The British Home Office has rejected a Freedom of Information request filed by the British Journal of Photography seeking the list of all areas where police officers are authorised to stop-and-search photographers under the Terrorism Act (2000).

The controversial Act of Parliament, put into force in 2001, allows Chief Constables to request authorisation from the Home Secretary to define an area in which any constable in uniform is able to stop and search any person or vehicle for the prevention of acts of terrorism. The authorisation, which can be given orally, must be renewed every 28 days and only covers the areas specified in the Chief Constables’ requests.

Believe it or not, a genuine official poster displayed in London c. 2003

While it is common knowledge that the entire City of London, at the behest of the Metropolitan Police, is covered by the legislation, it remains unclear which other areas in England and Wales have requested the stop-and-search powers.After growing concerns from BJP readers, some of whom say they have been abusively stopped from taking pictures around the country, news editor Olivier Laurent filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Home Office on 24 April. The request asked for a ‘full list of all areas – in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – subject to Section 44 Terrorism Act 2000 authorisations, which the Home Office has a statutory duty to be aware of.’

Yesterday’s Observer newspaper reports allegations that G20 police ‘used undercover men to incite crowds‘.

The British Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament Tom Brake is calling for an inquiry into the incident, which took place in April during the London G-20 meeting. Let’s hope there is a real inquiry that gets to the truth – and that the truth is made public.

Inspector Chris Dreyfus of London's Metropolitan Police: a most interesting cv

Some scepticism is merited – because there has been no apparent follow-up so far to a similar, corroborated allegation made after a demonstration in London last year.

In that case, credible witnesses reported that they saw a police officer – Chris Dreyfus – inciting the crowd during President Bush’s visit in June 2008. The story made a brief stir, but there’s been official silence ever since – even from George Galloway MP, one of the witnesses who initially named Dreyfus as the suspected agent provocateur.

Are London’s Metropolitan Police – and Britain’s entire political establishment and mass media – so corrupt and/or intimidated they can no longer fulfil basic investigative roles in cases such as this?

First, the current story. The Observer reports that a British MP, who was present at last month’s G20 protests in London, will call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Tom Brake MP: his eye-witness account suggested police provocateurs were active at the G-20 demonstrations

The campaign to keep a free internet has lost an articulate, technically-savvy advocate.

On Thursday 19th February, a man went missing overnight in Southsea, near Portsmith on the English south coast. His name was Paul Vigay. Friends and colleagues discussed his disappearance on a newsgroup. Tragically, the next morning, Paul’s body was discovered in the sea.

Paul Vigay: he would have been suspicious...

February is not swimming weather on the south coast of England. There are no reports that Mr Vigay was in any way suicidal. Yet without missing a beat, local police are reported as saying the death is “not being treated as suspicious.”

The local Portsmith media, also without comment, reports:  “Police say they are not treating the death of the 44-year-old as suspicious, and are not looking for anyone else in connection with it”

From half a world away, it’s impossible to know what happened to this unfortunate man. But it is possible to learn that Paul Vigay had other interests, not reported in the mainstream newspaper articles (although they do like to report the IT worker’s longstanding interest in ‘crop circles’).

Vigay was a dedicated 9-11 Truth activist. He also didn’t believe the official story about the ‘no inquest, no inquiry’ July 7th bombings in Britain. He was also a passionate advocate for web freedom.

Paul Vigay wrote about these subjects and published his material on the web. His websites are still online at the time of writing:

• Vigay.com