There’s an important struggle under way at the moment to assert the right of journalists (non-accredited or professional) to record in public places. This right is being challenged by law enforcement, often in the absence of any specific laws that actually prohibit this activity.

The video below has a good summation of recent developments on this front:

I’d be very interested to hear about any experiences on this subject, from any journalists, photographers or camerapeople reading this site. I’ll share two of my own.

The first occurred in 2009, when attempting to film an interview with famous economist Nouriel Roubini for the German TV series Mal Zwischendurch (”In Between”). We were setting up in an outdoor cafe area by the waterfront of Battery Park City in Manhattan when we were approached by a private security guard who informed us we were filming private property which was prohibited. I explained that we had the blessing of the cafe. The guard stood firm.

“May I ask why this is not allowed?”

“You’re not allowed to film any of the buildings.”

“Actually,” I explained, “We’re filming an interview, the building just happens to be in the background.”

Predictably, this got me nowhere. So I moved to what seemed to be a public park in front of the marina, shooting a different angle. I set up my tripod, reflector and had a very nice shot ready to go when the guard reappeared.

“What’s wrong now?”

“You’re not allowed to film here.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a private park.”

I looked around. People were freely walking in and out of the area with strollers, children, pets. The square, overlooking the Hudson River, certainly didn’t seem very private. Certainly there were no gates, fences or other markers of any kind. I motioned at the promenade along the waterfront. “What about over there?”

“That’s Parks Dept. If you don’t have a Parks permit they’ll stop you.”

I’ve dealt with Parks before, that didn’t come as a complete surprise. But the whole scene was beginning to take on an air of absurdity.

“Well, tell me then, where CAN I film?” His answer was memorable.

“See that security camera there?” He pointed to an elevated camera on the wall of his building. “If that camera can see you, you’re not allowed to film.”

Aha! Now things were getting interesting. Were we in a story about a security drone covering his own behind, or a direct struggle between free speech (aka journalism) and surveillance? One thing seemed clear: there was a war underway between different cameras and different agendas.

Ultimately, we managed to get our story by shooting on Parks property and being lucky or quick enough not to get caught, against a backdrop of lurching gunboats roaring menacingly up and down the river.

Two years later, I was filming in the financial district, before the Occupy Wall Street protests. I was gathering some general street scenes when I heard a voice behind me, “You know you’re not allowed to do that.”

Bracing myself for yet another illogical run in with some form of security or law enforcement, I slowly and deliberately turned around to see…a rather short woman NOT wearing a police uniform but a bright yellow vest. A civilian working the street, handing out free newspapers like AMny or Metro, and staring triumphantly as if she had caught me shoplifting. I grinned and dismissed her, but a question remained unasked. Had it occurred to her that the same photographs in the newspapers she was selling were acquired by an actual human photographer working the same streets as I?

And I was left to wonder: has journalism itself become so suspect in the public mind that this woman preferred the ubiquitous surveillance cameras blanketing our city streets, viewed by hidden entities behind locked doors, to a cameraman recording life on the streets and sharing it with the public? Or worse - that doing so had the air of criminality, and should be punished even in the absence of laws prohibiting it and a constitution that guarantees it?

Got a feeling this issue is going to heat up even more moving forward.