Photographer fined for court shot
Ian Gerard
April 29, 2006
A NEWSPAPER photographer who entered a watch-house car park to take a picture of a policeman has been fined $600.
Freelancer Eddie Safarik was working for The Australian on March 3 when he entered the car park to photograph Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley during the inquest into the death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee.
He was arrested later that day and had a laptop computer, three cameras and photographic equipment seized.
Townsville magistrate David Glasgow said yesterday he accepted that Safarik was doing his job but told the court he should not have followed the car in which Sergeant Hurley was travelling into the car park beneath the court building, and a fine was appropriate.
He said the town's courthouse building had not been updated since 1975.
"The watch-house is an inadequate facility for the courts in Townsville ... and it's a matter of grave concern to me in any event, the inadequacy of our facilities in this city," he said.
"Anyone going into the watch-house has the potential to cause alarm and concern to anyone working there."
Safarik's lawyer Doug McKinstry said he was fulfilling his obligations as a photojournalist at the time of his arrest and had requested police withdraw their charge on the basis "it was not in the public interest".
"He didn't fully appreciate the building he was entering formed part of the watch-house," he told the court.
Police had obtained a search warrant for Safarik's hotel room on the grounds that he had taken "images of the internal layout of the Townsville watch-house".
Safarik said outside court that he was surprised at the reaction of the police. "I was just doing my job," he said.
