A Statement from The BPPA on the role of press photographers during crisis.

During any crisis, up to date trustworthy and impartial news is vital to all governments and authorities worldwide in communicating important advice and information to their populations.

The role of newsgathering falls upon the respective countries’ local, regional, national and the international media. Made up of photographers, reporters, broadcast reporters, camera operators and news crews working tirelessly out in the field supported by a plethora of editors, researchers and production staff covering the events and breaking news on a 24/7 basis.

Without these accredited mainstream media organisations operating, providing the public with vital and timely information in such crises, gossip and misinformation spread quickly, causing panic and potentially life-threatening situations with an added burden on the country’s already struggling authorities.

The UK government recognise the vital role that the press play in their battle against the Coronavirus pandemic and as such, awarded them the status of keyworker, along with other essential services seen to be imperative in the fight. Be it transport, utility, education, healthcare, local/national government and public services -the media, they each have their unique role to play.

Research conducted by The BPPA on interactions between bona fide press photographers and the general public during their coverage of the COVID-19 crisis revealed some very disturbing results in a number of regions across the UK, where photographers reported being threatened with violence, physically assaulted, trolled on social media, death threats, incitement to attack, even being spat at by members of the public whilst working on Coronavirus-related assignments.

This is absolutely despicable behaviour. It is completely unacceptable by any means and at any time and should not be tolerated by any member of the press. These are criminal offences and The BPPA strongly advise any of our members or any non-member to report such incidents to the authorities immediately.

No person, keyworker or other, should go to work with the fear of physical attack or abuse. Press photographers do not have the luxury of reporting from home, they have to be out in the field seeing and communicating what is in front of them and do this with a variety of camera equipment, be that with wide angle, standard or telephoto lenses. The misconception that telephoto lenses in some way give a distorted and more crowded view of a scene is as bizarre as it is ill-informed.

If you should happen to see a press photographer out on assignment during the current crisis and you are curious, please do not be afraid to ask for their credentials and have a chat (while observing social distancing advice please), we’re human like everyone else, with families and loved ones who are just as eager for life to return to normal as you.

Downing Street and the curtailment of press freedom

Photo: © Lindsey Parnaby


The British Press Photographers’ Association objects to any and all attempts by Government to exclude photographers, reporters and television from events where there is a reasonable expectation from the public that those events would be covered by independent witnesses on their behalf. 

Restricting access and replacing independent coverage with free images, copy and footage from special advisers, Government employees and heavily vetted individuals is wrong and represents a serious assault on our free media. Once any organisation and especially the Government has full control of the news and how it is reported then the perception of accuracy, trust and accountability will all suffer and democracy will be the ultimate casualty.

We ask that any and all plans to limit and eliminate the access of the news media to Government events be scrapped and that the system that guarantees the access of journalists becomes a bedrock of the relationship between the Government and the people of this country.

(Photo ©Lindsey Parnaby)

Quis custodiet IPSOs custodes?

That’s the Mail Online brush-off, saying after publishing Rebecca Reid’s profile picture without either permission or payment, that by making her picture ‘public and discoverable’ she has posted it ‘into the public domain’. This is arrant nonsense. The public domain has a very specific meaning in copyright law, indicating that copyright has either been forfeited or expired, and in UK law it does not expire until seventy years after the creator’s death. Until then publication requires permission and payment. As any editor knows. Including the character who ran an ( erroneous, © Twitter ) copyright notice under the published picture! Which, incidentally, has now been taken down ( we have the screengrab ), replaced with a grab of her twitter feed.

The charitable explanation for this misleading and misinformed policy painting an inaccurate picture of the law is that the writer genuinely believes it, in which case she really should not be holding any senior editorial position on a national newspaper, let alone responsibility for ‘compliance’. And she also seems unaware of the Mail Online’s own House Rules for comments

“You must not insert links to websites (URLs) or submit content which would be an infringement of copyright” (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/article-1388145/House-Rules.html )

The alternative is that the Mail Online, guilty of copyright infringement ( yet again ), instead of owning up and paying up is trying to avoid the consequences with pseudo legal twaddle. If so not a bright idea to try that on with the Digital Editor of Grazia.

But there’s more. It get’s worse. This is what the  Independent Press Standards Organisation, IPSO, which regulates most nationals including the Daily  Mail ( though not the Mail Online ) tells the public, most of whom will not be as clued up as Rebecca Reid:

“Journalists are normally allowed to publish photos, comments and information from social media profiles, forums or blogs if there are no privacy settings protecting them and they do not show anything private” (https://www.ipso.co.uk/media/1510/social-media-public.pdf ).

This is quite simply not true. Publishing without permission photos “from social media profiles, forums or blogs if there are no privacy settings”   is in flagrant breach of the law. The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. And also in defiance of their very own Editors’ Code,  Point 1, Accuracy: “ The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information….”

Piracy with the blessing of IPSO!  Quis custodiet IPSOs custodes?
The answer to which is the law of the land. Which is also the last resort of creators. Photographers can and do extract payment for copyright infringement from the Mail Online. But, why, why, why do we have to deal with the lawlessness of national papers, and IPSO advice as baseless as that Mail Online reply to Rebecca Reid?

IPTC Metadata Conference

Last month Andrew Wiard attended the annual IPTC Metadata Conference in Paris on behalf of the BPPA ( IPTC – International Press and Telecommunications Council ). There he proposed drafting ‘quick guides’ to get the IPTC basic essentials across to as many photographers as possible. Starting with the Four Cs, the four IPTC metadata categories that every photographer should complete in every picture – Creator, Caption, Copyright Notice and Contact details.

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BPPA Response to Pride in London

This year, Press Photographers that applied for accreditation to photograph the Pride In London parade and celebrations received the following email:

Changes to accreditation in 2019:

Pride in London have been working with our agency partners to review the security arrangements for Pride in London 2019. We’ve made a number of changes to the parade route which will enable us to make the parade more secure. This includes significantly reducing the numbers of people with access to the route itself.

Your media wristband gives you priority fast track access to the public areas at the stages. It does not give backstage access
There is no access inside the parade barriers along the parade route or to the form up area.”

This is a change over previous years. We have sent the following letter in response:

‘Dear Pride London,

The BPPA would like to raise our grave concerns regarding Pride London’s proposed plans to severely impede media access to this year’s parade.

Photographers are accredited to the parade but not allowed to photograph the parade itself from start to finish.

We cannot see the sense in this. With an estimated one million attendees, this would be considered a major news event and very worthy of extensive coverage by all national and international media organisations and barring access will inhibit global coverage and ultimately, interest in the annual Pride event.

Moreover a parade which promotes freedom of the individual and freedom of expression should not be restricting the freedom of the press.

Finally we cannot see there is any necessity to alter previous year’s arrangements in this way.

We, The BPPA therefore urge you to reconsider before the event and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Thank you.’

​UPDATE FROM PRIDE LONDON
​Press that have requested accreditation should have recived an updated email that includes the following information:

Following a letter from the BPPA and listening to the concerns we have reviewed our decisions and have confirmed an approach that ensures Pride is open for all, while ensuring the event stays safe and secure.

As such, we are pleased to confirm that you have been approved for:

1 pass(es)

This wristband gives you access to parade form up and along the parade route if you are carrying a professional camera.

As you may have noted in the media pack, there is no front of parade photocall this year. We will also have an area for photos near Piccadilly Circus and our team can advise on its location tomorrow should you want a fixed spot to photograph from.

We followed this up, writing to Pride London to confirm the position and received the following:

“Dear BPPA,

Thank you for your e-mail. I can confirm this is correct.

This year we revised our media accreditation process because of its impact on the speed and security of the parade. Not an easy decision but it is an operational choice based on ensuring 30,000 people can pass through London safely and securely.

Following your letter we urgently reviewed our decision with our production partner to see what possibilities there are. We have been contacting people directly who are impacted.

As the third largest event in London we try our best to accommodate the complexities of organising 30,000 people through the streets and it was never our intention to inhibit coverage and deny freedom of expression. I wanted to thank you and the BPPA for bringing this to our attention, and I hope this resolves the matter.

Pride in London

We would like to thank Pride in London for listening to all the organisations that voiced concerns and for changing your policy.

We wish everyone a Happy Pride 🌈

An open response to a recent social media post about gender in press photography

The BPPA has come in for some criticism from a group called Women Photographers of the UK about what they refer to as the uneven representation of women in the current Assignments 2019 exhibition. You can read their open letter here on Medium. This is a response from Lynne Cameron, Vice Chair of The BPPA.
 
Dear Suzanne, Anna and Susannah
 
We would like to reassure those expressing concerns about the representation of women in our industry that we are very aware of the issues and are currently working on projects to support and help current and future female members of the organisation. We were disappointed that these concerns were not directed to The BPPA in the first instance as we welcome all constructive criticism. It is one of our core values to work transparently with all parties in any matter related to photography.
 
The issue of gender imbalance is a complex one, not just related to photography but to wider society.
 
The association is proactively working to improve such imbalances. As an example The BPPA elected me as Vice Chair and Julie Edwards as our Social Media and Website Editor at last year’s AGM. We are both long-standing professional photographers who have first hand experience of gender related issues within our industry. Julie and I are bringing our experiences, energy and ideas to The Board and welcome further positive constructive comments which could help address this wider topic.
 
In relation to the exhibition (it is not a competition) we would like to reassure those concerned that images were curated by highly regarded members of the profession who were deliberately not given any information about the name or gender of the photographers in order to make the selection process ‘about the images’ as far as is humanly possible.
 
We are extremely proud of Assignments – an exhibition designed to promote and highlight the amazing work that is being produced by our members.
 
The Board of The BPPA welcomes constructive input from anyone who wants to help to promote and inspire great photography. If you have ideas on what more can be done on the issues raised then please get in contact with me or any of the other members of our Board.
 
Lynne Cameron
 
Vice Chair, The BPPA
 
 
 
Statistics:
 
1. The BPPA has 321 paid-up members of whom 40 are women – which is approximately 12.46%.
2. 16 photographers joined or rejoined in order to take part in Assignments 2019 of whom 25% were women.
3. 161 photographers entered photographs for Assignments 2019 of whom 18 were women – 11.2%
4. 1,351 photographs were entered of which 148 were entered by women – 10.95%
5. 110 photographs were selected for exhibition of which 10 were by women – 9.3%

We are pleased to announce the first of the Curators for Assignments

Photo by : Brian Harris
Photo by : Brian Harris

We are pleased to announce the first of the Curators for Assignments – Tom Stoddart!
Now established as one of the worlds most respected photojournalists Tom Stoddart began his photographic career on a local newspaper in his native North-East of England, before moving to London to work for a variety of papers on Fleet Street.
During a long and varied career he has witnessed such international events as the war in Lebanon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the election of President Nelson Mandela, the bloody siege of Sarajevo and the wars against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
We are thrilled that Tom has agreed to join our panel of curators this year.
If you want to take part you had better hurry – you only have until friday to submit your entry.. Visit the assignments website for details.

One for the diary: Wex Inspired: Legacy of War with Giles Duley

We were passed details of this free event which our members might find interesting:
Wex Inspired: Legacy of War with Giles Duley
Monday 11th February, 5pm – 7pm
FREE
Giles will be discussing his career to date and the stories he has told, using his photography.
What happens to countries and their people once a war is over? It’s a question that has been on Giles Duley’s mind since he started photographing humanitarian and conflict issues more than a decade ago.
Legacy of War is a photographic project created by Giles, exploring the long-term effects of conflict globally. More specifically, Legacy of War documents the lasting impact of war on individuals and communities told through the stories of those living in its aftermath.
More information here….

Alamy – a follow-up

The UK Press Gazette quoted The BPPA’s open letter to Alamy’s CEO in their piece about his video signalling his intention to reduce the photographers percentage of royalties to 40%. This morning the UKPG asked us to provide a response to James West’s latest video where he offers to keep the 50% split for exclusive content. We provided the following text:
 
“Alamy’s move to alter their commission structure has brought a large number of other issues to the surface such as the low prices they sell pictures for, their broken promise that when they reduced the photographers cut to 50% they wouldn’t go further and their somewhat grudging acceptance that it is the commitment and buy-in from thousands of photographers that has got them to the positive position in which they now find themselves.
 
The BPPA welcomes Alamy’s decision to reconsider their reduction in the percentage paid to photographers but in making this only for exclusive content they are still going to anger many of our members. One of them has said “exclusivity is appropriate to a delicatessen, not a Walmart” and this sums up how most feel.
 
Should they push ahead with this plan the details of how they manage this will be complex. Will photographers have to make some sort of declaration for every single picture retrospectively? Will the burden for proving exclusivity rest with the photographers? Our opinion is that Alamy are still not listening and are still cutting the income of all those photographers who for very good reasons do not wish to, or cannot, surrender exclusivity.”