Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Threatened today by ET3 camerman for taking pictures at demo

Threatened today by ET3 camerman for taking pictures at demo

I'm not sure if I have a nose for trouble or it has a nose for me. Less than 24 hours after I bought a replacement for my stolen video camera I managed to get hassled for taking pictures. This is a personal best as far as new equipment is concerned as usually, it takes weeks before that happens.

On the way to work today I happened to come across a protest by ambulance crews and fire fighters outside the ex-ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. Not wishing to miss an opportunity to cover a story I parked up and decided to video what was happening and talk to those taking part to find out their demands.

Just minutes after I raised my video camera an aggressive cameraman from the local ET3 (ΕΤ3) TV station came up demanding to know what I was doing there and asking f I was a journalist. Not wishing to discuss the finer points of citizen journalism versus mainstream journalism I just answered yes. At this point he started to get very angry and demanded that I showed him my "professional licence". To which I replied that he could go to hell and that I was not going to show him anything. The next thing I know he and soundman are screaming that they are going to call the cops, which they promptly did.

However, it looked like the police didn't want to get involved and so I took the opportunity to duck out as the last thing I needed was to spend hours answering questions in a police station when I had to be at work.

I've been repeatedly threatened by the police and often by protesters on demos but never by the media. A first time for everything.

1 comment:

reader said...

for me, your are the journalist...just a response to your sharing