Essex Police has won a court tussle giving in the right to obtain media footage from the Dale Farm eviction.

It will now scour through video footage and photographs taken by TV crews, photographers and journalists last October in a bid to identify more protesters who assaulted police officers.

The case went to Chelmsford Magistrates Court in December after a number of journalists, including the BBC, ITN and Sky News and some freelancers refused to hand over all their footage.

They argued it would hinder their ability to work as journalists in the future at protests and other similar events if they were seen to be evidence gatherers for the state.

However, the court has ruled it is in the public interest for police to be able to view the footage in the interest of crime detetction.

An Essex Police spokesman said: “We have been granted the right to obtain relevant footage from the media organisations that were present during the enforcemnent action during October 2011.

The material is expected to be handed over to the police in the next few weeks. We wil then proceed to identify those individuals who committed crimes at Dale Farm.”