January 10, 2006

Filmmaker sues over post-9/11 filming restrictions

In what may be the first legal challenge to New York's post-9/11 restrictions on taking pictures in some public spaces, an award-winning Indian documentary-maker today sued the city after he was detained for four hours in 2005 and ordered stop filming, Reuters is reporting.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of Rakesh Sharma, whose films include "Final Solution," about the killing of Muslims in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat, and for "Aftershocks," on the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat.

Sharma was using a a hand-held camera in Midtown for a film about New York taxi drivers. The suit notes he is dark-skinned and bearded, and that Sharma saw white people filming in the same spot without being hassled by the police.

Sharma has a blog, where he discusses his arrest.

Earlier: NYPD: no need for subway camera ban

January 10, 2006 05:40 PM in Etceterology

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