Close Menu
    Gardaí warn about aggressive 'citizen journalists' filming them and posting 'clipped' videos
    Ireland

    Gardaí warn about aggressive ‘citizen journalists’ filming them and posting ‘clipped’ videos


    Gardaí warn about aggressive ‘citizen journalists’ filming them and posting ‘clipped’ videos

    https://www.thejournal.ie/garda-citizen-journalists-auditors-amanda-flood-calls-for-protections-from-social-media-filming-6678403-Apr2025/

    Posted by Jaisyjaysus69

    View 18 Comments

    18 Comments

    1. Bill_Badbody on

      I’d say it’s fair annoying to be going about your mundane standard duties and have some gobshite shove a camera in your face and try and goad you.

    3. micar11 on

      The “journalists” call them “audits”.

      Saw one last week……English guys recording the police on The Netherlands. The guys found out very quickly that the police didn’t take any of their crap.

    4. irish_guy on

      They’re annoying and strange people in my opinion.

      If they get no reaction, they get no clips – I have seen some of the clips where the Garda just waffles about it being illegal to record people in public without their consent which is the exact type of nonsense these ‘auditors’ want to hear to start argument.

      Gardai should; turn body cam on, ignore them if not doing anything illegal.

      Also if you’re a victim of a crime you’d expect to be taken to a private room, not explain the problem in a lobby.

    5. commit10 on

      They’re a nuisance, sure, but they shouldn’t be able to get inappropriate reactions at all, even with clipping. 

      The Gardaí should all be required to have body cameras turned on at all times. They’ve resisted doing this, and that tells an ugly story.

      I’m a very quiet and well behaved person, but had a run in with the Gardaí. I said a few unkind things while being detained and strip searched because I knew full well that I’d done nothing wrong and was unhappy about being needlessly humiliated. Their report completely rewrote the whole encounter and there was nothing I could do because it was my word against theirs. That would never have happened with body cameras. Fortunately it was dismissed, but I can see how other people might have ended up with a more grim outcome in the same scenario.

      I doubt it’ll ever happen again, but my takeaways were to say as little as possible and to immediately start recording everything.

    6. Gold-Public844 on

      Lets call a spade spade. “Citizen Journalist” is a made up term that these right wing conspiracy theorists use to get around trespassing, harassment and defamation laws. 

      “Im a citizen journalist investigating public concerns about this building” sounds better than “I’m scoping this place out so my fellow racists can burn it down later”

    8. Several-Ad-6958 on

      Just because a few are clowns with cameras, doesn’t mean it’s a valid excuse for blanket censorship. This could violate civil liberties for anyone who might come into contact with the Gardai.

    11. Available_Dish_1880 on

      I loved the time they were a few going around Kildare Street calling RTÉ and the other media as traitors and then had a go at the Nuacht reporter and camera crew who were doing a live report

      “An bhfuil aon Gaelige agat?” asked the reporter which left them scrambling for an Irish speaker. They claimed they had one but we never found out.

      Bualadh bos Nuacht 👏

    12. Larrydog on

      Think how much less trouble there would have been in the Anglo world back in 2020 if the police were not recorded without their consent in Minneapolis during George Floyd’s death.

      The only people who record the police are Far-Right, racist, citizen journalists. Trouble makers should be arrested and their phones seized+destroyed.

    13. caitnicrun on

       ‘citizen journalists’ aka gobshites with phones.

      Shouldn’t privacy laws sort these people out?

    14. Accurate_ManPADS on

      The biggest problem I have with these clowns is when they try to record the interactions between witnesses to crimes or victims and guards. People who have just been the victim of a crime or a witness to a crime shouldn’t have to put up with a clown shoving a camera in their face.

    16. calex80 on

      The best one was when that clown got lifted at the riot in Coolock. “I’m a journalist” Gardá “No your not” and arrests him.

    17. miseconor on

      Do not allow a few far right loons to be used as an excuse to bring in authoritarian restrictions around filming gardai.

      I’m sure it’s annoying, tough. They are public servants in a public space.