Fun on the Tube
Today me and 2 of my housemates narrowly escaped arrest by the Transport Police in London. "gazelle", "funky bunny" and I had an actual purpose in taking the tube to the mall - I needed to shoot some b-roll (video footage) for a random story for my TV news class and to return some overpriced pillowcases to Fenwicks. Funky bunny, who is studying fashion merchandising, needed to follow up on the sale and marketing of certain products at H&M and gazelle came along for the ride. We were side-tracked by shoes, MAC makeup and krispy kremes in the middle of fenwicks and by the time we made it to customer service, they were closed.
Since the mall closed I decided to change my story topic to the fact that london transport has announced plans to increase fares once again. Naturally, I needed b-roll of tube stations. We were doing vox pops (interviewing random ppl) at the wembley park station when a tranport official came and quite curtly told us we needed to leave and were not authorised to shoot. I asked how to get authorisation and he said to contact the marketing office. I told him I was a student and showed my student ID. He said we needed to leave. So we swiped into the tube and there were about 4 other transport officials there. Gazelle was very annoyed that we were being censored and wanted to ask one of them why. But they came up to us before we could even ask - and said we could not shoot anything and had to leave. Again I explained that this was not for air, I was a student. At this point a gentleman started walking toward us and said, holding up a walkie talkie, "I think you should know the transport police have been called and made aware of your presence. You should leave."
I was astonished that they were so threatened by a school project. So I smiled and said "may I ask you a question?" and he kindly agreed. To which I added cheekily "On camera?" And he rolled his eyes and huffed you cant shoot here! So I said thank you and left. They watched us until we got on a train.
As a journalist I am used to this response. But I am not used to not having the right to film. In America we are entitled to free speech by the Bill of Rights. In england they dont have that guaranteed right. I dont know how journalists can operate in a country where they dont have the right to report...
Since the mall closed I decided to change my story topic to the fact that london transport has announced plans to increase fares once again. Naturally, I needed b-roll of tube stations. We were doing vox pops (interviewing random ppl) at the wembley park station when a tranport official came and quite curtly told us we needed to leave and were not authorised to shoot. I asked how to get authorisation and he said to contact the marketing office. I told him I was a student and showed my student ID. He said we needed to leave. So we swiped into the tube and there were about 4 other transport officials there. Gazelle was very annoyed that we were being censored and wanted to ask one of them why. But they came up to us before we could even ask - and said we could not shoot anything and had to leave. Again I explained that this was not for air, I was a student. At this point a gentleman started walking toward us and said, holding up a walkie talkie, "I think you should know the transport police have been called and made aware of your presence. You should leave."
I was astonished that they were so threatened by a school project. So I smiled and said "may I ask you a question?" and he kindly agreed. To which I added cheekily "On camera?" And he rolled his eyes and huffed you cant shoot here! So I said thank you and left. They watched us until we got on a train.
As a journalist I am used to this response. But I am not used to not having the right to film. In America we are entitled to free speech by the Bill of Rights. In england they dont have that guaranteed right. I dont know how journalists can operate in a country where they dont have the right to report...
hilarious!!
they are very paranoid i think.
But you rock!
Posted by
Sh'shank |
12:59 AM
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