Leveson Inquiry

Hmm, some food for serious thought there. Thanks for the link Leon :clap:
 
Interesting read.

Watched the news this morning and it was doing a summary of what's gone on so far and things seemed to have shifted from a general invasion of privacy, to questioning the ethics of photographers. Thought Hugh Grant was excellent, what i saw of him, but people like Sienna Miller banging on about taking the cameras out of their hands and you're just left with 10 blokes running after a scared woman - over-dramatisation and possibly some much wanted attention for a woman who i don't actually know what she does.
 
...but people like Sienna Miller banging on about taking the cameras out of their hands and you're just left with 10 blokes running after a scared woman - over-dramatisation and possibly some much wanted attention for a woman who i don't actually know what she does.

You don't think that being pursued by 10 men is an intimidating situation for a woman to be in? Regardless of their motive (ie. they want photos, they don't want not to rob/rape her), I can totally understand her point of view.

Hugh Grant also talked about a pap 'menacing' the grandmother of his baby by driving a car directly at her twice. JK Rowling talked about the lengths she and her husband went to to avoid being photographed, yet they still had moments where they felt their privacy was being invaded.

For what it's worth, I have read the witness statements from Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller, the Dowler family, the McCanns, JK Rowling and various others. I've also watched a lot of the videos from the inquiry and I personally felt that, especially in the videos, the line between staff photographers and paps was being noted, although the 'general public' may not pick up on that as much as I did.
 
You don't think that being pursued by 10 men is an intimidating situation for a woman to be in? Regardless of their motive (ie. they want photos, they don't want not to rob/rape her), I can totally understand her point of view.

Hugh Grant also talked about a pap 'menacing' the grandmother of his baby by driving a car directly at her twice. JK Rowling talked about the lengths she and her husband went to to avoid being photographed, yet they still had moments where they felt their privacy was being invaded.

For what it's worth, I have read the witness statements from Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller, the Dowler family, the McCanns, JK Rowling and various others. I've also watched a lot of the videos from the inquiry and I personally felt that, especially in the videos, the line between staff photographers and paps was being noted, although the 'general public' may not pick up on that as much as I did.

"the line between staff photographers and paps" well that line will be as much use as a chocoloate fireguard considering you could almost count the number of staff photographers left in the country on one hand! Where do freelancers sit in this division of good and evil?

I heard that bit from Sienna Miller too and I have to say that I did think, if you stopped running love, the photographers would stop chasing you!

As for the McCanns, I wouldn't trust anything they said as far as I could throw a 3 year old.
 
"the line between staff photographers and paps" well that line will be as much use as a chocoloate fireguard considering you could almost count the number of staff photographers left in the country on one hand! Where do freelancers sit in this division of good and evil?

I heard that bit from Sienna Miller too and I have to say that I did think, if you stopped running love, the photographers would stop chasing you!

As for the McCanns, I wouldn't trust anything they said as far as I could throw a 3 year old.

This is a joke right? You missed the smileys so I'm confused:thinking:

The McCann's being dishonest? Maybe - but would that mean that they always lie? That they'd lie under oath to an official enquiry when called as witnesses? Not to defend any wrongdoing of their own, but to speak as witnesses regarding their treatment by others?

As for Sienna Miller - stop running pet and let the large group of men just do whatever they want to you? :eek: I'd take it you have no compassion in your life, have never loved a daughter, niece or other human being. That kind of behaviour is inexcusable, and every human being on the planet knows it is.
 
I think you missed the sarcasm in my post too.

I honestly did gave that thought when I heard Sienna Millers bit. Iv never been chased my paparazzi and so I can't comment on how it actually feels but I'd be pretty certain I'd feel no physical threat from photographers. Why would one of them touch her when there's another half dozen taking potentially evidential photographs?

As for the McCanns, they seem happy enough to lie about how they disposed of their daughter do I think they'd take lying in this context in their stride.
 
If the rules are changed in the uk, would it be in place only affecting press photographers or will it knock on to street photographers/general.

Eg. Would you have to ask for permission if it wasn't going to be used in the media?

Sorry if it's a bit of a stupid question:/
 
fixedimage said:
I think you missed the sarcasm in my post too.

I honestly did gave that thought when I heard Sienna Millers bit. Iv never been chased my paparazzi and so I can't comment on how it actually feels but I'd be pretty certain I'd feel no physical threat from photographers. Why would one of them touch her when there's another half dozen taking potentially evidential photographs?

As for the McCanns, they seem happy enough to lie about how they disposed of their daughter do I think they'd take lying in this context in their stride.
I'm not sure about missing the sarcasm, your comments above seem to be fairly serious in a few ways.

Your comment on the McCanns I'll ignore

As for Sienna Miller, fear isn't a logical response, I'm fairly sure she never thought through all the various outcomes, she felt threatened and ran. You or i could have no idea how she felt, so are in no position to criticise her behaviour. IMO only a complete (words I couldn't use on a forum) would chase a frightened young girl down the street as part of a gang. As I've said, but you may have missed, I don't blame only the photographers, I could consider ethnic cleansing of the readership of certain publications.
 
Pyro said:
If the rules are changed in the uk, would it be in place only affecting press photographers or will it knock on to street photographers/general.

Eg. Would you have to ask for permission if it wasn't going to be used in the media?

Sorry if it's a bit of a stupid question:/
As we don't even know if the rules would change, let alone what they would be, it's impossible to answer that question.

But in my opinion, there'll be no new law for public photography, hopefully we'll get a new press complaints body.

For real change we need the readership of this c r a p to realise that they're part of the problem and we'll get the change that a civilised society deserves. But I can't see that happening, as responsibility isn't something people are rushing to take nowadays.
 
As an aside - welcome back Leon. Been reading your blog since earlier this year.
Nice work and thanks.
 
"Ethnic cleansing"????????????? tell me you've used the wrong phrase there.
 
TBH I've paid no attention to this inquiry at all - all we get is dribs and drabs from the media so I'll just wait for the result
 
"Ethnic cleansing"????????????? tell me you've used the wrong phrase there.

Yeah, I was listening/reading until this.:thumbsdown:

Of course I really don't condone ethnic cleansing.:shake:

However there's a large section of our population who have created this situation with their desire for titillation and 'celebrity' culture. They've created a monster and they are taking none of the responsibility, they make me angrier than the paps.:bat:

If the rumours are true about the death of Gary Speed, he will be the latest victim of this horrible industry, and still the readers of this drivel will consider all 'celeb's' to be 'asking for it' and 'just as bad as the press'.:puke:
 
TBH I've paid no attention to this inquiry at all - all we get is dribs and drabs from the media so I'll just wait for the result

If you're interested, there is a website where all the witness statements are posted so you can see all of it, not just what the media choose to show you. Just Google 'Leveson Inquiry' and you'll find it.
 
If you're interested, there is a website where all the witness statements are posted so you can see all of it, not just what the media choose to show you. Just Google 'Leveson Inquiry' and you'll find it.

honestly I'm not really interested in it :LOL: :|
 
hoolio said:
So you are posting to alert everyone of your disinterest then?

I was going to write on my blog then post in a photography forum to get my views up but then I'd have to be arsed having a blog in the first place lol
 
I was going to write on my blog then post in a photography forum to get my views up but then I'd have to be arsed having a blog in the first place lol

A little bit of a cynical view?

Personally I find the blog of a working press photographer very interesting. With under 40 posts, it's not like he's on here much promoting his site?
 
haha! I'd be struggling if the 30 or so views I've had through the forum was a highlight! :) I just figured photographers may be interested in knowing about something that has the potential to affect how they can work. Thankfully, most have been.
 
I was going to write on my blog then post in a photography forum to get my views up but then I'd have to be arsed having a blog in the first place lol

Ah so that's what it's about. I'm not a huge fan of blogs either, sometimes a little too much self promotion for me but in this case I would have thought that any photographer would and should have a vague interest in how this may impact their photography.
 
Ah so that's what it's about. I'm not a huge fan of blogs either, sometimes a little too much self promotion for me but in this case I would have thought that any photographer would and should have a vague interest in how this may impact their photography.

To be fair, there are many genres of photography which are unlikely to be affected by any likely outcome of the inquiry.
 
You don't think that being pursued by 10 men is an intimidating situation for a woman to be in? Regardless of their motive (ie. they want photos, they don't want not to rob/rape her), I can totally understand her point of view.

Hugh Grant also talked about a pap 'menacing' the grandmother of his baby by driving a car directly at her twice. JK Rowling talked about the lengths she and her husband went to to avoid being photographed, yet they still had moments where they felt their privacy was being invaded.

For what it's worth, I have read the witness statements from Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller, the Dowler family, the McCanns, JK Rowling and various others. I've also watched a lot of the videos from the inquiry and I personally felt that, especially in the videos, the line between staff photographers and paps was being noted, although the 'general public' may not pick up on that as much as I did.

I'll take your word for it about what people said about paps - I'm only going on what i saw in the extensive news coverage across several channels. I doubt I'll get to look at the actual witness statements.

I can understand where Miller is coming from about being hounded - it must be alarming at times - but let's not see her as innocent in all this. I doubt he was turning away all the attention when she was building her profile after the Jude & his nanny situation......

She is the one making the suggestion that if you took the cameras out of the paps' hands it would just be 10 blokes chasing after her. But they were paps with cameras, that's why they were following her. It's a stupid thing to say on her part.

I would be worried if packs of blokes were randomly chasing women around but they're not, well not round my neck of the woods.
 
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not going to affect a huge majority of people with cameras only the morons that pester people just to get some crapy snap shot of a celeb.

Ah so that's what it's about. I'm not a huge fan of blogs either, sometimes a little too much self promotion for me but in this case I would have thought that any photographer would and should have a vague interest in how this may impact their photography.
 
not going to affect a huge majority of people with cameras only the morons that pester people just to get some crapy snap shot of a celeb.

I guess you're unaware of the privacy laws in places such as Hungary and Paris that mean that you have to have consent from everyone that you take a picture of then? You don't have to be a pap to be affected by that kind of ruling. There's been no official mention of that kind of new law but the McCanns did call for it and many do sympahtise with them. If introduced, it would affect everyone, even Glaswegians.
 
Tabascokid said:
I guess you're unaware of the privacy laws in places such as Hungary and Paris that mean that you have to have consent from everyone that you take a picture of then? You don't have to be a pap to be affected by that kind of ruling. There's been no official mention of that kind of new law but the McCanns did call for it and many do sympahtise with them. If introduced, it would affect everyone, even Glaswegians.

well I dont care about Hungary or France.

I don't pap and I don't take random shots of people in public so can't see how if would affect me ;)
 
Well it doesn't sound like it would effect you, and if you're not bothered about the effect it has on others, why are you in this thread?

I guess some people seek attention by writing blogs to share information with like-minded people, while others just troll forums. Zzzzzz... ;)
 
I guess you're unaware of the privacy laws in places such as Hungary and Paris that mean that you have to have consent from everyone that you take a picture of then? You don't have to be a pap to be affected by that kind of ruling. There's been no official mention of that kind of new law but the McCanns did call for it and many do sympahtise with them. If introduced, it would affect everyone, even Glaswegians.

A very silly law,I dout it would even work,Trafalgar square on summer day,no photos,because everywhere you point your camera bound to be someone in it,
as for the McCann,this is a couple who left 3 children alone,I am certainly not going to take,any moral guide from them,and they should not be giving it.
 
I suspect that POAH has had his tongue firmly jammed in his cheekup to this point but tbh, though I wouldn't put any kneejerk reaction law past government I doubt we'll see anything too draconian, if at all. I think it's more about public perception of people with camera's, clearly the pap's rep could only be lower if they were actually crawling around with the worms but even in my short time on here there have been a fare few instances of people getting flak just for taking pictures. That will surely only get worse.
 
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