The National Photography Symposium's panel debate on photographing in public proved a hit with delegates, with Jess Hurd, David Hoffman and Andrew Wiard speaking to a packed room in Manchester's beautiful Chetham Library.

The three speakers considered various ways in which photographers' right to photograph in public is currently restricted in the UK. Wiard, referencing Princess Caroline of Monaco's ground-breaking case at the European Court of Human Rights, discussed individuals' "reasonable expectation of privacy" and how this is applied to public places. Hurd recounted her experience of police use of the 2000 Terrorism Act and 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act, including how it has incorrectly stopped her legitimate press work. Hurd was searched at the 2008 Climate Change Camp despite showing her press card, for example, and recently won an written apology from the force as a result. Hoffman, meanwhile, described the increasing surveillance of photographers by the Forward Intelligence Team, a part of the UK police force which uses photography and film to record demonstrations. Members of the audience, meanwhile, added their experiences of photographic restriction in privately-owned public spaces such as shopping malls.

'I urge photographers to read up on their rights and, if they are unlawfully stopped, to publicise it as widely as possible,' said Hurd. 'This could be via the media, their union or their colleges if they're students. It doesn't matter how we do it, the important thing is that we keep the issue under discussion.'