Police officers file complaint over mobile recording

Two Bruges police officers have filed a criminal complaint against a man who filmed them with his phone as they interviewed a number of people on a bar terrace in the city, despite being asked to stop. The man not only continued filming, he also uploaded the recording of the incident to YouTube, where the officers and patrons are clearly identifiable.

The officers consider the filming a breach of their privacy, according to Dirk Van Nuffel, Bruges chief of police. Whenever images of any person – police or civilian – are put online, he said, the express permission of the person is required. “In this case permission was not given and was in fact refused.”

Belgium’s Privacy Commission offered the opinion that anyone has the right to refuse to be filmed in a public space, including the police. The member of the public who ignored a police instruction to stop filming could risk a fine, said spokesperson Eva Wiertz.

“If anyone is being filmed and asks the person filming to stop, it would be a breach of privacy to continue,” Wiertz said. “However, the public interest would also have to be taken into account together with the right to privacy. In the case of the filming of extreme police violence, for example, the right to privacy would of course be of lesser importance.”

Those opinions are in conflict, however, with the outgoing government. In April this year, in response to a parliamentary question, federal interior minister Joëlle Milquet said: “The simple fact that a citizen photographs a police intervention is not in itself an offence.”

Police do not have the power to demand photos or videos be deleted, and nothing may be seized without an order from a magistrate.