Thursday 4 November 2010

NUJ apologises to activist over 'terrorist' error


The NUJ has apologised to photojournalist Marc Vallée, a well known activist within the union and a founder of the "I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist" campaign, for wrongly stating he was stopped from covering a demo "for reasons of terrorist activity".

The apology on the NUJ website reads: "We recently submitted our contribution to the government's Rapid Review of Counter Terrorism Powers. In providing a number of pieces of anecdotal examples of the ways in which the Terrorism Act 2000 has been misused, we erroneously stated - both in the submission to the Home Office and on our website, that photojournalist and investigative reporter Marc Vallée, a well-respected and active member of the NUJ, was prohibited from covering a demonstration outside the Greek Embassy in 2008 for reasons of terrorist activity. This was not the case.

"Metropolitan Police officers unlawfully prevented Marc from reporting on the demonstration, a breach of his human rights. The Met subsequently accepted liability for this breach of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, apologised and paid compensation. Both our submission to the consultation and the entry on our website were corrected. We apologise unreservedly to Marc for our error."

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