Sports event organizers may be the ones crossing the line in trying to stamp out “sneak photography.”
The organizers want to prevent the competitors from becoming victims of sneak photographers who snap shots of the athletes’ underwear or private parts and spread the images on the internet.
But police involvement is difficult because of a lack of legal grounds. Public nuisance ordinances on sneak photography, for example, do not specifically cover sporting events.
And when organizers kick out suspicious photographers from the venues, the move is often based on their instincts and they can be wrong.
In early December, a men’s wrestling competition for college students was held in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, without spectators because of the novel coronavirus.