**This post is part of an ongoing series that showcases users and videos from the Hub**
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"In Colombia, there is freedom of expression. You can say whatever you want, but after that they kill you or they mark you and kill you." - Manuel Rosental, Journalist in exile
By: Grace Lile, Posted: Oct 21 09
The indispensable folks at American University's Center for Social Media have published a new report: Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work. The report addresses issues include staging and reenactments, editing, paying subjects, protecting vulnerable or endangered subjects, reusing footage for other purposes, and using archival materials. It finds that while most documentarians consider ethics to be at the heart of what they do, they face considerable challenges due to resource constraints and a lack of standards for confronting ethical dilemmas.
It's Blog Action Day 2009 and 13000 bloggers (and the number keeps growing) from 155 countries are joining forces to spark a global conversation about climate change. We're participating by highlighting 10 videos that help illustrate the connection between the climate crisis and human rights. Watch, and then get involved. The United Nations Climate Change Conference is quickly approaching and groups like TckTckTck and 350.org are helping organize events around the world to pressure global leaders to take decisive action at the meeting in December. You can take part too -
UPDATE, 7 JANUARY 2010: As groundviews' citizen journalist Sanjana Hattotuwa tells us in the comments field below, the UN has just confirmed the authenticity of the video and called on the Sri Lankan government to take appropriate action. Read the full press release here (thanks Sanjana!).
UPDATE, 15 DECEMBER: According to an independent investigator specializing in video forensics hired by The Times (UK), the Sri Lanka execution video is indeed authentic. According to the investigator, who is an instructor at the FBI National Academy, the video contains no evidence of editing, digital manipulation, or other special effects, but does contain subtle details consistent with a real shooting, such as smoke coming from gun barrels after shots are fired. Additionally, the expert found strong evidence that actors were not used - at that range, blanks would still cause serious injury or death, and the victims fall backward in a very realistic motion after being shot. The video was also found to have an embedded code matching the software found in Nokia mobile phones (The Sri Lankan government's investigators had claimed the video was shot on a sophisticated camera, not a mobile phone, as Channel 4 News had said).
Also contributing to the mounting evidence against the Sri Lankan government are the statements of retired General Sarath Fonseka, who claims that Sri Lankan Defense Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, ordered the army to shoot surrendering Tamil leaders rather than imprison them. Fonseka is currently running for president against Rajapaksa, and has said he is not against a war crimes investigation.
UPDATE, 26 OCTOBER: Two new claims have been made concerning the veracity of the Sri Lanka video and investigations into its authenticity. Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a U.S.-based pressure group, sponsored a study of the video by an as yet unnamed U.S.-based forensics company. According to TamilNet, the study found that the video was not tampered with or doctored. The study also cast doubt on the Sri Lankan inquiry that deemed the video fraudulent, stating that the experts had analyzed a second generation video from News Channel 4's Web site, not the original footage.
Here's a remarkable video showing a Twitter revolt in action:
By: karenzusman, Posted: Oct 12 09
TAKE ACTION: Sign this petition and call on the Malaysian government to uphold the rights of Burmese refugees in Malaysia.
...and every story can create change.
Over the past year, WITNESS has partnered around the world with human rights defenders to tell the stories, on video, of human rights abuses. We've worked on the disappearances of women and girls in Mexico, the discrimination of women in Yemen, and the stories of political violence against women in Zimbabwe. Victims of human rights abuses tell their stories on video and those stories are used to create change.
**This post is part of an ongoing series that showcases users and videos from the Hub**
Can you imagine being constantly harassed and persecuted because of your job?
This video by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) documents the real stories of abortion providers, clinic employees and patients who have been - and continue to be - subjected to intimidation and harassment as a result of their work and personal choices. After the murder of Dr. George Tiller - shot and killed by an anti-abortion activist in May 2009 - many of these professionals are increasingly concerned about their safety. Some doctors, like Jennifer Boulanger of Pennsylvania, have even had to face protestors picketing their homes: "Every day I worry about being shot or targeted, especially now that Dr. Tiller was murdered. I've never felt this vulnerable in my job.
