NUJ calls parade footage handover order 'disturbing'

The National Union of Journalists has called on broadcasters to appeal an order, which the BBC reported this week was forcing them to hand over unbroadcast footage filmed last year during an annual parade in Northern Ireland.

The BBC reported this week that a judge had ordered the broadcaster, along with ITN and UTV, to pass over all footage "relating to disturbances during the Apprentice Boys parade in Londonderry in August".

The broadcaster was asked for "all unbroadcast material recorded in the Bogside between 4pm on 13 August and 1am on 14 August".

In its report the BBC said the broadcaster's barristers "argued that granting the application could pose a real and present threat" but that the judge "was not satisfied that the handing over of unbroadcast material to the police would cause a risk to the life or limb of news photographers".

"Nor did he believe they would be viewed as evidence-gatherers on the part of the police," the BBC report adds.

In a statement a BBC spokesman said the broadcaster was "disappointed with the ruling".

The NUJ's Irish secretary Seamus Dooley also voiced his concerns at the decision in a post on the NUJ's website, saying it "would be urging the media organisations cited to appeal against the order".

"The role of [the] media organisation is to cover and report events. It is not the function of the media organisation to supply footage to the police," he added.

"There was a strong police presence in Derry during the parade and the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] clearly have material gathered by the police and security forces which could be relied upon.

"It is difficult to imagine what other material could be in the possession of these media organisations. The PSNI also have full access to the broadcast material. In the circumstances the insistence on securing a court order for the handover of other material is both unnecessary and disturbing."

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