Hi all,
Seeing the interest in this topic I decided to do some cursory research into
Singapore laws concerning Photography.
It is misleading to query whether photographers have a right to take photos because such a question seems to imply that there is a substantive legal rule that must be found as the basis for that right. But there are no such explicit rights. Singapores legal system is based on the British common law system. The fundamental principle is that anything that is not prohibited is permitted. For example, nobody would begrudge you the right to take a photo of yourself in your own house.
There are, however, several legal restrictions on the taking of photographs:
(a) People. When you take photographs of strangers or of property belonging to strangers, it could amount to
harassment. Unlike other jurisdictions such as the UK, Singapore does not have legislation regarding harassment, but the tort of harassment has been recognised in the case of Malcomson v Narseh Kumar Mehta [2001] 4 SLR 454. Having said that, it is unlikely that taking a photo would amount to harassment because the legal requirement is that there must be a course of conduct that causes alarm and not a single incident. As far as I know Singapore does not have any other privacy laws.
(b) Private property. Owners of private property cannot stop you from taking photos of their property from public areas (unless it amounts to harassment as described above). If you are in private property such as a shopping centre, the owner of the private property can exercise control over the terms of entry. For example, many museums and concert venues impose a prohibition on photography as one of the terms of entry into the premises. If you ignore those prohibitions or enter the property without permission, you may be liable in
trespass.
Note, however, that in both instances (a) and (b)
your digital images remain strictly your own property and others cannot compel you to delete your digital files or hand it over to them. If they take it by force, you have a legal course of action against them through the tort of conversion.
(c) It is best not to venture into military bases, restricted areas of airports etc where you may fall foul of the
Official Secrets Act. Section 4(1) states that any person who within a prohibited place has any apparatus for taking or making photographs in his possession without a permit in writing in that behalf signed by the competent authority shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $200. Your camera may also be seized. See section 4(2).
(d) You cannot take a photograph inside a
court. That is why you never ever see pictures of criminals undergoing trial.
(e) Check pornography laws (Penal Code, section 292(a)) if you are into nudes.
Thats all for now, feel free to raise questions or comments