This was originally posted on Marc’s blog

So what is it going to be like to document the Climate Camp next week?

My colleague Paul Lewis – who I have worked with on investigations into police surveillance of protesters and journalists, covert state targeting of environmental activists and police violence – has written an interesting article about how the Metropolitan Police are “overhauling its tactics for policing protests by reaching out to activists”. The Public Order Branch of the Met – C011 – has even set up a Twitter account! And yes I am following them.

A group of activists from the Climate Camp went on a day trip to the Met’s public order training centre in Gravesend yesterday and I’m told that representatives from the National Union of Journalists also went to Gravesend yesterday to work on relations between the media and the police in a public order context.

So is this just public relations or a real change in policing of protest?

Activist Kevin Blowe – writing on his Blog on wednesday thinks climate activists should steer clear of the “police charm offensive” and Guy Aitchison – a contributing editor at openDemocracy makes the point that, “if the Met were at all serious about becoming a facilitator of peaceful protest, rather than an obstacle to it, they would abandon the apparatus of control and surveillance they’ve brought in recent years which seems designed to intimidate protesters and makes them feel like criminals.”

For me the test will be on the ground next week. Bottom line – will the Met respect the right to protest and the right of the media report it?

I’m sure some in the media will buy into the narrative the Met is spinning – I for one feel it is our job to report on events and not to treat a media strategy from New Scotland Yard as fact.

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