In recent news, it is reported that the authorities are clamping down hard on street photographers in Malaysia. At a glance, it seems like street photography is now banned in the country. However, that is not true, what the news reports were referring to were not street photographers, but photo touts. It is quite sad to watch how poor journalism and classic misreporting has caused so much confusion and misinformed the public about what street photographers actually do. No, it is still perfectly legal and safe to practice street photography in Malaysia. I have also made a video to talk about this topic, you can see it here (click).
I have received a few comments on my YouTube channel and some emails from very concerned subscribers and readers about the street photography situation in Malaysia. From the news, it was quite obvious that the government is cracking down on street photography, and somehow it has become illegal to do street shooting here. As a street photographer myself, I too, got shocked when I heard about what these people told me. Thankfully I am physically here in Malaysia, and I know where the confusion comes from. They were obviously referring to photo touts, not street photographers.
What are photo touts? They are a group of people, sometimes very large group (30-40 at a time) roaming around KLCC Twin Towers area, targeting tourists, offering their photo services. They would push their services and harass the passerbys, following them and threatening them with very unkind words, becoming aggressive and intimidating. The photo touts have existed for a long time, since more than 10 years ago as I can remember. Not only causing nuisance to the public, they also disrupt traffic flow on the roads, as they would walk dangerously around the places just to get the shots they want.
Basically, these photo touts operate with a proper licence or permit, and the issue is not so much of their illegal business that the government was trying to eradicate, but it was the public annoyance. I am pretty sure the city council and KLCC management both have received thousands of complaints from tourists and locals alike, all pointing to the trashy behaviours of these photo touts that just plagued the whole area, causing so much public disturbance. When they were blindly walking around the roads, that was when safety becomes an issue. Enough is enough, and the authorities have been trying several methods to eliminate these photo touts.
For whatever strange reasons, the larger news sites (from outside of Malaysia) now picked up these stories and republish them recently. Instead of calling these people photo touts, they were labelled as street photographers, which was a massive miscalculation. Honestly, such a mistake can get some heads rolling.
Street photography is nothing like what the photo touts are doing. We street photographers roam the streets for all the different reasons. We are not doing street photography to earn money, we shoot for the fun of it, it is a hobby and we shoot the photographs for ourselves, not for others. It is a completely harmless activity. Furthermore, we do not harass the people in the public spaces, we have always been cordial and respectful and try to blend in, being discrete without causing a scene. Good street photographers move around undetected, and get the best natural shots as seen in real life. Street photography can be both journalistic or artistic, something which photo touts do not even care about. We try to find the perfect moment, the beautiful lighting, the dramatic action, all coming together to make the "wow" shot. It does not intrude, it does not cause nuisance, it is perfectly safe and peaceful.
I just don't see how some writers fail to do their due diligence and proper research before throwing the street photographers under the bus with their erroneous stories. Come on, we live in the age of Ai and Internet, just a few clicks away, you can save yourself from such an unnecessary mistake.
I hope this article has successfully debunked the false news - no, street photography is not banned in Malaysia, and it is safe to roam around the public spaces with your camera and do some street shooting. Let's hope the news sites exercise more caution and proper reviews before publishing their future articles.
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