Jason N. Parkinson: NUJ & IFJ Video & Print Journalist

Moved over to Wordpress

2011-04-09T21:29:00.001+01:00

I have now moved over to Wordpress.

jasonnparkinson.wordpress.com

March for the Alternative

2011-04-07T21:37:00.005+01:00

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Saturday 26 March saw 500,000 people march through London to oppose the coalition government cuts, one of the largest public oppositions this country has seen since 13 February 2003 when people marched against the impending war on Iraq.

Since that day many news outlets have focused on the damage done by the "violent minority" in the protest and news reports coming out began looking increasingly less like news and more like investigation and intimidation tools of the state.

This has led the NUJ to issue a statement urging the BBC not to give up their footage of the da y, as requested by the Metropolitan Police Force. The London Photographers' Branch (LPB) committee also passed a motion and published an article condemning media outlets acting as intelligence gathers for the police and reiterated the role of journalists - to document for public record. This motion will go forward to the LPB members in the April meeting.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

March 26 Media Liaison Officer - Commander Bob Broadhurst

2011-03-25T17:38:00.007Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Commander Broadhurst at 2009 NUJ Photographer's Conference

Tomorrow the Metropolitan police force's media liaison officer will be Commander Bob Broadhurst. In this video, shot on 18 May 2009 at the NUJ Photographer's Conference, he upsets a few journalists by questioning the legitimacy of those holding the UK press card.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Egypt/Gaza Border Tension

2011-03-21T16:48:00.009Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Egyptian military checkpoint at Rafah Crossing

In the days that protests calling for unification between Hamas and Fatah broke out across West Bank and Gaza, missiles struck Gaza City and machine gun fire regularly rang out along the Rafah crossing, myself and photographer Jess Hurd spent several days trying to get from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, to no avail.

The main point of contention for Egypt, we were told, was the fear of anyone (especially foreign journalists) crossing the border, being killed by the Israeli military and drawing Egypt further into an already tense stand-off.

Whilst stuck on the border east Gaza City was missiled by F16 jets, killing at least two people, a fisherman was shot by naval forces on the coast and agricultural land in East Rafah was occupied.

Scores of people had been killed in tunnel crossings recently and there were even reports that some Egyptian troops had been shot in border skirmishes with the Israeli military. Machine gun fire had become a daily occurance according to the Bedouin children we spoke with. Anyone who strayed too close to the border was regularly shot at from anonymous grey watch towers peering over from the other side of the wall.

Rafah Crossing

Still, these days stranded in the desert were spent sat around learning about the Bedouins, who had devised their own micro-economy around the border crossing. The women and young girls sold seeds, beans and nuts, the men and boys carried bags and goods from the Egyptian side to the the Palestinian side for one Egyptian pound (10 pence) each way. The most common daily wage in Egypt is 20 pounds (£2). There was also a very lucrative taxi service to Egyptian Rafah, Al Arish and Cairo.

We also learned about the treatment of Bedouins by Mubarak's police. Extortion, racism, false arrest, arbitrary imprisonment, beatings, torture and murder were all commonplace.So, it came as no surprise to learn all the police were chased out of the Sinai region during the revolution by heavily armed Bedouin, some were killed, and all checkpoints and police stations were burned to the ground.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Scenes From Liverpool

2011-03-10T11:20:00.002Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Scenes from Liverpoool

A few scenes I picked up while in Liverpool, from the busker singing "The Revolution Will Not be Televised" to the skateboarders I ran into down by the Mersey.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Protect Public Services

2011-03-09T23:10:00.009Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

PCS Video Newsletter: Protect Public Services

This week saw the release of the second PCS Union video newsletter, this time focusing in on the attacks on public service jobs and building for the TUC protest on 26 March.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Boy of the Afterthought: Dead Cold Quiet

2011-03-08T10:12:00.007Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Boy of the Afterthought: Dead Cold Quiet

Taking time out and doing something different. Here's the video for Dead Cold Quiet, the new single by Boy of the Afterthought. We filmed it all in one day and with one day of editing it was online.

I've worked with singer, guitarist Aaron John several years back, on the video for the single Death Tonight. Thankfully since then Internet video quality has improved tenfold.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

The Egyptian Revolution Film and Photo Night

2011-02-16T11:14:00.005Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Photo (c) Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk – Design Jason N. Parkinson

After covering the first 18-days of the Egyptian revolution, many UK photographers and video journalists have returned to London and will be screening their work in a special one night event, organised by the London Photographers’ Branch (LPB) and the British Press Photographers Association (BPPA), at the Shortwave Cinema on Tuesday 1 March 2011.

Starting at 8pm the evening will show video and photographs covering the extraordinary events that unravelled during the popular uprising against President Hosni Mubarak and his regime. There will also be a question-and-answer discussion with the photographers and video journalists who covered the uprising.

Entry is by donation and there will be a raffle to win selected prints donated by the photographers. All profits will go to the Egyptian journalist support fund.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Game Over Mubarak

2011-02-11T18:13:00.005Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Following 18 days of a national uprising, that was repeatedly attacked by police and pro-government supporters and left more than 300 people dead, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today finally stepped down. He fled the country first, of course. Just hours later in Switzerland his complete assets were frozen.

The words of BBC reporter John Simpson said it all. The protestors just stood there and said no. And they won.

Video: Day of Rage
Video: Night of Rage
Video: Battle of the Interior Ministry
Video: The Battle of Cairo

Photo Gallery 1: Jess Hurd
Photo Gallery 2: Jess Hurd

The Reader: The Revolution Is Being Televised

LPB: Attacks on Media Workers in Egypt

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

First PCS Video Newsletter - Tax Justice

2011-02-11T17:25:00.011Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Tax Justice from PCS Union TV

As people filed their tax returns to the HMRC and others filed their earnings into tax havens the PCS Union release the first video newsletter targeting the £120bn tax loss.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

The Battle for Cairo

2011-02-07T17:07:00.009Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

The Battle For Cairo

Following three days of peaceful mass protest, which ended in as many as eight million marching across Egypt and President Mubarak announcing he would not stand for re-election in September, Wednesday 2 February became the defining day for the Egyptian revolution.

Thousands of pro-Mubarak supporters massed outside the heavily defended state television centre. All the video I shot of the pro-demonstration was taken from the bridge due to the hostility of the crowd.

When we arrived there I was grabbed by one supporter, who tried to force me to pray to Allah. When I refused he accused me of being Israeli. This drew the attention of other supporters around him and it looked like I was about to be lynched, so we made a swift exit.

And it wasn't long before the pro-Mubarak supporters were lynching people. As their march reached our hotel we tried to exit to start filming. Within seconds a group of 20 protestors started attacking a small group of women. One woman started running for the hotel door. We were pulled inside by the door security and they locked the door. We saw the woman's screaming face smash into the glass. Arms and legs lashed out at her and she went down. The punches and kicks continued. The image of her terrified face is something I will never forget.

That incident also led to the initial coverage of this event from the hotel room with a barricaded door, as the area surrounding the hotel was swarming with thousands of Mubarak supporters. And we had already been pointed out as anti-Mubarak at the beginning of the protest, by a gang of what we believed were plain clothes police.

After several hours of fighting the pro-Mubarak protestors were pushed back and the Tahrir Square protestors quickly erected barricades. By nightfall elements, now known to be police, in the pro protestors opened fire with automatic rifles. The all too familiar crackle of AK-47 rounds sounded just 200 metres down the road as the battle went on into the night. More than a thousand were injured. Seven people were beleived to have been killed, all by gunfire.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Battle for the Interior Ministry

2011-02-05T18:25:00.010Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Battle for the Interior Ministry

Saturday 29 January 2011: Following the Day of Rage the police advanced from the streets surrounding the Interior Ministry into Tahrir Square early in the morning, firing whatever ammunition they had left into the gathering crowds.

This was by no means an attempt to regain the square, the police numbers clearly could not have made a dent in the protestors resilience, as the numbers of the crowds marching on the street after the attack indicated. The more the authorities hit them, the more they massed.

That night I learned the true extent of the secret police operation, according to several local journalists. The morning attack on the square was to direct the same outcome as the plain clothes officers in the square that day - to urge and encourage the protestors up the street towards the Interior Ministry, where police snipers were waiting, overlooking the street.

The bodies of the dead and injured poured into a backstreet mosque that had been turned into a makeshift hospital. By the end of that day local reports said 15 people were killed and the nearest hospital to the Downtown district had recorded more than 550 injuries.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Night of Rage - Cairo

2011-02-04T21:11:00.013Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Night of Rage - Cairo

Following the afternoon's narrow escape from the secret police and feeling the Tahrir protest was surrounded and most probably doomed, we decided to return to our hotel. Little did we know the next 12 hours of uprising would pan out right outside our first floor window.

This video rush shows the chaos and confusion that spanned that night of Friday 28 January, 2011. For us it was hard to understand, as the military were first greeted with burning barricades and stones, then with cheers and applause. Then ambulances were attacked and tanks charged at crowds of protestors while Mubarak's party headquarters burned.

By Saturday night these scenes made more sense, as local journalists explained what had happened. Although the army were predominantly neutral to the Mubarak regime, there were certain elements that were supportive of the regime. Some tank brigades were part of this support, the Presidential Guard certainly were behind Mubarak. And it was these APCs and tanks that had charged the barricades to deliver more ammunition to the riot police still trying to hold Tahrir Square.

This was also the reason the ambulance was attacked, we were told. Protestors had checked the ambulance only to find boxes of tear gas inside. The boxes can be seen being lifted into the air following the attack on the ambulance.

For our team it was a tense and uncertain night, not knowing what the outcome would be or where the military stood. But we knew if the police won we were truly done for. So when they advanced and started firing again in the early hours of the morning we thought that was it. Not only did they shoot with tear gas and rubber bullets. Also sporadic AK-47 gunfire, that shot out our window sill and sent bits of concrete ricocheting around the room while we clung to the floor in gas masks. That was not the only night we barely slept.

Day of Rage video rush.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Day of Rage - Cairo

2011-02-03T19:53:00.007Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video: Day of Rage - Cairo

Friday 28 January 2011: Video rush of the attacks by the thousands of riot police against the anti-government protestors in the back streets in Cairo, as the uprising attempted to regain Tahrir Square.

This video coverage was cut short after about two hours, when our team was caught between tear gas and live fire from shotguns at one end of the street and around 100 riot cops and a large group of secret police at the other. We were grabbed by the secret police, strangled and beaten to the ground, then marched out of the protest. We expected to be put in the waiting prison van and be driven into the desert. Instead, after shouting to watching crowds of people that we were British press the police took our memory cards and let us go, emphasising we get off the streets immediately. We did. Unfortunately they pulled the stills memory card from my camera and didn't realise the camera was old-school DV tape. Hence this video.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Nawlins, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama

2011-01-18T00:03:00.022Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video: New Orleans 9th Ward Five Years Gone

Last year's trip across four US states alon the Gulf coast caught some interesting scenes away from chasing tar balls and corexit foam.

While in New Orleans I went to look at the Ninth Ward, the poorest district in the city and also the district with the highest death toll during hurricane Katrina. Five years on only third of the population returned, nature had taken over and many buildings, even entire streets, lay exactly where they did when the storm passed.

Katrina - The 9th Ward Five Years Gone

On the outskirts of east New Orleans, slap bang in the middle of a heavily populated suburb, lies the BOC Gas Refinery.

BOC Gas Refinery, New Orleans, Louisiana

With a population of 1.5 million in Louisiana you would think you'd be seeing alligators everywhere. Not so. Not unless you take one of a thousand tourist trips inot the swamps. Luckily on the last evening, heading back into New Orleans from Point a la Hache, these alligators were spotted on the edge of a nature reserve. The protective fencing had been pulled down by poachers, allowing access to the rivers edge and a closer look at these amazing creatures, some spanning more than three metres.

Louisiana Alligators

With August being the start of hurricane season and the fear that strong storms would drag up oil, dispersant and dead or dying sealife from the floor, the Gulf coast run entailed chasing a lot of storms and tropical depressions, hoping they didn't turn into full scale hurricanes.

Gulf of Mexico Storms

Grand Isle, the most southern point of Louisiana, and the most devestated area from the BP oil disaster, is also known for its stunning sunsets.

Sunset, Grand Isle, Louisiana

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Ireland, IMF and the Bailout

2011-01-17T17:26:00.011Z

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video: Ireland IMF Budget Protest

7 December 2010 was the day the Irish economy finally caved in to the IMF. Protests surrounded the Irish parliament all day as the governemnt agreed to the all too familiar conditions were set on public sector, health and welfare cuts and reductions to the minimum working wage.

2010 was a year that saw protests grip Dublin. In May protestors attempted to storm the Dail . November, riot police were deployed to clear the streets of student protestors after government buildings were occupied. By the end of that month 100,000 people marched in opposition to the IMF.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.

Time Off For Good Behaviour

2010-12-27T21:07:00.006Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

A video rush of various shots and timelapse from the vast outer crater of Mount Teide volcano on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Days of X - The London Student Protests

2010-12-16T20:02:00.015Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Day X National Student Walkout - London

Day X2 Student Protest - London

Day X3 - Tuition Fees Vote

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

100,000 March in Dublin Against IMF

2010-12-10T13:04:00.007Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video Rush: 100,000 March in Dublin Against IMF

Saturday 27 November 2010: 100,000 people marched through Dublin in Ireland to oppose the impending IMF bailout budget that would see billions in cuts to welfare and public services. Although the march passed relatively peacefully police protecting the Dáil came under a hail of fireworks, bottles and snow balls later in the day.

More video focusing on the speeches from the rally can be seen here at Trade Union TV.

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Who's Afraid of Photographers?

2010-12-06T14:07:00.048Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Wednesday 27 October 2010: Representatives of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) joined Lib-Dem MP Don Foster and various lawyers to discuss: "Who's Afraid of Photographers?".

The NUJ commissioned a series of films from the seminar and they can been seen here and on the NUJ website.

Don Foster MP

Professor Chris Frost

Anna Mazzola - Hickman And Rose Solicitors

LPB Chair Jess Hurd

Press Freedom: Hostile Reconnaissance

Chez Cotton - Bindmans Solicitors

Photographer David Hoffman

NUJ Freelance Organiser John Toner

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Ireland: Let Them Eat Cheese

2010-12-05T20:34:00.012Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Journeyman: Let Them Eat Cheese

This week saw the release by Journeyman TV of the video report "Let Them Eat Cheese", a five minute feature on the current state of the Irish economy, the IMF/EU bailout and people's opinions on being given free cheese at Christmas by the government.

Video Rush: Ireland's Ghost Estates

There are some 300,000 new homes lying empty all across Ireland. Built in the booming era of the Celtic Tiger the crash has left these ghost estates devoid of life, eerily resembling a 21st century English zombie movie set. This video rush shows some of the abandoned estates and retail areas.

Video Rush: An Alternative Dublin

Ireland is a country of 4.5 million, where 455,000 people are currently unemployed. Homelessness is at an all-time high, charities claiming they are seeing more than double the amount of people seeking help than three years ago. Official figures say there are 4000 homeless people in Dublin alone. This video rush captures scenes of Dublin not usually seen in the tourist brochures.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Celtic Tiger Faces Extinction

2010-11-17T10:51:00.009Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Statues depicting 1845 famine victims on North Quay in Dublin.

Wednesday 17 November: This morning the Irish government will hold meetings to decide if they will accept the IMF economic bailout.

The Irish economy, known for ten years as the Celtic Tiger, faces extinction. Massive cuts have hit public services, health and welfare. Unemployment stands at 455,000 in a country of 4.5 million, poverty is on the rise and vast estates of new homes built during the economic boom lie empty like 21st century ghost towns.

Public protest is also rising, as is the anger, after the government publically declared their annual EU cheese aid program was evidence they were taking measures to combat the economic decline.

In May protestors attempted to storm the Dail and on Wednesday 3 November Garda riot police attacked a student sitdown and occupation protest with batons and dogs, similar scenes were reflected a week later in London.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Tory Millbank Tower Siege

2010-11-10T21:49:00.009Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video Rush: Tory Millbank Tower Siege

Monday 10 November 2010: An estimated 52,000 people joined the Fund Our Future protest in London. Thousands descended and lay siege to Millbank Tower, the Conservative Party headquarters. Protestors broke through windows, occupied the lobby and rooftop and set fires in the court yard of the office complex.

This video captures the scenes as riot police moved in to push protestors back, using riot shields and batons in a manner that saw the Territorial Support Group (TSG) condemed at the G20 protests.

One scene captures protestors chanting "This is just the beginning", a stark warning to the government of the further social unrest to unfurl, as the austerity measures take hold and private interests take advantage of the economic climate to gain control, with ComDem approval, of more public services.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Gulf Film on Journeyman

2010-11-10T13:13:00.005Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Crude Awakening on Journeyman Pictures

The 15 minute film Gulf, now under the title Crude Awakening, is to be distributed by Journeyman Pictures.

A photogallery by Jess Hurd of the investigation into the aftermath of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the unprecedented use of Corexit dispersant is available here.

The Reader Photoessay

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Video Rush: FBU Picket Line Southwark 01/11/2010

2010-11-10T12:53:00.005Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video Rush - 01/11/2010: FBU Picket Line Southwark

A full video rush of the events leading to FBU NEC member Ian Lehair being run down by AssetCo strike-breaking staff on Monday 1 November is now available.

Photogallery by Jess Hurd available here.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

EDL Fail in Europe

2010-11-07T11:06:00.006Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video Rush: English Defence League Fail in Europe

Saturday 30 October 2010: A video rush of the events around the arrival of the English Defence League (EDL) in Amsterdam and their failed attempt to launch the European Freedom Inititiative.

These shots include the arrival of Ajax football fans, who refused the EDL invite to join their protest on the grounds of being multicultural football fans with no space for racism or islamophobia and having a long list of vendettas against English football gangs. Instead they arrived to confront the EDL, only to be put back on trains by large sways of Dutch riot police.

There are also excerpts of the speech by EDL leader Tommy Robinson - aka Steven Yaxley-Lennon, aka Paul Ray - to an audience of some 20 far righters and around 100 members of the international press. And there are some parting shots of the EDL tour bus with smashed windows, a greeting given by locals in the vicinity of the designated protest area - an industrial estate on the most western point on Amsterdam.

Photogallery by Jess Hurd here.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Video: FBU Strike Poplar London

2010-11-04T13:14:00.005Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video: FBU Strike Poplar London

Tomorrow sees the start of a 48-hour strike by London fire fighters caught up in an industrial dispute to force shift patterns changes and cause mass sackings. The strike is set to impact on the fire brigade's busiest time of year, bonfire night.

Earlier in the week three fire fighters and one police officer were injured on picket lines, all being run down by striker breakers.

This film, recorded on Saturday 23 October at Poplar in East London, talks to Fire Fighter Steve White and FBU Borough Branch Secretary Christopher Boag on the Con-Dem cuts threats to the

London Fire Brigade.

Photogallery by Jess Hurd here.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Fire Fighter Run Down by Strike Breakers

2010-11-02T01:15:00.006Z

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video: Fire Fighter Run Down by Strike Breakers

Monday 1 November 2010: London FBU NEC member Ian Lehair was run down on the picket line by AssetCo striker breakers at the LFB training centre in Southwark, London, where the private company was storing fire engines. He was treated at the scene and appeared to be suffering injuries to his chest.

This was the fourth of such incidents in one day. Earlier in Croydon a picketing fire fighter was run down, with a second fire fighter and a police officer being hit by trucks in Southwark.

Photogallery by Jess Hurd here.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Bolton UAF Protest Policing In Question

2010-10-22T21:34:00.009+01:00

Stills and print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.
Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video Rush: Bolton UAF Protest Policing In Question

Thursday 21 Ocotober 2010: Charges of threatening behaviour against 62-year-old anti-fascist protestor Alan Clough were dropped when footage filmed by Granada television, obtained by his defence, showed a police officer punching him in the face. An inquiry is now under way.

An officer obstructs the camera as Alan Clough is arrested

I had never released my footage of that day, until today, when looking back over the scenes of that cold and wet morning in Bolton, it seemed about time this footage saw the light of day.

In the video rush at 5.33 we see a riot officer supported by several other high-vis jacket-wearing officers dragging a man across the floor. That man would appear to be Alan Clough. The shot lasts for around 20 seconds before the all too familiar hand of the law obstructs the film camera lens.

While looking back over all the footage that day it struck me that perhaps it is not just the one incident that needs looking at but the entire policing of the UAF rally.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

Coalition of Resistance Protest

2010-10-21T18:39:00.013+01:00

Video (c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Video Rush: Coalition of Resistance Protest

Wednesday 20 October 2010: Students, trade unionists and workers marched under the banner Coalition of Resistance, in opposition of the Con-Dem government's "spending review", the mild-mannered title for the chainsaw attack on employment, pensions and the effective end of the welfare state.

Around 2500 protestors took to the streets and attempted to block the road on Whitehall, which led to scuffles with police. Around 8pm several protestors were arrested after breaking into government offices on Whitehall.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk

Report Digital

Please contact Report Digital or the AUTHOR for access to this material and the extensive five-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@gmail.com

Coryton Oil Refinery Blockade

2010-10-18T18:18:00.007+01:00

Video Rush: Crude Awakening Refinery Blockade

Saturday 16 October 2010: Protestors from various groups came together under the name Crude Awakening and, after giving the police intelligence officers the run-around through the Underground and across the London streets, boarded a train to Stanford le Hope in Essex and marched on the Coryton oil refinery.

Coryton supplies all of London's fuel needs. Initially 12 protestors locked themselves to several transit vans. The remaining 500 protestors descended on the only road leading in or out of the fuel depot and formed human blockades.

On the BBC a spokesperson from Petroplus, the Coryton owners, said the refinery operations ran as normal during the protest. A spokesperson from Crude Awakening said 50 tankers were halted during the seven hour road blocks.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@gmail.com

English Defence League Riot in Leicester

2010-10-11T21:27:00.008+01:00

Video: English Defence League Riot in Leicester

Saturday 9 October 2010: The English Defence League (EDL) protest came to Leicester and deteriorated rapidly into racism and violence, ending in running street battles and an attack on a fast food restaurant that terrified local people.

17 people were arrested and ten charged with crimes ranging from assaulting a police officer, carrying an offensive weapon and public order offences. A further three people were later arrested by British Transport Police on a train travelling from Leicester

This video is longer than the usual rushes I put together. This is to document everything I shot that day, from morning to evening, which stands as a very clear account of the day's events and shows what happens to a city when the EDL arrive, but also what we as journalists go through in order to deliver these types of images to the pulbic.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Europe Wide Anti-Austerity Protests: Cut This!

2010-10-08T23:04:00.014+01:00

Video: Brussels ETUC Anti-Austerity Protest

The week building up to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, where Prime Minister David Cameron declared, "we're all in this together", protests and general strikes erupted across Europe.

In Brussels, Belgium, tens of thousands marched to oppose the austerity measures being imposed in the forms of public sector funding cuts, mass redundancies and pension cuts. The same day the nation of Spain was shut down in a general strike. Strikes in Greece continued all through the week, where protests and general strikes earlier in the year led to large scale rioting.

Video Rush: Birmingham Right To Work Protest

Sunday 3 October saw the opening of the Conservative Party Conference under the phrase, "Together In the National Interest" and a ring of steel descended on the ICC centre in Birmingham. Thousands of people marched in protest against the current cuts to the public sector, job and benefit losses, pension reductions and the second wave of cuts to be imposed this October.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Unite4Labour Film

2010-10-04T19:30:00.014+01:00

Unite4Labour Film: Phil Woolas Talks Election Success

The commissioned Unite4Labour film went online tonight. The short film on the successes of the Unite4Labour campaigning tactics during the 2010 General Election are recounted by MPs Phil Woolas, Karen Buck, Russell Brown, Albert Owen, Andy Slaughter and Unite activists Amy Jackson and Helen Symons.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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NUJ LPB: Preview of Gulf

2010-09-27T20:54:00.008+01:00

Teaser Trailer: Gulf

Tuesday 28 September 2010: The NUJ London Photographers' Branch will hold a talk on pitching video and will show the draft version of Gulf, a work-in-progress documentary covering the investigation into sick oil clean-up workers and the continuing devastation caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, at a time when the oil giant and US authorities claimed the coastline spanning four states was "open for business".

Photogallery by Jess Hurd

The Reader Photoessay

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Southend Oil Spill

2010-09-21T20:53:00.009+01:00

Video Rush: Southend Oil Spill

21 September 2010: Oil could still be seen washing ashore following the previous day's oil spill from what was reported as an aging sea vessel. About 500 litres of oil leaked from the old ship.

Today, at 8am, local council workers began the clean-up operation.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Papal State Visit - London

2010-09-21T14:40:00.006+01:00

Video Rush: Papal State Visit London

17-18 September 2010: Pope Benedict XVI visited London for two days during his state visit to the UK. The pressure was on for the Pope, the Vatican and the Catholic Church with the latest child abuse revelations.

This video rush captures some of the events surrounding the visit while the cameras pointed favourably at the former Hitler Youth member.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Tent City Occupation Goes Online

2010-09-06T22:53:00.008+01:00

Film: Tent City Occupation

In September 2007 I was hired by the Wembley Park Observer to cover a local treetop protest. That started a documentary spanning three years and prised open the world of Academy schools and the slow move to private interests running the UK state education system.

Now, three years since I hit the record button, this film still stands as a warning of private interests in schooling, especially when they are so close to government, and local councils that stomp on the voice of the community.

Now the Labour Academy school program has been overtaken by the Con-Dem coaliion, had rocket booster's strapped to the underside and ignited in the most aggressive attempt to privatise the last remaining public services in the UK, our children's education.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Save Our Schools

2010-09-06T22:25:00.004+01:00

Video: Save Our Schools

As the new school year starts the Anti Academies Alliance has funded this short film that dissects the Con-Dem coalition education policy, the New Schools Network and Michael Gove's "rocket-booster" Academy school system.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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EDL Bradford "Big One"

2010-08-30T21:37:00.005+01:00

Video: EDL Bradford Clashes

Saturday 28 August 2010: The English Defence League (EDL) brought their far right supporters and the racism and violence that comes with them to Bradford for what EDL organisers had dubbed the "Big One".

EDL numbers were less than a 1000, for the first time in a year the police outnumbered them three-to-one and the usual attempts to break through police lines to rampage ended in a wall of riot cops and batons.

Fourteen people were arrested, several police officers and protestors suffered injuries. One EDL supporter (pictured) suffered a serious head injury after being struck with a rock from another EDL member.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Katrina's Legacy

2010-08-29T14:31:00.008+01:00

Pointe de la Hache home lies abandoned five years after Katrina

29 August 2010: Five years ago hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast of America, killing nearly 2000 people, destroying 204,000 home and displacing 800,000 people.

The destruction in New Orleans is what sticks in most people's minds, but the legacy of Katrina is still visible everywhere, from the now infamous Ninth Ward, across southern Louisiana and all along the Mississippi Long Beach coastline.

In the last three weeks travelling back and forth across the four Gulf States hit by the BP oil disaster two stories have been heard time and time again from the people I have met.

People who have lived an existence entwined with nature, fishing, the bayous and the land for generations, all hold the view the levees created to redirect and channel rising waters have never worked and were never designed to deal with storm surges. The inability of the levees to deal with large masses of water, which used to flood but naturally disperse across the wide expanses of coastal bayous, did nothing but accentuate Katrina's destructive force.

Increasing mass erosion of the Louisiana coastline and bayous from oil and gas exploration and sulphur mining has destroyed the natural land defences that help guard against hurricanes.

The other story was of Katrina's victims being refused payouts on property damage from the insurance companies, leaving them to repair damaged homes and lives at their own cost. Some residents now living in and around New Orleans' Mid-City, where waters reached up to five metres deep, said they could no longer afford to have homes insured, some being refused out right no matter the cost.

Only a quarter of the people returned to New Orleans after the hurricane, the population now is still 30 percent below pre-Katrina levels.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Exxon, Valdez, BP and Deepwater Horizon: Dr. Riki Ott

2010-08-20T02:23:00.009+01:00

Video: Dr. Riki Ott - The BP Oil Spill

Marine Toxicologist and Exxon Valdez survivor Dr. Riki Ott, PhD, talks about her experiences from the Valdez oil disaster and uncovers the BP cover-up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Riki Ott blog here.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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BP - Gulf of Mexico: Catalogue of Destruction

2010-08-18T05:46:00.029+01:00

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Sunday 16 August 2010: Local people on Pensacola Beach, Florida, spoke of the oil slicks and tar balls that were never removed, meerly covered over with sand by BP clean-up workers at night. These images were captured the day after President Obama stood in Pensacola, declared the beach "open for business" and took his family swimming.

Monday 16 August 2010: A dying catfish, one of several, in a tidal lagoon on Dauphin Island beach, near Mobile, Alabama, appeared to be suffering from burns to its head and body.

Tuesday 17 August 2010: Following the return of tropical depression number five an oil clean-up boom lay strewn across Pass Christian beach, Mississipi, the beach showing signs of oil staining, prompting the question who is going to clean up after the clean up?

The coastline from Biloxi to Pass Christian, Mississipi, was littered with these brown jellyfish. The trouble is, according to locals, these jellyfish should be clear with pink, purple or blue internal organs and are often luminous - they don't come in brown.

By Tuesday evening, following several storms that swept in off the Gulf of Mexico, the coastline from Pass Christian to Biloxi in Mississippi was covered in a white and brown mousse-like foam, suspected of being a mixture of Corexit and dispersed oil. Experts claim the combined chemicals are more toxic than oil or dispersant alone. After spending several hours documenting this mousse, our team suffered the following health effects - skin irritation, sore throat, headaches, stomach pains and diarrhoea.

The BP clean-up teams along this 25 mile stretch of white sandy coastline massed to groups of twos and threes, with shovels and buckets, wellington boots and rubber gloves and not much else. In all there were approximately five teams, several larger with an occasional sand skimming machine.

The full photogallery by Jess Hurd here.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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BP - Gulf of Mexico: Move Along, There's Nothing to See Here

2010-08-13T22:11:00.022+01:00

Pelicans take flight from oil booms off Grand Isle coast, Louisiana

If you ask anyone from BP, or from the various authorities along the US Gulf coast enacted to tackle the oil disaster, the reply you will get is everything is fine. Move along, nothing to see here. The oil has gone and the sea is fine. And stop photographing those dead fish.

Now, if you ask anyone else, anyone, the reply you will get is we are being lied to. They [BP] sunk the oil, killing the bottom of the food chain and the dispersants and fumes from burned oil are slowly killing everything else. That has been the response from everyone one I have met, from bar staff to boat people, to tourists who come to look one last time at the Gulf before it is totally destroyed.

Beach closed sign at Bay St. Louis, Mississipi

As BP scales back the clean-up operation, declaring most of the oil has gone - sunk, skimmed, burned or evaporated - more and more people are turning up sick. The US news outlets are reporting that some of the clean-up workers (as many as 300 at this point) are suffering symptoms - those symptoms include sore throats, coughs, headaches, blocked sinuses, burning eyes, bleeding ears, rashes, blisters, welts and disruption to the nervous system and respiratory system. One fisherman described how since being heavily exposed to the dispersant they had an increased irritability on top of losing a majority of their lung capacity.

A truck returns oil booms inland after BP downsize the clean-up

But it is not just the clean-up crews, ordinary members of the public across the four Gulf States are getting sick, some of them having no contact with Gulf water. Even as far inland as New Orleans people have recounted in recent days how the smell of oil was thick in the air. And with it came the headaches and sore throats.

A tropical storm hits land near Biloxi, Mississipi

If fear of the fish, the sea and the air was not enough, people also fear the rain and what it contains. This is bad, as hurricane season has just started and torrential downpours, tropical storms and worse are commonplace along the Gulf coast, an addition and unwanted concern for those about to remember Katrina five years on.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Unite Durham Conference: Fighting Talk

2010-07-29T23:47:00.021+01:00

Unions Collective Bargaining and Employment Law - Part One
Unions Collective Bargaining and Employment Law - Part Two

From Thursday 8 July 2010, Durham's Van Mildert college became the backdrop for the Unite North Eastern conference.

The highlight was Professor Keith Ewing's talk on Unions Collective Bargaining and Employment Law.

Part One is a stark wake-up call to why Britain cannot currently follow the resistance path of other European countries like Greece to fight the IMF age of austerity, due to anti-trade union laws denying UK workers the right to collective bargaining.

Part Two lays down the foundations needed in order to fight the cuts, challenge and dismantle the anti-trade union laws and take back workers control of the Labour Party.

International Review : Europe, USA, Global

Unite International Director Simon Dubbins International Review looks back at the history of globalisation, where the crash started and how the austerity measures in each country look staggeringly familiar.

Other speeches over the two-day conference included Unite Director of Research Roger Jeary, Building Our Activist Base with Unite Political Officers Andrew Brady and Hannah Blythyn and Hope Not Hate speaker Paul Meszaros.

Unite Deputy General Secretary Len McClusky at the Durham Miners Gala

Saturday 10 July saw the 126th Durham Miners Gala where Unite Deputy General Secretary Len McClusky addressed the crowd.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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126th Durham Miners' Gala

2010-07-10T21:46:00.011+01:00

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Saturday 10 July 2010: The streets of Durham filled with thousands of people for the 126th Durham Miners' Gala, an annual celebration of working class struggle and trade union battles.

Speakers at the Gala included Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh and Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Police Apologise For Greek Embassy Incident

2010-06-30T08:55:00.003+01:00

Video Documenting December 2008 Greek Embassy Incidents

Friday 25 June 2010: After an eighteen-month legal battle the Metropolitan Police Service finally admitted breaching article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights over the multiple incidents that occurred on 8 December 2008 outside the London Greek Embassy.

Comment from one television news editor today said hopefully this apology "will start to turn the tide when it comes to police assumptions of powers over press and photographers."

But considering another serious incident has happened less than 24-hours following the release of the Met Police apology it leaves doubt in one's mind whether anything has really changed.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Police Clash With Youth After Tower Hamlets Anti-EDL March

2010-06-25T12:44:00.008+01:00

Video Rush: Police Clash With Youth After Anti-EDL Protest

The BBC report of the trouble just outside the Whitechapel mosque on Sunday 20 June 2010 paints a very one-sided picture. The truth is the only attack witnessed by this journalist came form one side, the police.

It had been an impressive turnout on the anti-EDL protest. Thousands marched through Tower Hamlets. It was heated, even angry, but peaceful. But when the demonstration ended the tension continued. Several hundred people remained in the street outside the mosque, fearing an EDL attack. The atmosphere was heightened by the continual cruising of police vans and cars. Then came the snatches of individuals from the street. As the youth anger became audible the police charged forwards with batons, pushing and hitting young men.

In an already tinderbox environment, these police actions did nothing but increase the potential of violent disorder. This video should set the records straight to a certain extent and deliver an alternative viewpoint to the BBC report.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Convictions Point to Rise of Far Right Extremism

2010-06-25T00:27:00.007+01:00

Channel 4 News: Convictions Point to Rise of Far Right Extremism

Thursday 24 June 2010: Today's convictions of Michael Heaton, a 42-year-old food packer, and Trevor Hannington, a 59-year-old builder, on inciting racial hatred brings to 16 the number of convictions connected to far right extremism in the past two years. Channel 4 Home Affairs Correspondent Simon Israel investigates.

Heaton, Hannington and BFF member Liam Pinkham on the EDL Leeds Protest.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Far Right Groups Clash At Barking Troop Parade

2010-06-19T21:53:00.008+01:00

Video Rush: Far Right Groups Clash At Barking Troop Parade

Tuesday 15 June 2010: Far right supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) clashed with protestors from Muslims Against Crusades (MAC) during a Freedom of the Borough parade in Barking by the Royal Anglian troops, who recently returned from Afghanistan. At least two people were arrested, one for carrying a knife.

This was the first appearance from Muslims Against Crusades. When they exited the underground station at Barking it became clear some, if not all, were Al Muhajiroun, also known as Islam4UK. Both groups have been banned in the past for being proscribed groups supporting terrorism, although there has never been any evidence to uphold this ruling.

Al Muhajiroun were behind the small group of fanatical protestors that set off the Luton clashes during a troop homecoming parade in Luton in 2009, which saw the creation of the English Defence League as a direct result.

(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Guardian: The English Defence League Uncovered

2010-05-31T22:00:00.007+01:00

Guardian Films: The English Defence League Uncovered

Friday May 28 2010: The Guardian Online released the four month investigation into growing far right group the English Defence League.

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(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Gove's "Rocket Booster" Academy Bill

2010-05-28T10:34:00.017+01:00

Stills, video, print (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday 26 May 2010: On the day the Con-Dem coalition Academy Education Bill was passed I interviewed Alasdair Smith, the National Secretary for the Anti Academies Alliance.

Anti Academies Alliance National Secretary on Academy Bill

Conservative Education Minister Michael Gove has put "rocket boosters" under Labour's Academisation school program, as well as authorising the Free Schools policy. Both policies are perceived by all three major teaching unions as full-blown privatisation of the UK state education system.

2000 schools look set to gain Academy status, or "freedoms" as Gove has called it. Those freedoms, for one thing, allow private school sponsors to take control of staff wages and working conditions away from local authorities or national averages, meaning wages could go down as well as up and work hours could also increase.

In a roller coaster week for UK education policy, first Gove passed the bill that allowed all schools classed "outstanding" by Ofsted to apply for Academy status. This comes on top of existing Labour policy that forces failing schools to either close or become an Academy.

Three days later Gove passed a bill to make those very same "outstanding" schools about to become Academies exempt from Ofsted inspections, taking away scrutiny and accountability should those private education providers not succeed in their role.

This enhanced with current Freedom of Information exemption makes the private sponsors wholly unaccountable to the UK tax-payer, who will continue to pay for the privately-run schools.

Investigation will be left solely to whistleblowers, as has been seen in the two most recent bonus and expense scandals in the education system.

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(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Election Decision Day

2010-05-14T11:26:00.006+01:00

Video Rush: Election Decision Day View From London Streets

Tuesday 11 May 2010: Gordon Brown's convoy tanked its way into Parliament for emergency meetings and hit the gas peddle on the way out, narrowly avoiding the press pack outside the gates of Westminster Palace. Peace protestor Brian Haw assaulted Daily Mirror photographers with a megaphone and two activists from the Democracy Village squatted camp on Parliament Square scaled St. Margaret's Church and dropped anti-war banners. It was decision day in the much delayed UK election results.

By nightfall Gordon Brown resigned and Conservative leader David Cameron was the new Prime Minister. Outside in Whitehall Conservative supporters massed outside Downing Street and around the nearby pubs, supping beer and champagne and singing pro-Cameron chants. But as one prison officer pointed out, not one of them was old enough to remember the last Tory government.

But it is not a total Tory government. No, the UK is now a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, also known as the Con-Dem Nation. The coalition is weak though, with only a few token Liberals taking positions. Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister and Vince Cable is on George Osbourne's treasury committee as Business Minister, taking advice from hedge funder and Lib-Dem investor Paul Marshall the HBOS short seller.

With strikes abound, protests massing and an impending visit from the IMF to impose similar measures to those that have caused huge unrest in Greece, the next five years "ain't gonna to be nice, but they certainly ain't gonna be boring".

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(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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English Defence League Clash With Police In Aylesbury

2010-05-05T17:01:00.009+01:00

Video Rush: English Defence League Clash With Police At Aylesbury

Saturday 1 May 2010: Far right group the English Defence League (EDL) took to the streets again, this time in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Up to 1000 marched through the town in what was labelled a peaceful demonstration against militant Islam. But as with previous EDL protests, trouble soon flared between protestors and police. Riot squads and attack dogs were brought in to regain public order, as officers came under a hail of bottles, beer cans, coins, cigarette lighters and sticks.

12 people were arrested, eight for suspicion of carrying an offensive weapon. Richard Price, EDL organiser for the Birmingham division was one of those arrested.

A one minute video rush was released by APTN on Saturday night and is available from the library.

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(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Teachers Strike, Academy Director Claims Mini-bar Expenses

2010-04-28T20:56:00.005+01:00

YouTube: Crest Boys Academy Strike

Wednesday 21 April 2010: All three teaching unions, the NUT, ATL and NASUWT, united in the Crest Boys Academy Strike in Neasden, north-west London.

Academy sponsor E-ACT is forcing through redundancies at the school, claiming a lack of budget funds is causing the redundancies.

This claim came as E-ACT staff blew the whistle on director Bruce Liddington's expenses, on top of his £265,000 annnual salary.

Coming some three years since the beginning of my coverage of the campaigns against the Academy school system, which culminated in the 30-minute documentary Tent City Occupation, this short film confirms many of the initial fears that led those campaigns. Academy school sponsors are considered private interests, despite being funded by the tax-payer, and are thus exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. This leaves all Academy sponsors devoid of public scrutiny and investigation.

Liddington, former schools commissioner for Labour and staunch pro-Academy advocate, replaced E-ACT director Lord Bhatia following a £70,000 hole in the funds of the then titled Edutrust.

E-ACT Director Bruce Liddington

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Press Freedom: Hostile Reconnaissance

2010-04-20T21:30:00.003+01:00

Film: Press Freedom: Hostile Reconnaissance

Press Freedom: Hostile Reconnaissance highlights the continuing police surveillance of journalists documenting political dissent in the UK and follows the rise of the I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist! campaign.

The film follows on from the 2008 film Press Freedom: Collateral Damage that exposed the extent of police surveillance on street journalists. The film includes interviews with photojournalists Marc Vallee and Jess Hurd, NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear and Hickman and Rose partner Anna Mazzola. They are a few among many who continue to campaign to expose and fight the increasing erosion of civil liberties and press freedom.

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English Defence League Dudley

2010-04-05T00:31:00.006+01:00

Video Rush: English defence League Dudley

Saturday 3 April 2010: About 3000 English Defence League (EDL) supporters descended on the town of Dudley to oppose the building of a new "mega-mosque".

Clashes soon broke out when some EDL protestors took offence to being "caged in". Containment fences were torn down and police lines breached. Hundreds of EDL protestors charged into Dudley town centre, in the direction of the Unite Against Fascism counter-protest.

12 people were arrested over the day and Dudley council has estimated the policing and clean-up costs at £150,000.

There were three reports of attacks on journalists, including one incident of a photographer being punched in the face. Another photographer recounted three separate incidents, including altercations with EDL stewards.

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(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

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Broken Greece on the Brink: General Strike

2010-03-14T08:05:00.027Z

Video Rush: Greek General Strike: Athens Protest & Riot

Thursday 11 March 2010: With the Greek economy on the brink of collapse, forcing mass unemployment and huge public sector cuts to prop up the national and international banking system, united trade unions across the country called another General Strike.

Hundreds of thousands joined the mass protest through the streets of Athens, but before the protest could commence riot police units, who were positioned in every side street off the main protest route, attacked the crowd at the front of the march with tear gas, shock grenades and batons.

Police continued to clash with protestors for the remainder of the day, the more hardcore contingent of the protest attacking riot police with wooden batons, metal poles, rocks, bottles, petrol bombs and catapults.

The General Strikes in Greece are expected to continue and increase for the foreseeable future, with similar scenes predicted in Spain and Portugal as identical emergency economy plans are rolled out.

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Police and Kurds Clash During London Iraq Election

2010-03-09T12:55:00.008Z

Video Rush: Police and Kurds Clash during London Iraq Election

Saturday 6 March 2010: As bombs in Baghdad marred the Iraqi elections and scores more lives were torn apart, trouble also flared outside the Iraqi polling stations in Brent, North West London.

Some Iraqi-Kurds were complaining they were not being allowed to vote, despite holding all the correct documents. Police officers backed up by the TSG riot squad attempted to put them into a protest-style pen. This only agitated the crowd further and they blocked the street in a sit-down protest, shouting "let us vote".

The TSG officers moved in to clear the street, arrested one man and attempted to move him in a police truck. Protestors then tried to halt the truck, scuffles broke out as officers used force to remove them and bottles and rocks were thrown. Then the shields and batons came out.

In all 13 people were arrested that day, four for violent disorder. The footage is available from Associated Press Television News.

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LGBT Refugees

2010-02-28T21:18:00.021Z

Stills, video, print (c) 2010 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved.

For five years I have covered various national and international stories on refugees - immigration detention centres, war on terror refugees, the Calais Jungle and Ugandan conflict survivors. This, the latest video report released through APTN Horizons, looks specifically at those forced to flee their countries because of their sexual orientation or gender.

Homosexuality is illegal in 80 countries across the world, it is punishable by death in seven. Uganda is also on the verge of implementing the death penalty raising that number to eight.

Homosexuality in Iran is punishable by hanging. Around 4000 LGBT people have been executed since the 1979 revolution. They are people like Saba in Turkey, who was betrayed by an ex-lover, or Peyman in London, who escaped the Basij and currently faces an uncertain future after his second appeal for asylum was refused.

The UK Home Office accepted he was gay, but ruled that he could return safely to Iran if he moved to another city, hid his identity and became "more discreet", meaning he should not have any partners.

Neil Grungras is the Executive Director of San Francisco-based ORAM International. He claimed there are more LGBTs fleeing Iran than anywhere else in the world at this time.

Oram was set up give assistance to LGBT refugees applying for asylum and fighting appeals, to tackle the current failures of the immigration system and to educate on the existence of LGBT refugees.

OutRage! human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who was recently described as possibly the "bravest man in Britain" in a Daily Mail article, condemned the UK Home Office and Border Agency for their regular stance of returning LGBT refugees to prison, torture and death penalties, as had already been witnessed in Peyman's case.

"They're told that they can go back and hide and change their identity and they'll be safe," he said, "that is not acceptable."

Skye Chirape also had little good to say about the Home Office from her own experiences of bureauocracy, interviews and detention. She was also asked to prove she was gay.

"How do you prove you are gay? Its a very hard thing," she said. "So it means if you are not in a relationship with someone then you can't possibly be gay."

The Home Office was questioned on "being discreet" and asked if they accepted countries like Iran upheld the death penalty for homosexuality. The reply agreed there was "strong hostility" in some countries.

Matthew Coats, head of immigration at the UK Border Agency, said: "We have a strong tradition of providing protection to those who genuinely need it and our process for meeting these obligations is fair."

The video report is available from APTN Horizons.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print
(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Save Whittington A&E

2010-02-28T01:04:00.005Z

Video Rush: Save Whittington Hospital A&E

Saturday 27 February 2010: An estimated 5000 local residents in a staggering unity of community cohesion marched on Whittington hospital in Archway, North London, to oppose the closure of the accident and emergency department, which most on the protest considered the first part of the closure of the entire hospital.

This is just the latest in government (taxpayer-funded) cuts to balancing the (fake) economy. But as most vented on this day, the government has £500bn for the bankers, who continue to lie, cheat, steal and gain incredible bonuses on tax-payers money while the basic rights of every person living in the UK are denied due to "lack of funds" and "budget cuts".

Today in Islington was just the start of mass opposition to all governments, not just those in power. It has become increasingly apparent all parties are paid for by the same financial backers and the UK public is getting to grips with that betrayal of democracy.

In the meantime the residents of Archway, Holloway and Islington try to hold on to their last remaining hospital.

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(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Images of Istanbul

2010-02-27T00:18:00.003Z

Stills, video, print (c) 2010 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print
(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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DVD Release: Tent City Occupation - The Movie

2010-02-12T19:29:00.023Z

Tent City Occupation The Movie

This week saw the release of Tent City Occupation The Movie, a 30-minute documentary on the local campaign to save a sports ground and oppose an academy school in Wembley, North-West London, which led to local teachers and residents challenging some of the most powerful people London's financial district.

The film covers the protests and direct action of the Wembley Park Action Group (WPAG), the Anti-Academy Alliance and the two-year Tent City Occupation, investigates the links between children's charity Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) and the three leading political parties, the leaders and even the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

Meet international playboy Arpad (Arki) Busson, Founder and Chairman of EIM hedge fund, founding Chairman of Absolute Return For Kids (ARK) and fiance to Hollywood actress Uma Thurman. Busson's EIM company lost £230m to convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff, a man Busson previously referred to as "experienced, knowledgeable and trustworthy".

Meet Paul Marshall, listed as one of the most powerful men in London's financial district, founding partner of Marshall Wace hedge fund, financial investor into the Liberal Democrats (£162,000) and Lib Dem think-tank Centre Forum (£1m) and co-founder and trustee at ARK. He is a special advisor to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, was a researcher for previous Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy, is the Chair of Centre Forum and is the author of "Tackling Education Inequality".

Meet Stanley Fink, the godfather of hedge funds, formerly of Man Group - the world's largest hedge fund - now CEO of International Standard Asset Management (ISAM) and ARK Director. In January 2009 Fink invested £1m in the Conservative party, two days later he was co-treasurer and is currently on the peerage list should the Conservatives win the next election. He also donated £20,000 to Boris Johnson's mayoral campaign and became a trustee of the Mayors Fund for London, set up Earth Capital Partners, investing in sustainable development and immediately made it sustainable by registering the headquarters in Guernsey, a UK tax haven.

The DVD holds over two hours of film, including the 30-minute dcoumentary and all the original campaign YouTube videos, spanning the last two years of the protests, occupation and direct action that inspired anti-academy campaigns across the country.

The DVD is available via Paypal priced £12 including postage.

View the trailer here.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print
(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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English Defence League - Stoke

2010-01-25T13:26:00.015Z

Sky News Report: Seventeen Arrested At Right Wing Protest

Saturday 23 January 2010: The English Defence League (EDL) reappeared on the streets of England for the first time this year, this time in Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands.

Full Video Rush: English Defence League Riot in Stoke

Within minutes of the march being led a few hundred metres under police escort to the designated protest rally point, EDL supporters surged towards the police lines blocking them from the Unite Against Fascism protest. The scene quickly deteriorated into heavy violence, as Sky News reported that night, which led to being the top Sky News UK story by Sunday.

Police and journalists came under a hail of bottles, rocks, wooden planks, metal fixtures, cigarette lighters, burning rags and coins as riot squads were brought in to contain the protest of 500. At one point a large smoke bomb was set off. Riot helmets were ripped from officers heads and hurled back into police lines as weapons.

The racism was also there again, as the video shows, with a protestor caught on film shouting at riot police officer, "You fucking Paki loving bastard", crowds chanting. "Allah was a paedo" and one youth shouting, "You fucking Jewish bas...". Unfortunately the last was cut short on film as I had to duck yet another plank of hurled wood.

Police vans were then attacked, finally the attacks directing towards the police and any journalists caught out in open. Three photographers were punched, one hit in the chest with a plank of wood and one hit in the face with thrown coins. Six police officers, one member of the public were also injured during two-hour street battle and five police vehicles were badly damaged.

This time the EDL did break out through the riot police lines. They headed into a nearby estate where locals told us two streets were known to be predominantly Asian and Muslim. From then on there was just a trail of destruction of broken shop and car windows and terrified locals, most of those our team saw were English, one woman hysterical and in tears after her car was smashed up.

So far seventeen people have arrested, six were charged with racial and public order offences and police continue to review CCTV footage.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print
(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Smash EDO Brighton 2010

2010-01-24T18:55:00.007Z

Video Rush: Smash EDO 2010

18 January 2010: Black-clad anti-militarist protestors marched yet again on the EDO/MBM weapon component factory in Brighton. The police presence was heavy and clashes soon erupted around the factory and on the streets of the seaside town.

Video Rush: Smash EDO 2010

Previous Smash EDO coverage

Protestors Justified Police Violence Claim Media

Brighton: Shut EDO/ITT

Mayday Mayday

All material on this blog - stills, video and print
(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Tent City Occupation Trailer

2010-01-17T22:06:00.017Z

YouTube Trailer: Tent City Occupation

This week saw the release of the Tent City Occupation documentary trailer. The campaign to save a local sports ground and oppose the Ark Brent Academy in North-West London became the longest running protest against an academy school and delayed the project for more than five years.

Academy schools, the education legacy left behind by Tony Blair, are perceived by many as the route to full-blown privatisation of the UK state education system. Private sponsors take complete control of a school, including the education curriculum and work and pay conditions, but the tax-payer still funds the school.

Current Trailer: Tent City Occupation

The release of the trailer comes in the same week The Times newspaper exposed nearly a quarter of academy schools are failing to reach their targets on GCSE exam results despite the schooling system being in place for more than eight years. The government still maintain their 2008 stance, that every school failing to meet GCSE targets face two choices - close or become an academy.

Original YouTube Film: Tent City Eviction

As well as documenting the protests and direct action taken by the local teachers and residents known as the Wembley Park Action Group, Tent City Occupation catalogues the policy back-tracking and bizarre vision of local democracy by Brent Council.

The Hedge Fund School Men: Arpad Busson - Stanley Fink - Paul Marshall

The Brent Academy sponsor Ark is also put into the spotlight, exposing the dealings and political connections of the children's charity directors and trustees.

The politicos: Tony Blair - Gordon Brown - Boris Johnson

Having followed the story for over two years a back catalogue of YouTube films also documented the various going-ons in the last two years of the five-year fight for the Wembley Park sports ground.

The Tent City Occupation DVD will be relased in the near future, releasing the full 30-minute documentary along with all the YouTube films. Watch this space for the release.

TCO 01 - Up In The Trees

TCO 02 - Flash Camping

TCO 03 - Evening Standard Teacher Invasion

TCO 04 - Public Consultation Rubbished

TCO 05 - Temporary Planning Meeting

TCO 06 - Tent City Is Back

TCO 07 - ATL President Julia Neal

TCO 08 - Courts, Evictions & Bans

TCO 09 - On The Rooftops

TCO 10 - Hank Roberts Interview

TCO 11 - Tent City Eviction

TCO 12 - Ark Invaders

TCO 13 - Battle For Wembley Sports Ground

TCO 14 - Hedge Fund Bank Robbers

TCO 15 - WPAG Anti-Academy Conference Pt1

TCO 16 - WPAG Anti-Academy Conference Pt2

London's Homeless Ex-Military

2010-01-15T23:19:00.017Z

Second Battalion Royal Fusiliers Return From Afghanistan

A six-minute feature report investigating the story of homeless ex-service personnel in London and the organisations set up specifically to deal with the issue willbe released by the Associated Press Television News Horizons department in the coming week.

Homeless in Old Street

Of London's rough sleepers those with military backgrounds in Christmas 2007 was 13 percent, according to homeless charity Crisis. Chief Executive Leslie Morphy said for Christmas 2009 the numbers had dropped to five percent. The rough sleepers figures were expected to be around 3,500, but taking into account, squatters, hostels and sofa-surfers the true figure is somewhere in the region of 150,000.

Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation

During the investigation I had the privilege of interviewing Doctor Hugh Milroy, also known as Wing Commander Milroy, who is the Chief Executive of Veteran's Aid, the only charity attempting to track down homeless veterans, get them off the streets, into hostels and a more stable environment.

Veteran's Aid has been running for 78 years. As Dr. Milroy explained, they are not a welfare organisation but a wellbeing organisation, "veteran helping veteran" he said.

The VA runs a drop-in centre near Victoria station and the New Belvedere House hostel in Limehouse, east London.

Rick Brunwin is Chief Executive of the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation, the next step in London's homeless veteran network. The Stoll foundation was was established during the First World War. Working closely with the VA they house 230 ex-homeless veterans and their families in permanent accommodation in Kensington, Westway and Chiswick.

Homeless in Soho

The downside to all this is the support for veterans that end up on the streets is being hit by the recession. The Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation is being hit on its funding, some funders halfing their donations others pulling out completely. Veterans Aid Dr. Milroy explained veterans end up homeless for the same reasons as anyone else, "and the recession is biting" he said.

The feature report will be available to subscribers from APTN Horizons in the coming week.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print
(c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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That Was The Year That Was: 2009

2009-12-30T10:40:00.047Z

Stills, video, print (c) 2010 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved.

That was the year that was, 2009 - declared early on as the "Summer of Rage". Trouble was the rage started before the year even began, as protests erupted outside the London Israeli Embassy in response to the festive bombing of Gaza. As a freezing January ensued several riots burst on to the streets of Kensington, hundreds were arrested and journalists limped from the street fighting bleeding and bruised.

Film: Boiling Point - Part One - Part Two

February saw the introduction of Section 76 of the 2008 Counter Terrorism Act, making it a criminal offence to photograph police and armed service personnel. In response campaign group I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist descended on New Scotland Yard with over 300 cameras.

In March the Guardian newspaper exposed the use of criminal databases on peaceful protestors, the extent of surveillance on journalists whilst covering the 2008 Kingsnorth Climate Camp in Kent and I gained a new nickname, "the bald one", thanks to a Kent surveillance officer.

Film: Covering Climate Camp Part One - Part Two

Then April hit, the G20 came to town and all hell broke loose. Again, scores were arrested and injured, journalists were beaten, battered and broken and one man lay dead after being attacked from behind by a TSG riot squad officer. A second video captured the moment when Tomlinson hit the ground.

Film: Global Economic Meltdown

Two days later, I was on the Eurostar train to Strasbourg to cover the anti-Nato protests, still clinging to a mild concussion and holes kicked in both legs. The main day of protest panned out into an endless hail of tear gas, shock grenades and rubber bullets, with our team finally being pinned down as Black Bloc attacked French CRS riot police on a railway track with bricks, bottles and petrol bombs.

Mayday erupted into clashes with police in Brighton as the Smash EDO anti-militarist campaign group targeted the funders of the local bomb component factory.

Film: Tamil Part One - Part Two

The London Tamil protests also ran through the entire first half of the year, leading to peaceful mass human blockades of the streets, bringing the captial to a standstill.

It was while covering the protests that an NUJ photographer was grabbed by police and forcibly detained.

Video: Police Forcibly Detain Press Photographer

By the summer the expenses scandal broke and has ceased to leave the news since, as more ludicrous items were claimed for by our democratic representatives. Whilst trying to defend these claims for duck houses, hedge trimming, rocking chairs and "a fucking moat", it exposed the innate contempt our politicians have for us.

In July the G8 delegates flew into L'Aquila, Italy, for another round of make-it-look-like-we're-doing-something. The protests were small, but the three-day meeting in the earthquake zone revealed the extent of the friendship with Libya's Colonel Gaddafi.

Immigration, the most contentious issue in the UK today, became a top news story again. I returned to Calais, France two years after the film After Sangatte to cover the living conditions of those waiting to enter England in the hope their asylum claims would be accepted. On 22 September the French authorities cleared "The Jungle" refugee camp, but returning in October our team found all this had done was force the refugees to sleep rough on the streets as the harsh winter weather blew in off the North Sea.

Video: "Dignified" Destruction of Calais Refugee "Jungle"

The late summer also saw the arrival of the English Defence League (EDL) on to the streets of Britain and the beginnings of a rising far right movement. At first the protests were small, but always ended in violence. Nazi salutes and racist chants were captured time, time and time again, from a group claiming to be non-racist and non-violent. But by end of the year, it became clear the EDL were intent on creating a street army, their support coming from vaguely politicisied football hooligan gangs and far right groups such as the BNP, the National Front, Blood and Honour and Aryan Strike Force. Their goal, it would seem, is to stir up racial hatred, which they managed quite successfully in Harrow without turning up.

APTN Footage of Leeds EDL Protest and Rampage

Climate change was a big issue again, as we head further towards the tipping point, thousands of protestors descended on Copenhagen in Denmark to protest the International Climate Summit and Climate Camp arrived at Blackheath in London for a week of protests across the capital, then went on a countryside jaunt to shut down the Radcliffe power station near Nottingham.

In September the by-annual DSEi weapons convention also returned to a mass of protest, targeting the financial backers of the arms industry, as Senser released their single Resistance Now.

Good news funnelled through as the National Union of Journalists annual ADM was held in Southport. Photographer Guy Smallman was shot with a stun grenade by Swiss riot police back in 2003, blowing apart a large section of his left leg.

For six years he fought a court battle against the Swiss authorities to claim compensation. This year he finally won that battle.

Photographer Guy Smallman is hit with a stun grenade

November saw the G20 policing back in the news, this time for Commander Broadhurst, the G20 police operations chief, denying in parliament the existance of undercover police inside the protests.

Unfortunately for Broadhurst the video showing two undercover police appearing from a unit of police officers had been live on the Guardian website since the end of April. But it turned out there was not only two undercover officers but 25.

The final word of the year goes back to the English Defence League (EDL). Following their protest in Leeds issued me with a Fatwa. Photographer Marc Vallee recieved a death threat the same day, four days after he was targeted by the Neo-Nazi website Redwatch.

That was the year that was. This is the year that is. And I just turned 40-years-old. The real question now is: what next?

Marc Vallee End of Year Review

Jess Hurd Ten Year Review

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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4700 Homeless on London Streets For Christmas

2009-12-17T22:16:00.004Z

A man begs money for food on Regent Street as people shop for Christmas

The most recent figures on those sleeping rough in London - compiled by charity Broadway in June this year - counted 4,672, a rise of 15 percent on last year.

A young man prepares for sleep on Tottenham Court Road

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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First London Snow Fall

2009-12-16T14:11:00.003Z

Stills, video, print (c) 2009 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday 16 December 2009: The first snow fall hits North London.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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NUJ Slams Photographer's Arrest

2009-12-09T18:46:00.002Z

On Sunday an NUJ member was arrested by two armed police officers at London City Airport for an alleged assault on a member of airport security

The photographer fully denies any wrongdoing and the NUJ has instructed lawyers to defend him.

More here.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Far Right EDL Clash With Nottingham Police

2009-12-08T09:47:00.009Z

Film: Far Right Clash With Nottingham Police

Saturday 5 December 2009: The English Defence League (EDL) arrived in Nottingham in their hundreds and immediately clashed with police as supporters tried to break free from police lines.

16 people were arrested during the protest and seven have now been charged with public order offences, one protestor was charged with assaulting a police officer.

The cost of the 700-strong policing operation of the EDL Nottingham demonstration looks set to reach £1m.

EDL supporters also continued their attacks on the press. One photographer was punched in the face. Every other working photographer at one point or another during the day was threatened, myself included.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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EDL Coming To Nottingham

2009-12-04T18:40:00.005Z

Film: EDL - Leeds - 31/10/2009

Tomorrow, Saturday 5 December 2009, will see the English Defence League (EDL) protest in Nottingham. To get an idea of what to expect here - finally - is the full length edit from the EDL Leeds protest back in October. A short video rush was released on the night through Associated Press.

EDL organisers claimed their supporters did not rampage through the streets and it was in fact Unite Against Fascism (UAF) protestors, but this film shows a very different story. The pattern is the same on all EDL protests, as my video coverage shows, from Birmingham Part One, Birmingham Part Two, Harrow and Manchester.

EDL organisers also claim they are not a racist group. Again, the footage, or more importantly, the audio has caught EDL supporters involved in racist chanting. A Guardian investigation into the EDL began exposing far right links.

So, knowing all this and more, and having covered most of their protests since the summer, it comes as no surprise that I was issued with a Fatwa from an EDL organiser. The point of this seems to be to intimidate, to make me and other journalists go away and stop exposing what is really going on in streets every time this group of vaguely politicised skinheads and football hooligans appear.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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G20 Police Chief Accused of Misleading MPs About Undercovers

2009-11-26T14:11:00.005Z

Guardian: G20 police chief accused of misleading MPs about undercover mission
video by Jason N. Parkinson

Photographer Wins Six-Year Battle

2009-11-21T15:40:00.005Z

Film: Stun Grenade Used Against British Photojournalist

Photographer Guy Smallman yesterday won his six-year case against the Swiss authorites fro the injury he suffered after being hit with a stun grenade, a so-called passive weapon.

Today at the NUJ ADM Guy delivered a slamming speech on his victory.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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Six Year Stun Grenade Battle

2009-11-19T07:10:00.007Z

Film: Stun Grenade Used Against British Photojournalist

In 2003, while covering the protests against the G8 Summit in Geneva, photojournalist Guy Smallman was struck with a police stun grenade, causing a life threatening injury to the back of his left leg. Now the six year battle for justice is coming to an end.

Intially the case against illegal use of this "passive weapon" and excessive force was lost, but Smallman appealled and won the second round. The Swiss authorities then appealled the appeal. The decision on the second appeal is due tomorrow, Friday 20 November 2009.

If the court decision falls on the state side, Smallman will end up paying massive costs to the Swiss courts. In no lesser words, this well known and highly acclaimed photojournalist will end up paying the Swiss authorites for blowing off the back back of his leg.

More information on this story.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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The Changing Face of Boris

2009-11-12T00:52:00.005Z

Stills, video, print (c) 2009 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved.

All material on this blog - stills, video and print - is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive five-year video archive.

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