Lynn Watson Gallery
This page brings together all the publicly available photographs of the undercover officer known as Lynn Watson. The chronology shows how the police tried to delay her exposure, because she was deployed as an undercover elsewhere, as was detailed at the main Lynn Watson page.
Where known, any date, location, subject and rights information will be given with a picture. Corrections and additions welcome, if you know when and where a photo was taken, or if you have material to add to the gallery, please get in touch.
Also see:
Contents
Guardian disguises Lynn, but Indymedia does not, 13 January 2011
In its initial report on the unmasking of 'Lynn Watson' as ‘Officer A’, The Guardian acceded to police requests not to publish her work name or likeness and printed only a pixelated photograph of her.[1] However, full face shots of Lynn were dug out and posted up on reports on Indymedia UK the same day.[2]
Undated ‘Lynn Watson’ photo
Undated ‘Lynn Watson’ photo
Photograph of ‘Lynn Watson’ from 2004
Cat out of the bag, 19 January 2011
By 19 January, The Guardian published an unobscured photograph of ‘Watson’ as well as naming her by her pseudonym.[3] Meanwhile, the ActivistSecurity website posted two previously unseen photographs of ‘Watson’ (with backgrounds cropped out), along with a statement regarding her activities in a number of activist groups.[4]
Undated ‘Lynn Watson’ photo used in the Guardian
Undated ‘Lynn Watson’ photo - ActivistSecurity.org
Undated ‘Lynn Watson’ photo - ActivistSecurity.org
Video material used by Channel 4 News and posted to YouTube, 25 January and 7 February 2011
Channel 4 News obtained footage of ‘Watson’ in action in Leeds in 2004, in which she was dressed as a clown as part of a Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) action against the Iraq war. The report was broadcast on 25 January, with an accompanying article on the Channel 4 website.[5]
A seven minute video featuring 'Lynn Watson' was posted to YouTube by Journeyman Pictures. "The video shows her participating in protests in Yorkshire in 2004 against the US/UK invasion of Iraq. She is seen with the non-violent radical group known as the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army - aka CIRCA - shaking her backside outside a government MP's office, playing cricket with a feather duster outside a military recruitment office in Leeds and doing the hokey cokey to a police line at the US military's Menwith Hill spy base. [...] This footage was shot primarily by Zoe Young while embedded as a journalist in the Clown Army. She edited this report in 2011, incorporating video shot by John Daniel at Menwith Hill on the 4th of July 2004."[6]
‘Lynn Watson’ in a screengrab from a 2004 Channel 4 News video.
Screengrab of ‘Lynn Watson’ - Zoe Young video.
Indymedia and other activist websites
Following her unmasking in January 2011, Lynn was spotted in a number of previously published photographs on sites including Indymedia UK.
The first is a series of pictures from a protest at Menwith Hill, 4 July 2004
‘Lynn Watson’ - front right, leaning forward.
‘Lynn Watson’ - centre, leaning forward and touching nose.
‘Lynn Watson’ - on left of huddle in camouflage jacket.
‘Lynn Watson’ - furthest left.
‘Lynn Watson’ - furthest left.
Most other photographs are from another day of action in Leeds, 2 July, and one taken in the Common Place:
Full photograph of ‘Lynn Watson’ from CIRCA action in Leeds, July 2004, subsequently cropped for 13 January 2011 Indymedia report
Protest at military recruitment offices in Leeds, 2 July 2004, ‘Lynn Watson’ - centre, bending over behind table.
Protest at Labour Party office in Leeds, 2 July 2004,‘Lynn Watson’ - bottom right bringing up the rear.
Lynn Watson working on The Common Place building prior to its opening in 2005.
Notes
- ↑ Paul Lewis, Rob Evans & Vikram Dodd, ‘Revealed: Second undercover police officer who posed as activist’, The Guardian, 13/01/11 (accessed 10 May 2014).
- ↑ quiteliketheguardianactually, ‘Officer A’, Indymedia UK, 13/01/11 (accessed 10 May 2014).
- ↑ Rajeev Syal & Martin Wainwright, ‘Undercover police: Officer A named as Lynn Watson’, The Guardian, 19/01/11 (accessed 10 May 2014).
- ↑ ActivistSecurity.org collective, ‘ActivistSecurity.org statement on Lynn Watson’, ActivistSecurity.org blog, 19 January 2011 (accessed 10 May 2014).
- ↑ Channel 4 News, ‘‘Undercover police officer’ filmed in clown costume’, Channel 4 News website, 25 January 2011 (accessed 10 May 2014).
- ↑ Zoe Young, ‘Undercover Clown Cop: Lynn Watson – UK’, uploaded by Journeyman Pictures, YouTube, 07/02/11 (accessed 10 May 2014).
