Can a councillor or councillors sit out of shot of a recording of a meeting?

Question

I have recently started recording the meetings of my town council, which hasn't proven popular with some colleagues. One colleague in particular insists on sitting out of shot of the recording, and someone who will shortly be joining the council after being elected unopposed has also indicated they will do the same.

Is this proper and allowed?

Answer 1

They can't stop you recording the meeting but they don't have to be on camera if they don't want to be.

Comments

Are you sure that "they don't have to be on camera if they don't want to be"?

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Yes. If they want to move out of shot they can. Nothing stopping you moving the camera to get them back in shot and nothing stopping them moving again. Not sure there's precedent on who would be considered to be disrupting the meeting if that happened. I'd argue it was the person recording who could reasonably assume that having moved once they would move again and that would disrupt the meeting. I'm not a judge, they might come to a different conclusion.

Answer 2

Just change your camera angle to include them.
A council cannot prevent audio / video recording of an open council meeting (by anyone present) neither can they prevent audio / video recording of a closed session by anyone present.
The only way a Cllr (or anyone participating in the meeting) can avoid being recorded is by absentting themself.
Have fun and don’t let them try to suggest YOU are disrupting the meeting by filming - filming is perfectly lawful and appropriate and anyone that resists or objects is disrupting the meeting.
This is such an old issue there really shouldn’t be any resistance anymore…