ITN's John Battle: Footage orders 'undermine our role'

The head of compliance for ITN, John Battle, has said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that being subject to "wide-ranging" orders by police to hand over footage "undermines our role to report independently".

His comments follow a recent production order made against ITN, BBC, BSkyB and Hardcash Productions, as well as Jason Parksinson, a freelance video journalist, for footage taken during the first two days of the Dale Farm evictions.

The NUJ is appealing the order on behalf of Parkinson, and the broadcasters are also applying for a judicial review.

At the time John Hardie, chief executive officer at ITN, released a statement to say the broadcaster is "very concerned about the seemingly automatic assumption from the police that they can demand access to un-broadcast editorial material as a matter of course".

Hardie also commented on the "wide-ranging" nature of the Dale Farm order.

Speaking on the Today programme this morning John Battle said orders for footage from the media need to be more "specific".

"There is a fundamental principle at stake here," he told the radio programme earlier today. "What we're talking about is respect for the role of the news organisation to report independently and impartially. Amongst the broadcasters – Sky, ITN, the BBC – we have recently been subject to wide-ranging orders from police which we believe undermines our role to report independently".

"We're not evidence gatherers for the police," he added. "Our role should be respected."

Chief constable Andy Trotter, media advisor to the Association of Chief Police Officers, also appeared on the Today programme.

He said "we certainly want the camera crews to go about their jobs unmolested and we want to make sure they're not seen as an arm of the law".

But he added that police "have an overriding duty to gather all the evidence available, both for prosecution and defence.

"And the test we have to take to the judge, and this is a judge who decides, is a stringent test, there's got to be a serious crime.

"This is not something we can just do willy-nilly," he said.

"We found that by gathering all the available evidence, it not only helps prosecution but in fact in one Dale Farm case it helped the defence as result of some material Essex police got from the media."

Battle added that the Dale Farm case involves an order for all footage captured over 36 hours, and that such orders "should be more specific".

"Clearly broadcasters have to act responsibly, but we shouldn't simply be viewed as an evidence gatherer, it's important we're independent from the police.

Trotter insisted that "these matters are not taken lightly", adding: "Let's see what happens on the judicial review on Dale Farm and we can reflect on things afterwards."

Battle added: "What we want to avoid is the perception in some way that independent broadcasters are attached to the police – we're not, we're arms length of the police."

He added that there is a "difference in speaking to the news organisation and speaking to police", for those who appear in news footage, and that this "has to be addressed".

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