Post by WaTcHeR on Jan 18, 2007 13:59:29 GMT -5
01.18.2007 - An incident involving a Leon County Sheriff's deputy is under investigation after a Tallahassee Democrat photographer said a deputy demanded to see photos he took Friday at a high-school basketball game.
Staff photographer Phil Sears said the deputy demanded to see the photos stored in his digital camera and then told the photographer he didn't want to see pictures of himself holding a Taser in the newspaper.
"We have no authority whatsoever to ask a photographer to show us his film," Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell said Monday after reading about the incident in an e-mail from Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi.
Campbell ordered an internal investigation. Gabordi said he was confident the Sheriff's Office would handle the situation properly.
"It's clearly an infringement on our rights as journalists and as citizens," Gabordi said. "Legal authorities have no right to either review our journalistic work or to tell us what we can or cannot publish."
Sears was taking photos at the Rickards-East Gadsden game when law-enforcement officers restrained a fan for going onto the court to retrieve a piece of jewelry. The man later was released and allowed to stay at the game.
The deputy approached Sears after the incident.
"He didn't seem angry," Sears said. "He just made a demand. He didn't say, 'May I see them?' ”
Sears, a 22-year veteran at the newspaper, showed the deputy three photographs. Sears said he complied because he was under deadline pressure and didn't want to be detained.
"There certainly isn't anything wrong with the police deputy asking to see the photographs, but you're not legally required to show them to the deputy without a subpoena," said Deanna Shullman, media attorney with the Tampa-based law firm, Thomas & LoCicero. "When you're in the area of raw materials such as this photographer, you are protected in Florida by the reporters' shield law."
"Nobody was hurt. It wasn't police brutality, but each time it happens, it's stepping on the Bill of Rights," Gabordi said. "It could be anyone taking those pictures."
In an unrelated incident noted in Gabordi's online blog, a Tallahassee police officer last week asked staff photographer Mark Wallheiser for personal information such as his name and birth date after he took photos of bicycle signs painted on Call Street. The federal courthouse was in the background.
The officer said it is city policy to collect personal information when someone photographs a public building.
"My concern, and my only concern, is the erosion of civil liberties," said Wallheiser, who complied with the officer's request.
Gabordi told newspaper staffers in an e-mail Monday to refuse to surrender their work without a court order.
"Understand there are no minor incidents when a law enforcement officer attempts to view your work prior to publication," he wrote. "There may be some very rare instances involving threats to national security where this might be allowable, but even then, I want to be involved and rarely will we give in, if ever. "
www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/NEWS01/701160319/1010/NEWS01
Staff photographer Phil Sears said the deputy demanded to see the photos stored in his digital camera and then told the photographer he didn't want to see pictures of himself holding a Taser in the newspaper.
"We have no authority whatsoever to ask a photographer to show us his film," Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell said Monday after reading about the incident in an e-mail from Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi.
Campbell ordered an internal investigation. Gabordi said he was confident the Sheriff's Office would handle the situation properly.
"It's clearly an infringement on our rights as journalists and as citizens," Gabordi said. "Legal authorities have no right to either review our journalistic work or to tell us what we can or cannot publish."
Sears was taking photos at the Rickards-East Gadsden game when law-enforcement officers restrained a fan for going onto the court to retrieve a piece of jewelry. The man later was released and allowed to stay at the game.
The deputy approached Sears after the incident.
"He didn't seem angry," Sears said. "He just made a demand. He didn't say, 'May I see them?' ”
Sears, a 22-year veteran at the newspaper, showed the deputy three photographs. Sears said he complied because he was under deadline pressure and didn't want to be detained.
"There certainly isn't anything wrong with the police deputy asking to see the photographs, but you're not legally required to show them to the deputy without a subpoena," said Deanna Shullman, media attorney with the Tampa-based law firm, Thomas & LoCicero. "When you're in the area of raw materials such as this photographer, you are protected in Florida by the reporters' shield law."
"Nobody was hurt. It wasn't police brutality, but each time it happens, it's stepping on the Bill of Rights," Gabordi said. "It could be anyone taking those pictures."
In an unrelated incident noted in Gabordi's online blog, a Tallahassee police officer last week asked staff photographer Mark Wallheiser for personal information such as his name and birth date after he took photos of bicycle signs painted on Call Street. The federal courthouse was in the background.
The officer said it is city policy to collect personal information when someone photographs a public building.
"My concern, and my only concern, is the erosion of civil liberties," said Wallheiser, who complied with the officer's request.
Gabordi told newspaper staffers in an e-mail Monday to refuse to surrender their work without a court order.
"Understand there are no minor incidents when a law enforcement officer attempts to view your work prior to publication," he wrote. "There may be some very rare instances involving threats to national security where this might be allowable, but even then, I want to be involved and rarely will we give in, if ever. "
www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070116/NEWS01/701160319/1010/NEWS01