An open letter to the Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire at
mayor@southyorkshire-CA.gov.uk and oliver@olivercoppard.co.uk
7th November 2024
Dear Sir,
I am a freelance photojournalist. I need to understand your position regarding actions currently being taken by South Yorkshire Police in relation to my work.
On the 4th August, I was working in Rotherham, in your region, covering rioting by far-right aggressors outside a hotel in which asylum seekers were living. My work on this story has been published widely and my byline is clear for all to see.
I have covered the actions of those within far-right communities for fourteen years and my name and face are known to many in their number. This is important work. It shines a light on a poorly reported part of society.
Along the way I have received explicit death threats and have been assaulted, merely for doing my work. This has reached beyond my work life, with instances of some attempting to discover my home address in order to pursue me there, forcing me to take court action against those involved.
On the evening of 8th August, a Detective from SYP initiated contact with me and requested all photographs I took during that day of disorder. I declined and explained why this would expose me and my colleagues to risk.
Being seen as complicit with police will worsen that for me and my colleagues. There are guidelines set out under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act which protect journalists from police demands for this reason, and the High Court has rejected such attempts in the past (see
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/may/17/dale-farm-broadcasters-eviction-footage).
As quoted in that article, in rejecting a previous application for such an order, Justice Eady made it clear that “It is the neutrality of the press which affords them protection and augments their ability freely to obtain and disseminate visual recording of events”.
This position is also backed by the National Union of Journalists and the British Press Photographers’ Association who both issued statements after I revealed that SYP were pursuing this order:
and
https://thebppa.com/south-yorkshire-police-and-journalistic-materials/
The Detective who first approached me, rejected my concerns outright; an attitude which I find worryingly naive and dangerous.
The police force you have oversight responsibility for has already exposed me to thousands of pounds in legal fees. I am now left to face the exceptional cost of employing appropriate counsel, in order to protect my profession in Court. My solicitor has estimated that it would cost just shy of £8,000 to mount a full defence when SYP present their case in Sheffield. If they lose and decide to challenge this in the High Court, I would lose all my savings and my home. This simply to ask a Court to uphold their existing position and reject the application.
Not only will this destroy me financially, but it will cause lasting damage to all independent journalists working on hard-to-report stories, chilling our ability to report safely, whilst exposing us all to the charge of police collusion and the looming threat of crippling legal costs.
The principle is clear. Journalists need to protect and retain the trust of sources and the wider public so that people do not view us as an extension of the police, or as plain clothes evidence gatherers working on their behalf.
As the Mayor for South Yorkshire with a brief that includes the Police and Crime Commissioner’s responsibilities, I would like to ask you to state your position in this matter.
Would you acknowledge the harm that SYP’s current action would cause, or do you believe it is acceptable? Do you agree with the Prime Minister that journalists should be protected? This action appears to go against the spirit of his words:
And are you in any position to influence policy within SYP so as to prevent irrevocable harm being done to the freedom and independence of all journalists, like myself, now and in the future?
Yours Sincerely,
Joel Goodman.
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