Photographers protest against police searches

Thousands of photographers protested in London on Saturday against the use of anti-terror laws which allow police to stop and search suspects. Trafalgar Square was lit up by camera flashes as an estimated 2,000 photographers gathered to complain at what they see as the increasing tendency of police to use the legislation to stop them taking pictures. Freelance photographer and writer Marc Vallee, who helped organise the protest through social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, said frustrations with police centred on the scope of an anti-terror law passed in 2000. Vallee, 41, said: "It's quite obvious that professional photographers across the country are being searched because they are photographers, not because they are suspicious. "It's a common-law right to take pictures in public places and we are here to show that." Many protesters waved placards bearing the slogan: "I'm a photographer, not a terrorist."