[Imc-g8-2005] scottish legal guide for journos

[yossarian]

mini mouse wrote:

> At 11:23 pm +0100 1/4/05, mini mouse wrote:
>
>> Finally I wrote to the G8 legal support people (who wrote the Dissent 
>> Guide to Scottish Law for activists) to ask if they'd answer specific 
>> questions relating to newsgatherers. No reply yet but I'll update 
>> everyone if it goes ahead.
>
>
> Hi
>
> I got a reply today as follows:
>
> "I posted it to our list for consideration and will reply soon.
> Tony"
>
> If they'll help us out we'd probably need to come up with some 
> specifics, otherwise why not use their general guide. Can we come up 
> with a list, such as
>
> What are your rights to document stuff security don't want you to see?
> Do they have the right to seize equipment and media, under any 
> circumstances?
> What are your rights if they do?
> Under what circumstances can they enter a media centre without being 
> invited in?
> Where does Scottish law stand (including under Terrorism Act) for 
> entering premises without a warrant?
>
> and so on.
>
> Any thoughts?

Thanks very much for looking into this, mini mouse.  Your list looks 
good to me, the only other suggestions I can think of are:

a) finding out whether there are any specifically media-focused legal 
efforts that we can tap into?
b) regardless of the law, what are the police likely to actually *try* 
to get away with?  For example, the government has said ad infinitum 
that the Terrorism Act would only be used against "terrorists", but as 
we have seen the police now use it routinely to stop, like, the Samba 
Band. What sorts of lies will they try to tell us on the street?  
Information of this sort can be used by media activists to say "no, we 
know the law, you are not correct", and sometimes this will make them 
back down, keep our tapes, not give them our names, keep our freedom of 
movement, etc.

Glad to see you getting into things,

Y