Photography and videotaping

A photojournalist advocacy group wants a New Jersey-based transit system to reconsider its policy asking riders to report any photography involving trains or stations to authorities as "suspicious activity."

The Chicago Police Department is investigating a Loyola University journalism professor's complaint that police detained him and deleted footage of an arrest he was filming.

Ralph Braseth, who said he is a credentialed journalist, was arrested on Nov. 12 while he himself was filming the arrest of a young black man who had jumped a turnstile at a subway station. Police spotted Braseth, who was about 40 feet away recording the incident for a documentary on urban black teens, and promptly arrested him for "obstructing an investigation," the journalism professor said.

A warning to the Washington, D.C., photographer: don’t dawdle. If you linger for more than five minutes to take a photograph in a public place, you could be arrested under an obscure D.C. regulation.

In an attempt to avoid going to trial over the release of Osama bin Laden's death photos and videos, the Department of Justice filed court documents this week arguing that the materials fit under exemptions listed in the Freedom of Information Act and that they should not be made public.

Among other things, the Department of Justice, on behalf of the CIA and the Department of Defense, believe the materials present a risk to national security.

Just weeks after the arrest of a freelance videographer by a Suffolk County police officer was recorded and posted on YouTube, yet another cameraman’s confrontation with authorities over filming in a public place was caught on video in the same Long Island town.

The right to film police in the performance of their public duties in a public space is a “basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment,” a federal appellate court held last week, marking a major victory in a time when arrests for such activities have been on the rise.

The Miami Beach Police Department issued new guidelines earlier this month prohibiting officers from searching or seizing video footage or pictures taken by the general public or members of the media who capture images of police officers doing their job in areas open to the general public, except under special circumstances.

A New York police officer arrested a freelance photojournalist Friday after he attempted to film a police scene on a public street, outraging First Amendment and civil liberties advocates. The department has since said it plans to drop the charge.