on youtube I watched a British reality show about airports and (mostly foreign) passengers being searched for anything illegal.
What I find troubling is that many of these passengers speak very little English and find it difficult to articulate an answer to what officers ask in English. I remember an Indian national who didn’t speak any English that though he had the right visa to work in the UK, only to find he had been duped by an Indian scammer and was refused entry. He started crying and the crew filmed the whole scene.
This is humiliating to say the least and I wouldn’t want this to happen to me if I visit the UK. My questions:
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Should a reality crew start recording me, do I have a right to my image and can I tell them to stop recording me? Do tv crews respect that?
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What about the police? Can they record my face, even if I don’t consent?
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I also have a cultural question: If an officer at a British airport asks you if he can search your luggage and you say no and you ask him if you are under arrest, what happens then?
Legally, the default is that you need to ask permission of all subjects to shoot the photo. And again for each publication of that image.
In practice this is relaxed for public shots and street photography where the intent is not to make someone the subject of the photograph (people walking by in the background of a shot) or when “treating people with respect” (so yeah, no predatory homeless shots, or getting up in people’s faces). That said, this is for personal use and publishing them means you still might need to seek permission or risk being prosecuted later.
Finally there is a caveat that is “the right for information” which is how the paparazzi are able to photograph celebrities and the like. Under the heading of journalism.
Even so, you can only use those photographs in context. So, say you catch a shot Madonna flouting the law, you can’t later use that same photograph to illustrate an article of her being nice to cats. Furthermore they can also claim you are intruding on their private life. Which might still get you into trouble.
That’s really clear. I appreciate you taking the time to fill me in so thank you!
You’re more than welcome. It’s a fascinating subject area. Especially given the history of street photography and its roots in France.
It surely is fascinating. I like the nuance tbh, especially the subject owning copyright part.