May 2011

To mark World Press Freedom Day 2011 campaign group 'I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist!" will hold a photographers' flashmob outside City Hall today to highlight the restrictions on street photography in public spaces due to counterterrorism laws.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 which allowed the police to stop and search people without reasonable suspicion in certain conditions was repealed by the LibDem-Conservative coalition government in January 2011. It was replaced with a more tightly defined power (Section 47a) allowing stop and search powers to be used when a senior police officer has reason to suspect a terrorist attack will take place.

The coroner in charge of the inquest into the deaths of the 52 victims of the tragic 7 July 2005 London bombings Lady Justice Hallett has today given her verdict of 'unlawful killing' and delivered a set of recommendations.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman who takes a strong interest in counterterrorism policy said:

"Bereaved relatives will hopefully derive some comfort from the coroner's finding that each victim would have died whatever time the emergency services had arrived and her praise for the courage of survivors passers-by and rescue workers."

Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Madam President like others I think that Commissioner Malmström is doing a very good job but I also feel in view of President Barroso's robust defence of Schengen free movement today that I do not really understand how the notion could possibly have taken hold that the Commission's proposed EU-level mechanism is going to make it easier to reintroduce internal border controls. Yet that notion has taken hold. It could not possibly be could it that different messages are being sent to different audiences one to MEPs maybe one to Paris and Rome? The EU's migration and asylum pressures ought to be capable of effective management by competent governments.

The Danish government has announced that even though Denmark is part of the Schengen border-free area it will shortly reintroduce passport checks at its borders and build new border control facilities including video surveillance and number plate recognition for cars. It claims the move is in line with Schengen because customs officials will carry out checks randomly not systematically.

This comes after the row over North African migrants led France to reestablish checks on its border with Italy. The European Commission has allowed its subsequent green paper to be discussed by EU interior ministers today to be interpreted as advocating looser criteria for reintroducing internal border controls.