Charity investigates rights to film in capital
WORLDwrite attempts to raise awareness about the potential difficulties of filming in London
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By Matt Halam. |  |
Sunday, 18, Oct 2009 05:49
By inthenews.co.uk staff
An educational charity has attempted to raise awareness about the potential difficulties of filming in London at an event in the east of the city today.
In the past year, volunteers and staff from the youth group WORLDwrite claim to have been stopped over 50 times by the authorities for filming in public places.
On Sunday they hosted a series of events aimed at highlighting the state of public filming in the capital.
Commenting on the campaign, the charity's co-director Ceri Dingle said: "CCTV films Londoners over 300 times a day, so why can't Londoners film each other?"
Members of WORLDwrite notified the police and Hackney council's film unit prior to the event describing how they would be filming in three different public locations across the day - Mandeville Square, Clapton; Ridley Road Market, Darlston and Hackney town hall.
At Ridley Road Market, on the day, police officers circuited the market area, but did not stop to investigate the camera teams.
In speaking with a member of the Darlston police force it was explained that, as filming was occurring on a Sunday, the space was public and the charity had the right to film: "If it was Monday to Saturday, they wouldn't be [able to film], but as it is, they are."
However, members of the charity alleged that in the past they had been stopped for filming at the market on Sundays.
At Hackney town hall the charity interviewed members of the public about the rights to film in public places. No official stopped them from filming.
One interviewee alleged the council had behaved "hypocritically" by not stopping the charity during the course of the day.
They hazarded that "because they [WORLDwrite] didn't have any trouble today, maybe it's difficult [for them] to say "we had some trouble in the past" because today everything was alright."
At the end of the event, Ms Dingle said: "I think we've had a one day victory", and believed no one had been stopped "because we let absolutely everybody know we were doing this."
Hackney council were unavailable for comment.