Threatened today by ET3 camerman for taking pictures at demo

I'm not sure if I have a nose for trouble or it has a nose for me. Less than 24 hours after I bought a replacement for my stolen video camera I managed to get hassled for taking pictures. This is a personal best as far as new equipment is concerned as usually, it takes weeks before that happens.

On the way to work today I happened to come across a protest by ambulance crews and fire fighters outside the ex-ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. Not wishing to miss an opportunity to cover a story I parked up and decided to video what was happening and talk to those taking part to find out their demands.

Just minutes after I raised my video camera an aggressive cameraman from the local ET3 (ΕΤ3) TV station came up demanding to know what I was doing there and asking f I was a journalist. Not wishing to discuss the finer points of citizen journalism versus mainstream journalism I just answered yes. At this point he started to get very angry and demanded that I showed him my "professional licence". To which I replied that he could go to hell and that I was not going to show him anything. The next thing I know he and soundman are screaming that they are going to call the cops, which they promptly did.

However, it looked like the police didn't want to get involved and so I took the opportunity to duck out as the last thing I needed was to spend hours answering questions in a police station when I had to be at work.

I've been repeatedly threatened by the police and often by protesters on demos but never by the media. A first time for everything.

Round up the usual suspects

I'm starting to sound a little like Forrest Gump. You know the scene when he's on the bench waiting for the bus, chatting away;

"they invited me and the ping-pong team to visit the White House.



So I went, again.


      
And I met the President of the United States again."

"So I went to a parade and I saw the president, again.

Got threatened by the police again."

Yep. I decided that would take pictures of this years Oxi day parade so I went down to the seafront and snapped away, and managed to get pictures of the president of the Greek republic, Karolos Papoulias, the leader of the main opposition party, Giorgos Papandreou and other assorted political bigwigs.

At some point all the cameramen and photographers were shooed off to the side and I ended up amongst them. A little later I saw some guys arguing with a teenager who'd climbed up some scaffolding to get a better view. He clambered down but then jumped up onto another wall for some reason reluctant to move. Intrigued I decided to take some pictures and quickly I realised that people were hemming me in, discreetly trying to block my view of what was happening. Despite that I took a couple of shots and then returned to follow the parade.

Next thing I know two rough looking guys, wearing mirror shades start beckoning to me, telling me that I had to delete my photos. When I told them that I wasn't as I had every right to take pictures in a public place they turned nasty and said that as they were cops they could take me in for questioning and confiscate the camera.

Next they said something that scared the hell out of me. They said that they knew exactly who I was from what happened last year (see here for the full story of that little encounter) and that ,"I was known to the authorities". "You mean after I got the crap kicked out of me by the riot police?"

I don't know why but they managed to push all my buttons and bring out stubborn streak in me. So I argued that I wasn't going to do anything till I saw some ID. Eventually they showed me it and demanded again that I delete the photos, which I did. Once again they invoked this mythical law that the no one is allowed to take photographs of the police on duty. No lawyer I've talked to or media professional has ever heard of such legislation.

To tell you the truth, I only brazoned it out them as I know they'd be loathed to make a scene in such a public place. Other photographers have not been so lucky in their dealings with the police. For example leading French photographer, Olivier Jobard, who was beaten and arrested by police in Patras this year when he refused to hand over his camera (see here for the full story).

I stuck around for another hour or so and then before the parade ended ducked into the crowd and got out of there as quickly as possible. People, especially foreigners, have a strange way of becoming very clumsy in the presence of the police. They trip and land on window boxes resulting in weeks of hospitalisation, fall off balconies in cafes or find themselves dead at the bottom of river beds.As you can imagine I wasn't about to get myself involved in a delicate legal debates with these guys.