Worldwrite is a Hackney education charity which teaches youths how to make film, putting out the efforts made by 16-25 year olds on the web as an alternative news channel, Worldbytes.org, and increasingly they are running into the same problems many of us face when taking photographs on the street.

Under English law, photography and filming is allowed in public places. You don't need to get anyone's permission or a licence to film on the streets, but more and more some people are taking it into their hands to try and stop it happening. As Worldwrite say: "we are finding it increasingly difficult to film in public places in Hackney: security guards, community wardens and self-appointed 'jobsworths' are refusing us 'permission' to film on many of our streets."

On Sunday 18 October, Worldbytes visited several of what they call 'film-free places' in Hackney where their crews have run into difficulties and photographing to make a film about the problem, coming as a group to challenge these attempts to restrict our freedom, talking and interviewing people and handing out fliers explaining what they were doing and why.

I took photographs in the market in support of them and was also interviewed for the film they were making.Increasingly photographers are having to stand up and fight for the right to photograph in public spaces, through organisations such as 'I'm a photographer not a terrorist'  http://photographernotaterrorist.org who organised a flash-mob at Canary Wharf last month.

Photography and film are important media of visual expression, and the freedom to take pictures, especially about the society in which we live, is a vital part of the freedom of expression that makes our society a free society – and we all need to be vigilant to keep it free.

A longer article with more pictures on Demotix:
 http://www.demotix.com/news/worldbytes-defends-freedom-film

and more pictures of Ridley Road Market to follow on My London Diary.