Retailers urged to support photo freedom rally

Photo retailers have been urged to support a campaign by landscape photographer Ken Duncan to “stop the eroding rights of freedom of expression” for photographers.

As previously reported by PIN Online, Duncan’s not-for-profit group Arts Freedom of Australia is staging a protest rally on Sunday, August 29, at Campbell’s Cove, Sydney Harbour, from 10am to 12 noon.

AFA is seeking the support of photo retailers in promoting the rally via in-store posters and t-shirts, which proclaim – ‘I’m a photographer, not a criminal.’

“We are asking for your support and to encourage all those who walk into your store to help support AFA in their mission to stop the eroding rights of freedom of expression,” Duncan said.

“We want everyone to bring their cameras and tripods to the rally and help fight for freedom!” 

“We must be the only country in the world where you could get a criminal record for taking a picture of a rock,” Duncan said. “And because of this shameful situation, I am asking photographers and other concerned citizens to protest against the undemocratic regulations which now restrict film-making and photography in many of our public places,” 

Duncan said AFA was formed because of an industry-wide concern about government policies that were turning Australia into a land of “forbidden horizons”. 

His concerns include the photographic restrictions at Uluru, the ‘photographic licences’ required in the national parks of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Regulation 2006 and the “onerous” use of public open space regulations of Sydney’s Waverley Council as attacks on freedom of expression. 

AFA recently completed a comparative study of legislation and policies imposed on photographers and film-makers within Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US.

 “The result of this study demonstrates that the rights of Australian photographers and film-makers are being seriously affected by a myriad of rules and regulations that impose prohibitive restrictions, high fees, and bureaucratic application protocols,” Duncan said. 

 “What we should have in this country are simple rules – like they have in America’s national parks - which allow photography to be carried out in all places where the public can go,” he said. 

For more information about AFA and the rally go to: www.artsfreedomaustralia.com and www.facebook.com/ArtsFreedomAustralia