“We must be the only country in the world where you could get a criminal record for taking a picture of a rock,” said Ken Duncan, the Chairman of Arts Freedom Australia.

“And because of this shameful situation, I am asking photographers and other concerned citizens to protest against the undemocratic regulations which now restrict film-making and photography in many of our public places,” Mr Duncan added.

To this end, Arts Freedom Australia (AFA) will hold a rally near Campbells Cove on Sydney Harbour on Sunday, August 29th between 10am and 12 noon to reinforce its message. “We need to make the Australian public aware of this threat to our freedoms,” Mr Duncan said.

“Because I am sure that they will support our campaign.” Founded in 2004, Arts Freedom Australia is an umbrella body representing Australia?s major photographic associations as well as many individual photographers. AFA was formed because of an industry-wide concern about government policies that were turning Australia into a land of “forbidden horizons”.

AFA has recently completed a comparative study of legislation and policies imposed on photographers and film-makers within Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America. “The result of this study demonstrates that the rights of Australian photographers and film-makers are being seriously affected by a myriad of rules and regulations that impose prohibitive restrictions, high fees, and bureaucratic application protocols,” Mr Duncan said.

“What we should have in this country are simple rules – like they have in America?s national parks – which allow photography to be carried out in all places where the public can go.” Mr Duncan began his career as a landscape photographer more than thirty years ago at a time when access to beaches, national parks and other public lands was not an issue. “I was very lucky that I began my photographic career at a time when there were much greater freedoms than there are today,” Mr Duncan said. “But I want the young photographers of today and those who will succeed them in the decades to come to enjoy those same freedoms that I once had.”

Mr Duncan cites the photographic restrictions at Uluru, the “photographic licences? required in the national parks of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Regulation 2006 and the onerous Use of Public Open Space regulations of Sydney?s Waverley Council as attacks on freedom of expression.

“Australia has been a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since 1980 and one of the articles of the ICCPR states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression and the right to impart information and ideas of all kinds whether it?s in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media,” Mr Duncan said.