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PHOTOGRAPHERS AND JOURNALISTS working during the violence in Belfast on Tuesday night were told by rioters to put their phones away and warned not to film them.
One photographer told The Journal that some media were physically assaulted by rioters, while others were warned to leave certain areas.
People were forced to flee their homes as multiple cars and homes were set alight after violence erupted following a knife attack in the city on Monday night. A 30-year-old man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder in relation to that incident.
Before the unrest began, messages were reportedly circulated in group chats urged those gathering in the area to dress in dark clothes, cover their faces and to leave their phones at home
One X account with over 130,000 follows said Belfast was “on lockdown”. In a separate post, the account said: “Wear a mask. Whatever you do just wear a mask.” Several other anonymous accounts on the platform shared posts such as “mask up” and “no phones”.
A post shared in one ‘concerned parents’ group in Newtownabbey on Monday afternoon said they were asked to tell anyone with a Ring camera doorbell or CCTV should make sure it is turned off from 6pm.
Our reporter was at the McDonald’s restaurant beside the landmark ‘Rise’ sculpture close to the Royal Victoria Hospital. The restaurant had to close, as did all surrounding shops. One woman there wanted to visit her relative who was in the hospital, but decided against it.
Hundreds of people blocked access to what is usually a very busy roundabout leading in and out of Belfast.
None of the protesters had their phones out, and our reporter received a lot of attention when he took his phone out.
After taking this photo of burned out houses in East Belfast, two local lads scrolled through my phone photo library to ensure I hadn’t captured any faces, telling me “with no animosity, like” to “fuck away off before you get kneecapped” pic.twitter.com/7PTBQuVvTq
— Aris Roussinos (@arisroussinos) June 9, 2026
Aris Roussinos, a journalist with Unherd magazine who was reporting from east Belfast, said that after asking a woman for an interview in east Belfast, two men overheard him and went through the camera roll on his phone to make sure he had not captured the faces of anyone there.
He reported that one of the men told him “with no animosity, like, don’t be asking any more questions. We don’t want any journalists down here”, before warning him to “fuck away off and get on home before you get kneecapped”.
Some photo agencies made the decision not to include the bylines of photographers working in the area on their work for safety reasons. It’s a decision press agencies and organisations have taken in the past during violent incidents, such as the Dublin riots in 2023.
One press photographer who was working in the city told The Journal that they and other journalists and photographers mostly worked with mobile phones instead of using professional cameras so that they would not stand out.
“Only when it got very dark did I get the cameras out,” they said. “I did get told several times ‘put that phone away’”.
The photographer said the rioters were “very strict” about phones, even among themselves.
“Anybody who was seen to be filming with phones had the phones taken off them or thrown on the floor, or they were assaulted by other rioters.”
They said people from both unionist and nationalist backgrounds were “working together” at interfaces in the city, something they had never seen before.
“Crowds who would normally be throwing rocks at each other were mingling together and jointly stopping traffic. They were basically manning checkpoints, and some people got through the checkpoints and others didn’t, depending on your skin colour.”
Some photographers were physically assaulted near Yorkgate shopping centre, while a Sky News crew was “frog marched out of East Belfast by a crowd”, they said.
GB News’s Charlie Peters reported that when he and his cameraman attempted to film houses on fire in the city, they were warned “in no uncertain terms to not get any closer” by men in masks and moved away.
I was present when the masked yob threatened this news crew; I told the thug in no uncertain terms that we have a free press in this country. My thoughts are with those who live in the communities aftected by the violence. https://t.co/duw36LiuqM
— Jon Burrows MLA (@JonBurrowsMLA) June 9, 2026
He said one man who went up and told them to leave was interrupted by the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Jon Burrows.
In a post on X, Burrows said he told the man “in no uncertain terms that we have a free press in this country”, adding that his thoughts were with those living in the communities affected by the violence.
The photographer said those taking part in the violence were a mix of ages, from young teenagers to more “experienced rioters”. They said it was clear there had been organisation beforehand, adding that some of those present were “very cautious”.
In one interaction they observed, a protester was filming a crowd who was just standing on the street not doing anything.
“One of the other guys said to him, ‘put that phone away’, and he said, ‘ sure there’s nothing happening’. The other guy said, ‘Yeah, there’s nothing happening now, but later on, we’ll be wearing the same clothes.”
They also said it was “frightening how quickly it all got violent” in different areas around Northern Ireland.
“Normally when I cover riots, the police come in and completely lock the whole place off But this was Portadown, East Belfast, North Belfast, South Belfast, all at the same time,” they said. “It seemed to be planned that way.”
The scenes have been widely condemned by political leaders in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and in Britain.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill condemned the “outright thuggery”.
She said: “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the acts of violence and arson that followed the knife attack “are totally unjustified”, adding that leaders were “united in calling for calm”.
During Leaders’ Questions, Taoiseach Micheál Martin condemned threats made against Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast Róis-Máire Donnelly after party leader Mary Lou McDonald raised the matter.
“Such threats are appalling and must be roundly condemned,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it’s become an increasing phenomenon in this era that there are increasing numbers of threats to public representatives across the board, and to threaten the lord mayor in the context of yesterday and the day before is appalling, and has to be condemned.”
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