PressEthic

Previous blogs have focused on the advent of sites like YouTube.com where viewers have the opportunity to make their own films and post them up on the Net for all to see. Stories like Lonelygirl15 have called into question the ethics of misleading viewers for personal gain. The Lonelygirl15 videos portrayed a 15-year-old girl making her own simple video diaries, but were revealed to be the work of Hollywood filmmakers and a 19-year old actress. These stories increase public distrust of the Internet and the legitimacy of it's content.

However, this weekend's news revealed an instance where submissions to YouTube.com demonstrate the ability of the Internet to distribute information quickly and make the public more aware of both local and international news. An article posted on the Poynter Institute's "E-media tidbits" blog revealed that despite Chinese officials attempts to censor them, provocative videos have appeared on the Internet at YouTube and Photobucket.com (a similar video-sharing website). These videos depict the riots in the city of Rui'an, China. Suspecting a police cover-up of the alleged suicide of high school teacher Dai Haijing, over a thousand students and teachers took to the streets in protest on September 11, 2006. Family and friends suspect foul play, and assert that Haijing would not have committed suicide. Dai was beloved by her students, as another article described.

Here's the clincher. The videos show police officers beating protestors and alleged innocent bystanders. The International Herald Tribute reported that,

"The protests reflect widespread perceptions that China's weak and largely opaque legal system is tainted by communist officials' abuse of power and susceptible to influence by the country's newly moneyed classes."

Global Voice, a blog, wrote that the attempts by Chinese officials to suppress the videos from blogs and other public websites demonstrated " the challenges faced by bloggers trying to get stories like this out to a wider audience." They urged their readers to continue submission:

"...But this doesn’t just affect China’s bloggers – we’d like to hear your stories, wherever you are, about how you make sure videos like these remain online when the authorities seem extremely keen to ensure they get deleted."

Global Voice concluded the article with the invitation,

"We’ll be seeking out videos from cellphones and camcorders, depicting - as in today’s post - protests and reactions to human rights violations, but also many other rights issues including gay rights, refugee rights, prisons, police brutality, and violations by the military as well as the economic, social and cultural rights like those to water, housing, and health and a host of other human rights-related footage. We’ll also be looking for footage of survivors of violations speaking out about abuses.

If you come across videos of this kind, whether on video-sharing sites like Google Video, Photobucket, BlipTV or YouTube, via email, or via MMS, please do let us know, either through the comments facility below, or by email.

In the guidelines, you’ll find an outline of the kinds of footage we’re looking for, and here are instructions on how to upload the footage to websites securely, and so we can find it easily."

The Internet and video-sharing websites, despite being filled with silly homemade videos by people looking to get their 15 minutes of fame, can be a powerful tool in exposing injustice and encouraging free speech and the spread of information. Knowledge is truly power, in this case--the information dispensed can inspire people raise money for causes, fight back against corruption and unethical behavior, and do some investigating of their own.