Tribune Blogs -- Fly on the Wall

Camera Guy - Full Text

2007 was an interesting year for newspapers. And I mean interesting like this: Imagine you're parachuting into an orchard of spears. That's how the future of newspaper journalism sometimes looks to those of us drifting slowly down, trapped in gravity's pull.
A few months ago, a longtime friend called to say farewell. He said I probably wouldn't see him again. He had developed a time machine and was going to return himself to 1989, a simpler year when he was much happier. (Fact: there are no time machines.)
This friend is a photographer who worked at a small daily newspaper in a small town. If you've ever worked on a small paper, you know how it is: several assignments per day and everyone in town knows you're the "Camera Guy."
My friend served as Camera Guy for over a decade. It's what he always wanted to do. It's what he loved. But one day the word "multimedia" blew into town and was heralded as the future and savior of his newspaper. After that, going to work became something to be nervous about. With photo-graph-video-tography pushed on him, he was facing the task of mastering a new medium and learning complex software without any training.
He quit.
And you know what? I find it hard to blame him. In fact, I give him a lot of credit for stepping away. If his heart wasn't in it, better to leave than to slog along half-heartedly at something he didn't believe in. Newspapers are in desperate need of believers and dreamers right now, people with passion for storytelling and loads of creative energy. Without them newspaper readers will drift away to more interesting sites. (ratemycorpsepaint.com, for example.) If you're not up for the fight we face, you'll be happier elsewhere. No shame in that.
I think what my friend saw in the future of his newspaper was a shift from quality to quantity. I think he was concerned about doing quick, shallow multimedia pieces. And that spending his time on labor-intensive multimedia would limit the time he could spend making great in-depth photographs of his community.
It could be said that many newspaper photographers are wanna-be artists. I'll gladly put myself in that category, even if you won't. Working at a newspaper provides me with equipment, an audience, and a never-ending stream of assignments to visually riff on. Not every assignment provides the best canvas for my artistic attempts, but there is always another one coming up in a couple hours that might expose me to a beautiful moment or story.
I guess the question my friend had to ask himself was related to that. Is the newspaper of the future a place where he could satisfy his passion for creating something beautiful? Or would it become a lifeless production centre, filled with 24-7 deadlines and weekly multimedia quotas?
With everything up in the air, who knows? Every newspaper seems to be scrambling for the answers and reaching wildly differing conclusions. I've got no answers for you and your particular situation, other than to say that you need to find your own answer.
Back to the time machine. Why is my friend going back to 1989, you ask? It isn't for the hair metal. It was a great year for photojournalism. Nikon released their flagship pro SLR, the F4. The Canon F-1 was still seeing action on the frontlines. Kodak's new T-Max 3200 black and white film let you see in the dark. The first Eddie Adams workshop was held.
It was a different time then. Better and worse than today. In 1989 I attended a photojournalism conference in San Jose where the topic was the future of newspapers People were saying that people would one day read the newspaper on the TV set. They were showing their prototypes for the newspaper of the future. I remember one front page was simply a list of ten headlines, nothing more.
Nineteen years later, the printed edition of the paper still slams hard into my front door every morning. I'll leave the predictions on its future to Dr. Robotnik and his ten-headline front page.

Labels: multimedia, photojournalism

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Tribune Blogs -- Fly on the Wall

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A while ago I attended a seminar held at a leading media law chambers on UK 'frontline' journalism - that is the reporting of events likely to involve public disorder such as, but not limited to, the recent actions against blood sports, GM crops, capitalism and animal laboratories. There were several issues discussed - one being that journalists (or the more inclusive term 'news gatherers') are usually held in the same regard by the authorities as the demonstrators. Allegedly each side either claims news gatherers are collecting information on behalf of the authorities or that demonstrators are posing as news gatherers to evade arrest. Of great concern to those attending was the number of cases of news gatherers being detained and so having their film or tapes confiscated and then being released without charge after their deadlines had passed. A concern was what could happen to news gatherers films, tapes, laptops, PDAs, digital cameras, phones etc. while in custody for they could contain evidence of crimes being committed, not only by the demonstrators but by the authorities, or might contain data that could be copied and stored for intelligence purposes. That happening would undermine the position of all news gatherers and in certain circumstances would endanger their lives.

Under the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), if the police believe that a news gatherer's notes, film or videotape or any other 'journalistic material' contain evidence of a crime and the news gatherer is not charged with a 'serious arrestable offence', the police have to apply to a circuit judge at a Crown Court to obtain it under 'special procedures'. Journalists can ask the judge to refuse the request to prevent revealing privileged information such as sources. The present law is extremely complex, hence the need for the seminar, and has yet to be fully tested against the subsequent human rights legislation but a basic assumption is that if a news gatherer is detained by the authorities but not charged, the authorities cannot freely examine their journalistic material. The likelihood of journalists suing for false arrest and the PACE legislation should deter fishing expeditions into a news gatherer's notes and films while they are detained but this apparently is not always the case. In one instance police officers detained news gatherers covering a demonstration and refused to acknowledge their status (even though the detainees made strenuous efforts to present their credentials) and refused to accept that their belongings were journalistic material and alleged they were demonstrators and their credentials were faked - despite the established methods of police verification. Other violations of special procedures have occurred while journalists were in custody without being charged but the defence was put that the journalistic material had been separated from the news gatherer during the disturbance and so its status could not be known.

I asked the question if simple labels on the equipment warning of its status could avoid this. I was surprised to learn that this had not been thought of before but after a discussion by the distinguished panel of media and human rights lawyers, including a QC, they urged the media to adopt the labels. The only certainty that labels would be effective would come from putting them to the test. Therefore, for the common good, I provide the label artwork here. The wording has been carefully written (with the previous caveat) to remove any doubt as to their purpose and cover as many applications as could be foreseen.

Nobody on the panel could see how these labels could hinder the authorities from lawfully carrying out their duties. If you have any qualified comments or have had the opportunity to test these labels, please get in touch.

The format is suitable for the many kinds of mylar® inventory tags which can be printed cheaply and come in various thickness and glue strengths to suit any surface. I am told that printing onto vinyl with a colour inkjet printer produces suitable results. I advise that news gatherers always mark their equipment in case of loss anyway. For me a tape printer label with my surname and a postcode strikes the right balance between size, privacy concerns and the information required. I must also point out that this label wording and artwork is COPYRIGHT and I only provide it for free on condition that no one manufactures to sell or profits by these labels. I have asserted my moral rights as the author. I also have it on m'learned advice that changing the wording does not void my copyright and would be committing plagiarism.

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The Spector of Hope

The 'Specter of Hope' is a documentary based on the latest work of photographer Sebastião Salgado.

Salgado spent 6 years traveling to over 40 countries, taking pictures of globalization and its consequences - most notably, the mass migrations of populations around the world. In the film, Salgado presents his remarkable photographs in conversation with John Berger.

Go and watch LENGTH 52 min :)

Love in central Stockholm

Love in central Stockholm, originally uploaded by Jnana-ruddha.

"Homeless also have a sex-life" was their message. They put a bed in Sergels square in central of Stockholm and made out.

Just goes to show the power of flickr comunity, do you think an editor could ever get such a picture via a professional photographer?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

100 Journalists arrested in Pakistan

Journalists arrested in Pakistan

A journalist recovers after the confrontation with police

More than 100 journalists protesting against media restrictions and emergency rule have been arrested in Pakistan, eyewitnesses say.

Most were held in Karachi and several detained in Hyderabad.

Police baton-charged the Karachi journalists after they tried to stage a protest march. Some of them were hurt.

When President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on 3 November, radio and TV news was banned, as was criticism of the government.

Country-wide

Heavy contingents of police were deployed on roads to the Karachi Press Club to stop the rally there.

Police stopped the marchers going to a TV station

It was part of a country-wide protest organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) against the media curbs.

The journalists were planning to hold a demonstration outside the Karachi offices of the ARY TV channel, one of half a dozen news channels that cable operators stopped airing after the emergency was imposed.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says police beat up a number of journalists in front of the press club entrance.

The arrests came shortly after the government said it released some 3,400 people jailed under emergency rule.

The release of political opponents has been a key demand of opposition parties who are threatening to boycott parliamentary elections in January.

A number of leading political figures are still being held.

US Plans Case Against AP Photographer

The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal
case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press
photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations
would be presented.

The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months and there have been many calls and petitions on Lightstalkers for his release and calls for his freedom have been backed by groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists.

An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a "sham of due process."

The military has not yet defined the
specific charges against Hussein. Previously, the military has pointed
to a range of suspicions that attempt to link him to insurgent
activity.

The AP rejects all the allegations and contends it
has been blocked by the military from mounting a wide-ranging defense
for Hussein and claims that Hussein was interrogated at Camp Cropper this year without legal counsel.

Hussein was part of the AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team
in 2005

More information on AP Website

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Be your own personal privacy czar

Be your own personal privacy czar

Some campaigners worry about using social sites such as Facebook

Regular columnist Bill Thompson wonders if it is time to create web services that can be trusted.

Like most journalists I know I'm very sloppy about keeping my online communications secure.

I rarely encrypt e-mail messages, leaving them to be read by anyone in the electronic chain between me and the intended recipient.

And I use public chat services like MSN Messenger and iChat, even though they send messages as plain text across the network.

Partly this is because the tools needed to make communications secure can be cumbersome and complicated, even for someone with a technical background.

But partly it is because I have not often been involved in researching stories that are going to bring me to the attention of those with the capabilities needed to tap even insecure online communications.

But you never know.

Each year I tell my students on the online journalism course at City University that they should take care to protect their files and e-mail.

And I point out that once someone e-mails them from a work address then that person can never be guaranteed anonymity in future, simply because it is so easy for employers or the police to get access to e-mail traffic records.

They may not know what was said, as reading the contents of e-mail requires permission under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, but they can find out that messages were exchanged.

But using commercial services for campaigning or organising raises the same sorts of issues as we see with Hushmail, because the interests of the owners are not the same as those of the users. Bill Thompson

In the past I've suggested that they get an account with Hushmail, the Canadian company that offers secure encrypted e-mail for its customers.

But after revelations that Hushmail has passed on details of supposedly secure e-mails to the Canadian police I think I'll stop.

I like Hushmail because it works in your web browser. When you sign in it downloads an application written in the Java programming language, and this encrypts and decrypts your message using your secret keys.

Hushmail never sees your e-mail, and so it can't hand it over to the authorities even if they come with a warrant.

But the company also offers an easier to use service which does the hard work on its server rather than your computer. And when it does that it has to have access to your original message, at least briefly.

So when the Canadian police asked it for copies of e-mail sent and received by someone suspected of the illegal manufacture and distribution of anabolic steroids it could not deny that it could read them.

The company has been open about what happened, although it does not seem to have got around to mentioning it on its website yet.

But being open isn't good enough, as the issue has highlighted a fundamental flaw in its security model, one that it will be all but impossible to get around.

Even its more secure service could be undermined if the company agreed to add a 'backdoor' to its code at the authorities' request.

The problem is that Hushmail, like other companies that store and process personal information, is bound by the laws of the country in which it is based and sometimes those laws will require it to betray the confidence of its customers.

A newspaper editor in the UK has to decide whether to go to court or hand over leaked documents; a manager at an net service firm has to decide whether to allow the police to access e-mail logs; and someone running a secure e-mail company has to decide whether the privacy of a suspected drug dealer is worth a jail sentence.

Usually they do what is asked, and often they are not even allowed to tell users what they have done because of gagging orders.

It can be hard to keep your messages secret, warns Bill

The issue goes much wider than trying to decide who to trust with confidential or possibly incriminating data. It also has an impact on the tools we use to contact our friends or organise activities.

The National Union of Journalists is currently having an occasionally fractious internal discussion about the impact of new media on the profession, and the use of social network sites has been raised several times.

Some of the participants are simply opposed to these new-fangled technologies, a position that I have little sympathy with.

I remember meeting Tony Benn, former MP and lifelong campaigner for socialism, and being pleasantly surprised at his enthusiasm for YouTube and the ways it could be used to amplify a political message.

But using commercial services for campaigning or organising raises the same sorts of issues as we see with Hushmail, because the interests of the owners are not the same as those of the users.

Trade union activist and online campaigner Eric Lee put it succinctly in a recent blog post when he noted that 'Facebook is a poor replacement for a real online campaigning strategy for unions. And it makes us vulnerable to the whims of those who own the company'.

Hushmail seems to offer a good service, but its 'simple' service offers little real security when it matters. Far better to install your own encryption software, like the freely available GnuPG, and take responsibility for your own security.

And Facebook may make it easy to set up a group, but it will never be as good as having your own server, your own code and your own security mechanisms in place. Organise a group on Facebook and it belongs to them; organise it on your own server and it belongs to you.

Of course doing this takes time, costs money and requires expertise that many campaigners simply do not possess. Perhaps the time is right for a co-operative social network site, one owned by its members and run in their interests.

It might never be worth $15 billion, but it could make the world a better place.
Source :: BBC

Yahoo settles its China lawsuit

Source ::BBC

Yahoo senior officers were criticised in a congressional hearing

Yahoo has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it on behalf of several Chinese dissidents, according to papers filed in a California court.

No details have been given of the settlement but Yahoo will be covering legal costs.

The case alleged that Yahoo had provided information to the Chinese government that had then been used to prosecute the dissidents.

Yahoo said it had to comply with Chinese laws to operate in the country.

A statement released by the World Organization for Human Rights USA, which brought the case, said Yahoo had decided to settle the case following criticism at a US Congressional hearing on 6 November.

'Inexcusably negligent'

A Congressional panel criticised Yahoo for not giving full details to its probe into the jailing of a reporter by Chinese authorities.

Yahoo had been "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive" in evidence given to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, the panel said.

One journalist cited in the case, Shi Tao, was tracked down and jailed for 10 years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his e-mail and IP address to officials.

He was convicted in 2004 of divulging state secrets after posting online a Chinese government order forbidding media organisations from marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Yahoo's original response to the lawsuit acknowledged releasing information to the Chinese government.

But it argued that there was little connection between the information the firm gave and the ensuing arrests and imprisonment of its users.

Michael Callahan, Yahoo's executive vice-president and general counsel, then told a congressional panel in February 2006 that he did not know why the Chinese authorities wanted to trace Shi Tao.

Last week, Mr Callahan wrote to the committee admitting that other Yahoo employees had a document saying it was to do with the "suspected illegal provision of state secrets".

Mr Callahan said the information only came to his attention months after he testified.

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News media feels force of Musharraf crackdown

Last Tuesday the owner of Geo, Pakistan's largest television station, sent an email to his senior editors.

"I
have received [a] threatening telephone call last night from ISI,"
wrote Mir Shakil ur Rahman, referring to the powerful Inter Services
Intelligence agency. "They have taken me to a house in Islamabad."

Mr
Rahman did not describe what happened at the spy safe house, but the
following sentence suggested it was not pleasant. "I would like to
advise you to please follow the laws specially [sic] the newly
promulgated law."

Article continues

---

---

He also attached an email from "Sabir".

"Pakistan
Army is the backbone of Pakistan, don't try to damage it, if u do, u
and your family who have looted billions would be hunted down like
rats," it read. "It will just take a few hundred people to smash ur
studios, offices, vans."

As General Musharraf's emergency rule
slides towards a second week, Pakistan's media barons are coming under
intense pressure from his heavy-handed security forces - officially and
unofficially.

Private TV channels have been pulled off air,
stringent new laws prohibit stories that "ridicule" the president, and
many journalists are wondering if the country's television revolution
is over.

"News has become a contraband item," said Imran Aslam,
president of Geo, whose four sister stations are off air. "Now it's
like the old days when we used to tune into the BBC radio to find out
what's happen in our own backyard."

Journalists and proprietors
complain of threatening calls and emails, some by people claiming to be
the Taliban. They are continuing to broadcast, sending stories by
satellite and high-speed internet to a minority of wealthy viewers.

But
with satellite dish prices soaring, most Pakistanis are in the dark,
blind to the great dramas of the past week - clashes between police and
lawyers, human rights activists behind bars, or the sight of their
deposed chief justice, Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudhry, under house arrest
in Islamabad.

"The government's goal is to consolidate their
position in the courts and not to allow protests grow," said veteran
journalist Zaffar Abbas. "At the moment they seem pretty satisfied."

Film,
cartoon and sports channels are allowed, as is Pakistan Television, the
state news station, which presents an alternate reality.

The channel airs Musharraf speeches, anti-Indian propaganda and chat shows hosted by regime loyalists.

"Gen
Musharraf is finally doing what President Putin did for Russia - stop
democracy from turning into total chaos," wrote PTV presenter Ahmed
Quraishi, who on his website this week blames the CIA for Gen
Musharraf's woes.

Television has become hugely popular and
politically influential in Pakistan. Newspapers have a small
circulation, selling just 3m copies in a country of 165 million people,
but the plethora of new TV stations offering 24-hour news and lively
debate reaches tens of millions.

They came of age last March,
when live coverage of anti-Musharraf rallies led by Justice Chaudhry
stoked public outrage and brought floods of protesters onto the streets.

"It was a huge force in the restoration of the chief justice. It really motivated the public," said lawyer Kashif Ali Malik.

Now
the government is leaning on owners like Mr Ur Rahman, demanding they
adhere to a new "code of ethics" that effectively bars any criticism of
Gen Musharraf, who used to boast of his love for the free press.

Journalists
at the stations worry that they will be next to be arrested. In recent
days, security forces have jailed thousands of lawyers, human rights
activists and opposition figures.

"They have a hit list of six or seven senior journalists they want to arrest," said Hamid Mir, a popular presenter with Geo.

Newspapers
are still being published, many carrying detailed reports of state
brutality and angry comment, despite a new law prohibiting anything
that defames or brings into disrepute Gen Musharraf or his government.

The
editor of Dawn, a respected newspaper established by Pakistan's
founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, said he would not be cowed.

"We
are not in the business of ridicule, we are in the business of
reporting the facts," said Abbas Nasir. "And if the facts make someone
look ridiculous, so be it."

Source :: Guardian

Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Thursday November 8, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

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Dutch government admits spying on journalists

5 November 2007

By PA Mediapoint

The Dutch government today admitted officials hacked into a media agency's
computers to find out what stories were being written about them.

The GPD news agency only discovered what was going on when one ministry press
officer rang up to complain about a story that had not even been published.

Marcel van Lingen, editor-in-chief of the agency which serves more than a
dozen newspapers in the Netherlands and Belgium, accused the government of
"spying."

The Social Affairs Ministry "used stolen information to influence (our)
reporting," he said.

The ministry confirmed in a statement some of its employees had accessed
GPD's internal site and apologised.

"It is not our policy and we reject it. The department will investigate the
matter and take steps to prevent it happening again in the future," said a
spokesman.

It invited public prosecutors to investigate whether any criminal acts were
committed. Other news outlets criticised the ministry's action, and The
Netherlands' Union of Journalists' chief Thomas Bruning called it a "kick in the
shins for the independent role that journalism plays."
source :: Press Gazette

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The Duty of the Photographer

Out From Behind a Camera at a Khmer Torture House

When I read this I have very mixed emotions, looking at images of people who were tortured just after they had their photo taken. Most look as if they are posing for the family album, but they dont smile, others look afraid...and others have been tortured! (Lifespy)

By SETH MYDANS

Published: October 26, 2007

NYTimes story here

the photos are here

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Oct. 25 — He had a job to do, and he did it supremely well, under threat of death, within earshot of screams of torture: methodically photographing Khmer Rouge prisoners and producing a haunting collection of mug shots that has become the visual symbol of Cambodia’s mass killings

Back Story With Seth Mydans and Graham Bowley (mp3)

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Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide

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Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide

Before killing the prisoners, the Khmer Rouge photographed, tortured and extracted written confessions from their victims.

“I’m just a photographer; I don’t know anything,” he said he told the newly arrived prisoners as he removed their blindfolds and adjusted the angles of their heads. But he knew, as they did not, that every one of them would be killed.

“I had my job, and I had to take care of my job,” he said in a recent interview. “Each of us had our own responsibilities. I wasn’t allowed to speak with prisoners.”

That was three decades ago, when the photographer, Nhem En, now 47, was on the staff of Tuol Sleng prison, the most notorious torture house of the Khmer Rouge regime, which caused the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.

This week he was called to be a witness at a coming trial of Khmer Rouge leaders, including his commandant at the prison, Kaing Geuk Eav, known as Duch, who has been arrested and charged with crimes against humanity.

The trial is still months away, but prosecutors are interviewing witnesses, reviewing tens of thousands of pages of documents and making arrests.

As a lower-ranking cadre at the time, Mr. Nhem En is not in jeopardy of arrest. But he is in a position to offer some of the most personal testimony at the trial about the man he worked under for three years.

In the interview, Mr. Nhem En spoke with pride of living up to the exacting standards of a boss who was a master of negative reinforcement.

“It was really hard, my job,” he said. “I had to clean, develop and dry the pictures on my own and take them to Duch by my own hand. I couldn’t make a mistake. If one of the pictures was lost I would be killed.”

But he said: “Duch liked me because I’m clean and I’m organized. He gave me a Rolex watch.”

Fleeing with other Khmer Rouge cadres when the government was ousted by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979, Mr. Nhem En said he traded that watch for 20 tins of milled rice.

Since then he has adapted and prospered and is now a deputy mayor of the former Khmer Rouge stronghold Anlong Veng. He has switched from an opposition party to the party of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and today he wears a wristwatch that bears twin portraits of the prime minister and his wife, Bun Rany.

Last month an international tribunal arrested and charged a second Khmer Rouge figure, who is now being held with Duch in a detention center. He is Nuon Chea, 82, the movement’s chief ideologue and a right-hand man to the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

Three more leaders were expected to be arrested in the coming weeks: the urbane former Khmer Rouge head of state, Khieu Samphan, along with the former foreign minister, Ieng Sary, and his wife and fellow central committee member, Ieng Thirith.

All will benefit from the caprice of Mr. Nuon Chea, who complained that the squat toilet in his cell was hurting his ailing knees and was given a sit-down toilet.

Similar toilets are being installed in the other cells, said a tribunal spokesman, Reach Sambath, “So they will all enjoy high-standard toilets when they come.”

It is not clear whether any of the cases will be combined. But even if the defendants do not see one another, their testimony, harmonious or discordant, will put on display the relationships of some of the people who once ran the country’s killing machine.

In a 1999 interview, Duch implicated his fellow prisoner, Mr. Nuon Chea, in the killings, citing among other things a directive that said, “Kill them all.”

Mr. Nhem En’s career in the Khmer Rouge began in 1970 at age 9 when he was recruited as a village boy to be a drummer in a touring revolutionary band. When he was 16, he said, he was sent to China for a seven-month course in photography.

He became the chief of six photographers at Tuol Sleng, where at least 14,000 people were tortured to death or sent to killing fields. Only a half dozen inmates were known to have survived.

He was a craftsman, and some of his portraits, carefully posed and lighted, have found their way into art galleries in the United States.

Hundreds of them hang in rows on the walls of Tuol Sleng, which is now a museum, their fixed stares tempting a visitor to search for meaning here on the cusp of death. In fact, they are staring at Mr. Nhem En.

The job was a daily grind, he said: up at 6:30 a.m., a quick communal meal of bread or rice and something sweet, and at his post by 7 a.m. to wait for prisoners to arrive. His telephone would ring to announce them: sometimes one, sometimes a group, sometimes truckloads of them, he said.

“They came in blindfolded, and I had to untie the cloth,” he said.

“I was alone in the room, so I am the one they saw. They would say, ‘Why was I brought here? What am I accused of? What did I do wrong?’”

But Mr. Nhem En ignored them.

“‘Look straight ahead. Don’t lean your head to the left or the right.’ That’s all I said,” he recalled. “I had to say that so the picture would turn out well. Then they were taken to the interrogation center. The duty of the photographer was just to take the picture.”

View the Khmer Rouge photographs (TuolSleng.com)

Whistleblower? Journalist? Citizen journalist? or just Censored?

Whistleblower? Journalist? Citizen journalist? Wikileaks writer,
volunteer, supporter or techie? Get advice and talk with other people
like you on the Wikileaks secure chat (also good for safe interviews
with anonymous sources).

Goto https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Chat

Click "chat" to the right. Click into the box at the bottom of the
chat page and and start typing. For greater reliability and ease of
use, you can install a chat program as described below. Our chat
system is designed to work on almost any browser in any country. It
has minimal bandwidth requirements and will even work over dialups or
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We will create sub-channels (e.g for the Kenyan election) if there is
sufficient demand (let us know!).

Yahoo accused of misleading Congress about Chinese journalist

DSC_0630_en
Originally uploaded by Radical_Images

(CNN) -- Yahoo misled Congress regarding information the Internet company gave to Chinese authorities about the journalist Shi Tao, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos said Tuesday.


Yahoo officials have been asked to testify before a House committee in November about a Chinese journalist's case.

Lantos, a California representative and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked Yahoo Inc. officials to testify about the company's role in a case that sent Chinese newspaper writer and editor Shi to prison on a 10-year sentence.

Lantos asked Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear November 6.

"Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006," Lantos said in a written statement. "We want to clarify how that happened, and to hold the company to account for its actions both before and after its testimony proved untrue. And we want to examine what steps the company has taken since then to protect the privacy rights of its users in China."

The newspaper reporter had posted information under a pseudonym on an overseas Web site called Democracy Forum about a government crackdown on media and democracy activists, Lantos said.

Shi was later arrested in his home in Beijing after Yahoo gave Chinese authorities information about his e-mail account, his computer address, his log-on history and the contents of several weeks of his e-mail, Lantos said.

Lantos said a Yahoo official testified last year that the company knew nothing "about the nature of the investigation" of Shi, a pro-democracy activist now serving time on what Lantos called "trumped-up charges."

Don't Miss
China puts the squeeze on Web controls
"We have now learned there is much more to the story than Yahoo let on, and a Chinese government document that Yahoo had in their possession at the time of the hearing left little doubt of the government's intentions," said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

"U.S. companies must hold the line and not work hand in glove with the secret police."

In a written statement, Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Yahoo representatives have been truthful with Congress. He called the House committee's accusation "grossly unfair" and said it "mischaracterizes the nature and intent of our past testimony."

During a February 2006 subcommittee hearing on limits to freedom on the Internet in China, Lantos and Smith questioned Callahan about Shi.

Callahan testified to the subcommittee that Yahoo handed over the information to Chinese authorities at a time when it knew nothing about the investigation, Lantos said.

But the San Francisco, California-based human-rights group The Dui Hua Foundation released documents in July indicating police in China had written to Yahoo saying they were seeking evidence about Shi for illegally "providing state secrets to foreign entities," a charge frequently levied against political dissidents in China.

"This new documentation suggests that Yahoo's Beijing office was at least aware of the general nature of the crime being investigated in the Shi Tao case," said Joshua Rosenzweig, manager of research and publications for The Dui Hua Foundation.

Even if Yahoo was unaware of the specific circumstances of the Chinese government's inquiry, "One does not have to be an expert in Chinese law to know that 'state secrets' charges have often been used to punish political dissent in China," said Rosenzweig.

Shi has appealed his 10-year sentence for divulging state secrets, saying he did not know the information he shared was classified. He accused the police of using improper procedures in the investigation and arrest.

In addition, he has filed suit in U.S. federal court against Yahoo and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary.

Yahoo's spokeswoman said the company is working with other companies and the human rights community "to develop a global code of conduct for operating in countries around the world, including China."

Menezes picture 'was manipulated'

The defence said the image was to show identification problems

Police have been accused of manipulating a photo of Jean Charles de
Menezes so it could be compared to that of one of the 21/7 bomb
plotters.

The image had been "stretched and sized" to form a
composite image of the Brazilian and Hussain Osman to show the jury,
prosecutors told the Old Bailey.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead after being wrongly identified as one of the men who targeted London's transport system.

The Metropolitan Police denies breaking health and safety laws.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head on a
train at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July 2005, after being wrongly
identified as Osman.

The Met Police said the composite picture was created to
illustrate the difficulties officers would have had in differentiating
the two men.

'Serious allegation'

But Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, told the court it
had been altered "by either stretching or resizing so the face ceases
to have its correct proportions".

The judge, Mr Justice Henriques, told the jury: "A
serious allegation has been made that a picture has been manipulated so
as to mislead."

Making the image brighter has changed the image Michael George, forensics consultant

Forensics consultant Michael George told the court that
the police composite appeared to have a "greater definition" than the
two images used to produce it.

He produced an alternative composite, shown to the jury,
in which the two faces have different skin tones and their mouths and
noses are not aligned.

Ronald Thwaites QC, defending, asked Mr George whether there had been any manipulation "of the primary features of the face".

Mr George replied: "I don't believe there has been any... but making the image brighter has changed the image."

The court heard the composite was compiled using a 2001
identity card photograph of Mr de Menezes and a photo of Osman taken by
police in Rome, where he was arrested.

Immigration records

Earlier, Mr Thwaites cross-examined immigration official
Paul Roach over a counterfeit stamp found in the Brazilian's passport,
asking if this meant he had been in the country illegally.

Mr Roach told the court Mr de Menezes first entered the
country on 13 March 2002 and was given six months' leave to remain,
before extending his stay, as a student, to 30 June 2003.

The next record was of him arriving in Ireland from
France on 23 April 2005 but there was no notification of when he
returned to the UK.

The court heard how as a person entering Britain from
Ireland, he would have had an automatic three-month leave to remain
which at the earliest would have run out on 23 July, the day after he
was killed.

A counterfeit stamp found on his passport may only have been added after he entered the UK, Mr Roach said.

The trial continues.

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UK Can now Demand Data Decryption on Penalty of Jail Time

By Ken
Fisher | Published: October 01, 2007 - 10:20PM CT

New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to
refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of
a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the
cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in
prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either
the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

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Part 3, Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA)
includes provisions for the decryption requirements, which are applied
differently based on the kind of investigation underway. As we reported last year, the
five-year imprisonment penalty is reserved for cases involving anti-terrorism
efforts. All other failures to comply can be met with a maximum two-year
sentence.

The law can only be applied to data residing in the UK, hosted on UK servers,
or stored on devices located within the UK. The law does not authorize the UK
government to intercept encrypted materials in transit on the Internet via the
UK and to attempt to have them decrypted under the auspices of the jail time
penalty.

The keys to the (United) Kingdom

The law has been criticized for the power its gives investigators, which is
seen as dangerously broad. Authorities tracking the movement of terrorist funds
could demand the encryption keys used by a financial institution, for instance,
thereby laying bare that bank's files on everything from financial transactions
to user data.

Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton said in May of 2006 that such laws would
only encourage businesses to house their cryptography operations out of the
reach of UK investigators, potentially harming the country's economy. "The
controversy here [lies in] seizing keys, not in forcing people to decrypt. The
power to seize encryption keys is spooking big business," Clayton said.

"The notion that international bankers would be wary of bringing master keys
into UK if they could be seized as part of legitimate police operations, or by a
corrupt chief constable, has quite a lot of traction," he added. "With the
appropriate paperwork, keys can be seized. If you're an international banker
you'll plonk your headquarters in Zurich."

The law also allows authorities to compel individuals targeted in such
investigation to keep silent about their role in decrypting data. Though this
will be handled on a case-by-case basis, it's another worrisome facet of a law
that has been widely criticized for years. While RIPA was originally passed in
2000, the provisions detailing the handover of cryptographic keys and/or the
force decryption of protected content has not been tapped by the UK Home
Office—the division of the British government which oversees national security,
the justice system, immigration, and the police forces of England and Wales. As
we reported last year, the Home Office was slowly building its case to activate
Part 3, Section 49.

The Home Office has steadfastly proclaimed that the law is aimed at catching
terrorists, pedophiles, and hardened criminals—all parties which the UK
government contends are rather adept at using encryption to cover up their
activities.

Yet the law, in a strange way, almost gives criminals an "out," in that those
caught potentially committing serious crimes may opt to refuse to decrypt
incriminating data. A pedophile with a 2GB collection of encrypted kiddie porn
may find it easier to do two years in the slammer than expose what he's been up
to.

Source: ars technica

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Free Burma

Phonecalls and Texts to be Logged

Mobile phone data can be used to pinpoint a person's location

Information about all landline and mobile phone calls made in the UK must be logged and stored for a year under new laws.

Data about calls made and received will also be available to 652 public bodies, including the police and councils.

The Home Office said the content of calls and texts
would not be read and insisted the move was vital to tackle serious
crime and terrorism.

But critics said it was another example of Britain's "surveillance society".

The new law, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, was signed off by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in July.

It requires phone companies to log data on every call or text made to and from every phone in Britain.

'Different uses'

Since 2004, companies have voluntarily provided data,
where available, if it was requested, but now they will required by law
to retain it for a year.

Minister for Security and Counter-terrorism Tony McNulty
told BBC Radio 4 that the data could provide three levels of
information, the simplest being about the phone's owner.

"Say some old lady has got difficulties with someone
who's repaired the gas in her house and has a mobile phone for somebody
who's clearly dodgy," Mr McNulty said.

"The local authorities can just get the subscriber information next to that number.

"The second level of data is not simply the subscriber, but also the calls made by that phone.

"And the third level which is purely for the security
forces, police, etc, is not just the subscriber information and the
calls made, but also the calls coming in and location data - where the
calls are made from."

Personal 'profile'

A person's location can be pinpointed to within a few feet by identifying the mobile phone mast used to transmit their call.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group
Liberty, said people were more concerned than ever about their personal
privacy, especially how many bodies had access to their phone records.

"There are actually a very broad range of purposes for
which this information about who we've been phoning and when can be
revealed," Ms Chakrabarti said.

"It includes, for example, the Gaming Board, the Food Standards Authority and every district and county council in the country."

She said requests for information would not be limited to those concerning serious crime and national security.

"We're talking about a profile that can be built of your
personal relationships on the basis of who you've been speaking to and
when."

Public consulted

Mr McNulty said local councils would only have access to data on "a legitimate and proportional basis".

"(To say) that all of a sudden anyone and everyone's
information is available, that all these authorities somehow have the
right to go fishing and snooping, simply isn't the case," he added.

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman,
said: "Once again this government has been caught red-handed creating
new surveillance state powers with no meaningful public or
parliamentary debate.

The Home Office said the plans had been through a public
consultation and said a senior police officer would have to approve any
request for phone data.

Councils would only be able to use the powers to
"prevent and detect crime - not for the collection of taxes", the
spokesman added.

The new law brings Britain in line with an EU directive on the retention of phone data.

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Thirteen Ways to be a Green Photographer

I remember sitting in a lecture and being amazed at the beautiful printed landscapes of the Peak District that had been taken by the lecturer. Then being equally amazed at his next statement. I no longer make images of landscapes as they are being trashed and I feel it is wrong ethically (he was referring to the fact that it encourages tourism) I was impressed with his stance to say the least. But it has led me to consider how “Green” my photography is in a digital world when I found this article on PopPhoto

The good news: Digital photography has taken huge amounts of chemicals
out of our waste stream, including bleach and silver, not to mention
millions of plastic-coated prints. The bad news: Digital sucks down a
lot of electricity and requires new equipment, which consumes lots of
resources and creates considerable eco-impacts, usually far away. Here
are a few things all photographers can do to be greener.

1. Watch the Power Meter

With digital, you'll need to keep your power consumption under control
if you don't want to warm the planet: Every kilowatt-hour you use
produces about 1.4 pounds of the greenhouse gases that cause global
warming. Choose Energy Star-certified equipment, and turn off or put to
sleep your computer, display, printer, and scanner when you can. Invest
in a power meter like the Kill A Watt to keep tabs on your usage -- you
may be in for unpleasant surprises.

2. Choose Your Power

A digital studio, including your Mac Pro computer, your Epson Stylus
Pro 3800 printer, and your Nikon D80 charger, will consume hundreds or
thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. Make sure that power
is coming from renewable, non-carbon-polluting sources. Through your
utility, switch to wind, hydro, or other sources; it may cost a little
more, but rebates can help with that, and you're making a difference
where it counts, at the source.

3. Recycle Everything

A digital studio will still produce paper waste -- it makes up about a
third of our trash. Recycle every scrap; making a ton of paper from
waste requires about two-thirds less energy than from wood pulp.
Recycle ink cartridges (office stores and online retailers will give
you credit for empties) and, when necessary, electronics. Electronic
waste has harmful metals and chemicals; give it to a recycling plant
that will salvage for useful parts and not just dump it in a landfill.

4. Shoot Locally

Transportation accounts for one-third of the average American's "carbon
footprint" -- the CO2 and other greenhouse gases that contribute to
global warming. If you're typical, you're responsible for about 15,000
pounds of CO2 a year. One round trip to shoot Maui's jungle could
account for half of that.

5. Offset Your CO2

Can't stay home? Can't get your computer, scanner, and printer off the
grid? You can help offset your footprint by buying carbon credits via
companies such as CarbonFund.org and NativeEnergy. Your money will help create renewable-energy sources and meet other conservation goals.

6. Conserve Energy

The basic energy tips you're practicing in your nonphoto life will work
in the studio, too. Using compact fluorescent bulbs and taking a degree
or two off the thermostat in winter (and adding a degree in summer)
will save energy and keep hundreds of pounds of CO2 out of the
atmosphere.

7. Unplug It All

Rechargers and other equipment left on standby create phantom loads
that waste megawatts every year. Unplug rechargers and power down
anything you're not using that has a little green or red light on it.
You'll save money and keep CO2 out of the atmosphere.

8. Watch the Chemicals

Processing in a darkroom? Use chemicals less harmful to the
environment, such as Kodak's Xtol and other ascorbate (vitamin C)
developers. Manufacturers say quantities you use at home can be
disposed via your sewer. Check silvergrain.org for nontoxic solutions.

9. Find Greener Options

Explore recycled papers such as Red River Paper's Green Pix, use
rechargeable batteries (NiMH is better than NiCd), and, if you print a
lot, buy ink in bulk rather than blowing through plastic cartridges.
Extra credit: Get a solar-powered battery charger.

10. Be a Responsible Consumer

Vote for the environment with your wallet: Ask camera, paper, and film
manufacturers about environmental efforts, from recycling to energy use
to materials.

11. Shoot the Change You Want in the World

It's not just how you shoot, it's what you shoot. Think about how your
images can represent solutions or illuminate a new angle on an
environmental problem.

12. Spread the Word

Small steps add up when millions join in. Tell two friends about your
new, greener way of looking at photography. They'll tell two friends,
and they'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on...

13. Make It Last

A long-lived camera is environmentally friendly. Do your research, buy
great stuff, and treat it right: It takes a great deal of materials,
energy, and pollutants to make a new camera, and pretty much zero to
keep your current one in tip-top shape.

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Edward Burtynsky's Silent Persuasion

Police Stop and Search

Abuse of Police Powers and diminishing Human Rights

Last Saturday I was in London looking for interesting doors to photograph and went to the Whitechaple area that has an interesting mix of old architecture with a backdrop of very modern buildings.

I just wondered the streets seeing what I could find with a camera around my neck and had no precise plan or agenda.

I had found several already in the bag and eventually spotted some run-down buildings behind a school and worked my way around to them looking for the street it was on, which I found without to much effort.

One door was painted badly and the side window was missing its glass and had been replaced with beer cans. I went down a narrow side street and there was a sofa on the pavement that I used while I head a drink. After a short rest and refreshment I completed circling the building by going around the block and barley noticed a police van parked up that appeared empty.

I carried on with my mystery tour not finding much of interest in the area I was now in and an hour later I was back near the street with the run-down building and decided to take a seat at the bus stop while I re-thought my non existent plan.

I noticed two police officers come out of the side road I had previously been on and where the police van had been parked up, one a male police sergeant and a WPC.
They started to watch me and at first it didn't bother me, I was trying to work out what they were doing. Then they started to make notes while looking at me they must have been there for about five minutes some other people passed that they half seemed interested in. "May be they were looking for a suspect?" I thought to myself when the police backed of and went back, thinking no more of it, I went back to re-organising myself and went into chimp mode while I looked at what I had got on the camera's playback feature.

I looked up and now saw a few people had gathered and started to look down the street, something was happening; so I got of my perch and had a nose, I could see nothing of interest but about five or six police officers near the van they had parked and the two police officers I had seen earlier about fifty yards down the road from where I was stood, but on the other side.

I decided to take a walk down a bit further to get a better view, it was not as if the gathered crowd were discussing what they had seen, there was no excitement, just curiosity as to why there were police.

As I got to about forty to forty five yards the police sergeant came over and intercepted me. He asked what I had been doing, "photographing doors!" came the reply with half a smile on my face as I knew he was wanting a much better understanding of why was I photographing doors, the response came "doors" he said with a puzzled look on his face. I explained further and in detail which he accepted and asked me for some identification.

I pulled out my Press Card for him and he looked at the details in detail "odd I thought, normally its just a quick glance" I was expecting this to go all the way and ask for my card to be verified by the Gatekeeper, which would have been a first "what was my verification number"...concentrating hard and trying to bring it up from the depths of my mind, while he studded it.

Then a realisation of understanding hit me as I spotted a Police Photographer at the bottom of the street, it was a FIT team (Forward Intelligence Team) that collect information on things like football gangs, Animal Rights and just about any one who goes on a demonstration or protest, blanket intelligence gathering is what they do as far as I am aware.

I had seen them before and recently at the Climate Camp protest at Heathrow and they have never shown a blind bit of interest in me and they have often nodded goodbye when I was bugging out, I have been stopped and searched before too, a quick look in my camera bag and a flash of my press card and that's been it.

The police sergeant asked me for my address and I asked him why he needed it, his reply was a shock "I can't remember the exact words as he had instantly turned from a curios cop to nasty cop in the blink of an eye, and I was still in shock over the change" but he was threatening to arrest me and pointed out that my camera gear will be seized as evidence to which will take considerable time to get back.

I offered to show him what pictures that were on there, he wasn't interested, replying I could have switched memory cards or deleted the images earlier (I assume he was referring to when I was at the bus stop) "Images of what I asked?" in a demanding and raised tone; all I got was silence and a glaring stare...
Eventually I responded that if he phoned the verification line for the press card he could confirm my details, a further silence and glare followed...the WPC had now crossed the road ready to back him up as she was stood to my half right

I had now been stood there for about ten minutes while the sergeant and the WPC were making notes about me from across the road as they were filling out the search form, that he did not want to give me.

The police photographer was photographing people at the bottom of the street and occasionally trying to get a shot of me from the bottom of the street on a 80-400mm zoom, that I did my best to deny him (it was all I could do as a protest at the time) he eventually realised I was serious when I said I wanted a copy of the form that he was probably kicking himself for by telling me I was entitled to a copy.

He explained briefly the form and gave it to me and headed down the street to the other police assembled as I stood reading what he had written.

Under the heading 'Grounds for Search or Reason for Stop' he had filled in "Subject in possession on long lens Nikon camera and paying close attention to police asked why he was doing that he accounted for his whereabouts and actions" That's it... me paying close attention to the police...no actually it was the other way around....had I taken any photos of the police, no

So carrying a Nikon with a medium lens was cause for a stop and search, now that is extremism in my book, just what are you allowed to carry and wear these days

I waked down to the end of the street where the police photographer was. There was a bunch of people, normal and respectable looking, waiting to get in I asked them what was happening, "One replied it was a public meeting against an arms fair."

Peace protesters, how ironic I thought that these people are trying to stop the arms trading, arms that eventually end up in the hands of terrorists potential enemies, that the police and security services try to find and stop, yet the police are trying to intimidate the peace protesters from trying to get arms trading stopped.

What a Wonderful World

Garry Winogrand Video

One of the great photographers of our time
Garry Winogrand video

Phones for the Photojournalist and Documentary image maker

I have been testing a couple of phones a Sony Ericsson K810i which has quite a powerful camera at 3.2 mega pixies and providing you use it within its limitations it provides reasonable quality images, especially for web and urgent news.

The other and at the moment my favourite is the Fujitsu Siemens Loox T830 the built in 2 mega pixies camera is not up to much but as a photojournalist who has a camera with him 99% of the time this is not a problem for me.
It has a voice recorder that you can use to record telephone conversations ideal for interviews.

It also has:
Video recorder
Video phone
Push email
All the things you get on Windows Mobile
Sat Nav
(This embeds location information into your images)

As well as my favourite, the software I have put on is Pocket Phojo, this allows me to attach my Nikon D2x and plug it into the Smart Phone and upload pictures via FTP to anywhere I want. It connects to 3G networks and WiFi hotspots and any other that is open. as soon as i have taken an image on the camera this combination of phone and software uploads it as soon as it is taken. Pre captioning and image editing can also be done prior to upload too.

Now that is an awesome phone for a photojournalist or documentary photographer

Some accessories I have brought so far for it is an in car charger and a solar powered Freeloader
for charging the Loox T830 in remote places like in a field! The Freeloader also powers up mobile phones as well and you can get disposable one shot batteries for a couple of pounds if there is no sun or I am in a heavy urban environment.



My D2X lasts for a considerable time on its own rechargeable battery and I also have a spare, this combination should allow me to keep shooting from just about anywhere

While the K810i will cover me for the 1% that i don't have my camera

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