Police Order Tourists to Delete Photographs of Bus Station

Father and son Austrian tourists merely wanted to take photos of London's iconic double-deckers buses and admire the architectural framework of the Vauxhaul bus station, but London police forced them to delete all of their photos in a security attempt to counteract terrorism. The Guardian reports on what is a botched and foul attempt at providing 'safety' for Londoners.

Police order tourists to delete photographs of bus station

Matthew Weaver and Vikram Dodd The Guardian, Friday 17 April 2009

It is a sight as common as a red bus in London: two tourists poking their cameras at one. So Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris were hardly an object of suspicion to passersby as they snapped double-deckers on a spring holiday in the capital.

Nor were eyebrows raised when the 69-year-old retired television cameraman and his son began taking pictures of the revamped Vauxhall bus station. Tourists routinely turn their lenses on stranger sights in the city than the £4m interchange, regarded by Matzka senior as a "modern sculpture".

So the visitors from Vienna were later perplexed when, while photographing a bus station in Walthamstow, north-east London, two policemen approached them and ordered them to delete their photographs in the name of preventing terrorism. Matzka said he was told that photographing anything to do with transport was "strictly forbidden", and the officers recorded his details, including passport numbers and hotel addresses.

"I've never had these experiences anywhere, not even in communist countries," he said from Vienna after returning home without his holiday photographs. "Google Street View is allowed to show details of our cities on the web," he said. "But a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of London landmarks."

He said he would not return to London after the "nasty incident" last week.

He said he and his 15-year-old son liked to travel to unfashionable suburbs. "We like to go to places not visited by other tourists. You get to know a city by going to places like this, not central squares. Buckingham Palace is also necessary, but you need to go elsewhere to get to know the city," he said.

Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority and a Green party member of the London assembly, said she would raise the incident with the Met chief, Sir Paul Stephenson, as part of talks on the policing of the G20 protests.

"This is another example of the police completely overreaching the anti-terrorism powers," she said. "They are using it in a totally inappropriate way." The Met said it had no knowledge of a ban on photographing public transport in the capital.

In a letter to the Guardian, Matzka wrote: "I understand the need for some sensitivity in an era of terrorism, but isn't it naive to think terrorism can be prevented by terrorising tourists?"