Several events next week may be of interest to some readers of this blog. I will be delivering one of the keynotes on Thursday and will be attending the training workshop on Sunday. I look forward to meeting some of you.
Hostile Reconnaissance, Tuesday 2010-04-13 at 7pm, Friends Meeting House in Euston
Taking pictures, filming or even just drawing sketches of buildings is often construed as hostile reconnaissance and risks you being stopped and searched, or even arrested. (Even my innocent doodles were construed by the Police as being a hostile reconnaissance of a tube station.) This rally on Terror Laws, Civil Liberties & Press Freedom is organised by the London Photographers’ Branch:
Update: an audio recording of the debate as well as the video commissioned for the event are available online.
Surveillance, Politics and Civil Society, Thursday 2010-04-15 at 7pm, City University, Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre
Surveillance, Politics and Civil Society is the title for a set of four public keynotes that will close the three day conference A Global Surveillance Society? The conference itself is registration-only, but these closing keynotes are part of a public event for which the organisers look forward to attract a healthy representation from the public for the Q&A discussion.
Update: Despite the event being free to members of the public, you must register in advance to guarantee a space in the auditorium. (The event will be followed by a short wine reception.)
My keynote will focus on the role of the citizen in confronting and challenging surveillance protocols. I intend to briefly explain the facts of my arrest, to give some context, and then spend most of the keynote talking about the instances of surveillance and data collection I faced and how to proceed to find out what the state has on you, how to get off the databases and other more general measures.
Erasing David, Friday 2010-04-16, 6.30pm, Free Word Centre, Farringdon
Erasing David is a film about another David, its director David Bond documenting the meaning of privacy and the loss of it. In his film David Bond decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by attempting to disappear. This screening will be introduced by Jo Glanville, the editor of Index on Censorship, who will also will lead a Q&A afterwards with the director and the private investigators who hunted him. Email to book your free place.
Police Monitoring and Legal Observation Training, Sunday 2010-04-18 from 10:30am to 4:30pm, Friends Meeting House in Euston
If you're worried about abuse of police powers at protests and in your community, but don't know what to do about it, this training should provide practical answers. It will give you skills to be a legal observer and monitor protests such as those that will happen on May Day in Central London. Sessions will include police powers, stop and search and surveillance, as well as workshops on legal observation and police monitoring.
The organiser Network for Police Monitoring is a new organisation made up of individuals involved in Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, Climate Camp Legal Team, Fit Watch, Legal Defence and Monitoring Group and Newham Monitoring Project. To have an idea of numbers, they would appreciate an email if you're planning to attend.
(Updated with details of the screening of Erasing David, with registration information for the debate 'Surveillance, Politics and Civil Society' and the recording of the hostile reconnaissance event.)
First published on 2010-04-07; last updated on 2010-04-25.