Blog - Bibi van der Zee
So it seems that being hit by a policeman is news - to the surprise of many activists I know who have been hit a few times. "No one was impressed before," said one. "Police have been hitting protesters as long as I can remember, why the interest now?" The reason for the interest now, of course, is because suddenly we are in a multi-media world where half the world has a video camera on their phone. I remember being aware, in the 90s, by a couple of amateur photographers who'd turn up at every event and snap as if their life depended on it. Now there are dozens, even hundreds of amateur reporters keeping records - and thank god.
I went along to the G20 "riots" and was disappointed by much of the coverage by newspapers (with the honourable exception of my paper, the Guardian) and television that followed. It centred almost entirely on the toxic atmosphere outside the Bank of England, and failed to mention the peaceful demonstration by Climate Camp, who occupied Bishopsgate and held a party there for seven hours.

I spoke to people who'd heard reporters telling the camera that "a handful of troublemakers are causing all the trouble", even as the police shoved hard at chunks of the crowd. And I read the reports the next morning which referred endlessly to the breaking of the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland (which was left - strangely – not boarded, unlike every other window in the area) without ever talking about the sickening thud of batons on heads that all of us there heard.
But over the last weeks it has all changed as one by one members of the public have stepped forward with video evidence of what really happened. Mobile phone footage, photographs, proper film; suddenly a proper record can be pieced together of the events of that day. The head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission has admitted that it will change everything for him: "What's been important with all these pictures is we have got such a wide picture of what happened," said Nick Hardwick, "I think that is challenging the police: they have to respond to the fact that they are going to be watched, there is going to be this evidence of what they have done." He even wished that this kind of evidence had existed five years ago, when the IPCC prosecutions of police for their behaviour during the Countryside Alliance demonstration failed. "We had to go with what the court said but we were very very surprised at some of the verdicts. I don't think this would happen now because there would be all this evidence. "
So it's an exciting time to be around. But at the same time it brings new responsibilities. Because if the newspapers are not going to report this stuff until they are forced to by the public and by video evidence, it is up to you to be the reporters and the investigators. It's up to you to bring it home.




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