International journalism 101 - Thailand

Photo by affaire de couronne de Thomas

The media landscape is changing before our very eyes. Once again a major news story can be covered by anyone with an internet connection, often with greater accuracy and more insight than the established media channels. I have been following developments in Thailand over the last few hours and it seems to me the the best source for breaking developments and the background to what has been happening are Twitter, Flickr and blogs.

For more details on what is going on in Bangkok check out

#redshirts on Twitter

"redshirts" in Google blog search and Technorati

"redshirts" in Youtube

"redshirts" on Flickr

Follow these sources for an hour or two and you'll find out as much as most professional journalists (at least non - Thai's) know about what is happening.

I see this tendency set to explode over the next few years as more and more people are able to access the internet via their mobile/cell phones and the world wide web ceases to the sole domain of those with the wealth to buy a computer. Already the number of people who use mobiles in the developing world has skyrocketed. With the spread of lower cost devices which include video and camera capabilities as well as letting you get on the internet then we will have to chance to hear from those caught up in news stories around the world unfiltered by national and international media.

Press Freedom:Collateral Damage

I was following the #G20 hash on Twitter in order, like the UK police, to keep abreast of the latest developments concerning the G20 summit protests in London when I came across a short documentary, Press Freedom: Collateral Damage which shows the increasingly systematic harassment of camera operators, photographers and journalists by the police in Britain. As the National Union of Journalists site says;

"The NUJ had already submitted written evidence to the committee’s Policing and Protest inquiry. In his oral evidence, Jeremy highlighted issues such as journalists being denied access to report on demonstrations, the removal and deletion of data and the excessive use of stop and search powers against journalists.

He also highlighted some of the violent consequences faced by journalists going about their work, including details of past physical assaults.

The committee went on to question Jeremy about the surveillance of journalists by the police’s Forward Intelligence Team, which was set up to monitor the activities of people under suspicion of criminal activities."

I remember talking with a reporter here in Thessaloniki and they told me the same kind of thing; that the police have been becoming more aggressive in there treatment of photographers and people with video cameras.

I suppose that this is another spin - off connected with the rise of the internet and the ability of people to post their own stories to a wider audiences. In the past only a few could get their news out, usually via the mainstream press. As a result there were ways of making sure that potentially embarrassing images of police misbehavior could be quietly surpressed with an appeal to the editor/owner's sense of civic duty combined with veiled threats concerning the possible difficulties their journalist could face getting access to police sources in the future. Nowadays, however, such obstacles can be easily circumvented by posting such material on a site which means that everyone carrying a camera maybe a potential "enemy".

In addition the rise of citizen journalism means that many of those who cover demos, protests and the like are not subject to the traditional rules of engagement that covered reporters in the past and so unburdened by a political line set down by the channel/paper/station are free to report what they see.