only update CRB checks every so many years ..... if that

Going back to the original question. What codswallop! If you are in a public place then you can photograph children although it's very much a grey area as people all assume that a man holding a camera at a child is instantly a pedo.

My friend who is a lady photographs kids in public all the time, being a lady somehow makes it more acceptable than a man doing it.

I work in a school and our policy here is we try to get as many parents as possible to sign a consent form for images to be taken of them as we have social media accounts where we celebrate the childrens work as well as after school clubs etc. Some children cannot be photographed as they are LAC children or thier parents catagorically say no photos. When it comes to concerts, plays and assemblies we have a no flash policy but everyone is allowed to take images on phones, cameras, camcorders etc, in fact we even video all the above and sell them to parents.

I think the person you spoke too was either misinformed or just a plain jobsworth with power gone to their head. They may have a no photography rule there and it's their venue so their rules but it is certainly not illegal!!

Was there an offical photographer there ???

Trespassing is not illegal, which is why you cannot be arrested by the police for it. It is a matter for civil law, not criminal law.

'unlawful' then

Does anyone know where this business of believing that rights exist to do things in public places came from? I know of no law that gives the public a right to photograph anything in any place, whether public or not. If anyone does know of such a law - can you please point me towards it?

Isn't photography just one of those things that folks might do - such as breathing, sneezing, talking or peering into shop windows? There is no law against it nor any right to do it.

I suspect that the belief that being in a public place confers rights is yet another urban myth.

Andrew

Nope. Technically, trespass is a tort - i.e. a civil wrong.

Andrew

I think it's all a load of coda wallop where every one is scared to say any thing in case the get sued for somethings so they are just covering there backs nobody as the balls to stand up and say in a polte way sod offi could put it stronger

The problem is that a stressful, argumentative environment is not really good for your photography, so unless you're a photojournalist on an essential assignment then its rarely worth it for an amateur to persevere.

In the case of an event then any debate should ideally be carried out in advance with the organisers.

Yeah I tend to do this now after being burned at a concert. I went to a concert of a well known band as a guest of theirs (family friend) at a big UK concert venue, was set in the front row next to the bands family and took out my DSLR and started shooting, 5 minutes later a security guard came over and and informed me that I'd have to put it away or leave.

I tried to explain that I was not a professional and I'm sat with the bands family but they refused to let me use me.

Since then I always email or phone and check if DSLR's are allowed.

Generally if there isn't a law against doing something you can do it.

I'm sure this is covered anyway by allowing photography of private property from the public highway/footpaths etc. That's why the press buy so many super telephoto's

Trespass is no longer an offence. All they can do is ask you to leave.

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So what's the deal with news channels blurring faces from video in public faces? Just BBC and the like covering themselves?

It always makes me laugh when a news story is on about a school or something and all we see are children's feet running around a playground, makes me think the camera has been dropped.

Video might well be different.

The face blurring started in the US on candid camera type shows. Possibly the blurred face people objected to being shown or they just did it because they hadn't signed a release.

Some States actually don't allow video recording because they have a law prohibiting sound recording in public places

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Indeed yes, but "rights" such as the right to walk along a public footpath are often enshrined in legislation.

The point I intended to make is that many folks talk as though there is some right in law to take photographs in a public place. So far as I know, there is not.

Andrew