The First Step to Winning "the War on Photography" is to Know Your Rights

Via Instapundit comes this excellent law review article about how post-9/11 law enforcement locking down our rights to take pictures (even as technology makes that a whole lot easier):

Ameliorating what scholars have labeled "the War on Photography" will require the efforts of both the organized media and grassroots organizations. Both should seek to educate people about their legal rights and increase the public's awareness of abuses described. The organized media needs to dedicate the resources necessary to defend those charged with crimes and to pressure courts and legislatures to make and interpret law in a way that holds officials accountable for their actions.

These and other efforts are needed to prevent the continuation of widespread abuse of photography and newsgathering rights. The meaningful remedies needed to preserve the right to free press and expression are currently lacking. In the words of one scholar, "[t]he death of a free press can occur not only by a dictator's edict but by slow erosion, one case at a time."

Read the whole article by Morgan Leigh Manning, a former research assistant to Glenn Reynolds at the Univ. of Tennessee Law School.

Reason is doing its part in this battle. Check out our January 2011 cover story, The War on Cameras, and watch this Reason.tv documentary on the same subject: