A photographer who, last April, invoked California State Shield Law protections revealed one photo and his own name by entering and winning an award in the College Photographer of the Year competition. Alex Welsh, whose work we mentioned previously when it won the Gold Medal in Documentary Photography, photographed a murder scene while working on the Hunters Point story which has been widely recognized this year. Police investigating the crime asked Welsh to hand over images of the crime scene, but Welsh refused to do so, citing protections against releasing journalists’ unpublished material and notes. A San Francisco Superior Court judge sided with the photographer, deciding that Shield Laws applied in this case, and kept the photographer’s name withheld from other media and court documents for the photographer’s safety. The photographer, it turns out, had already released his name and at least one of the images in question to the College Photographer of the Year competition. Now, police again are trying to get Welsh’s cooperation in their investigation. The San Francisco Weekly has more.

Great to see a newspaper fighting for its rights, especially when so many news organizations are just fighting for their survival.  John Tully, a photographer for the Midland Daily News in Midland, Michigan, USA, was standing on a public roadway while covering a breaking fire at a Dow Corning (wiki) plant when he was approached first by Dow Corning security personnel and then by Midland Police officers at the end of October, 2009.  Tully refused to comply with orders to show his pictures to the security guards, who cited “homeland security” issues in their request.  Midland Police informed Tully that his camera gear could be confiscated for refusing to comply.  The Midland Daily News has a longer description of what happened and why the paper decided to fight the issue in a Nov. 1, 2009 editorial, Our view: Security vs. Freedom of the Press.

In the initial editorial, the paper called on U.S. Representative Dave Camp, R-Midland, to look into the issue and clarify “homeland security” issues as they apply to Dow Corning and the media’s ability to cover breaking news. Camp did just that, the Midland Daily News writes, and told the paper

“Like many other individuals that commented on this story, I too was concerned with the manner in which this situation was handled. In response, I contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to inquire about their policies for confiscating property, specifically cameras, for evidence. I was informed that DHS does not explicitly give companies or state and local police departments the authority to confiscate property.”

-US Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, quoted in the Midland Daily News

Count this as a win in the press freedom column in an era where photographers are frequently harassed while taking pictures of publicly-visible buildings, landmarks, and news. Be sure to check out the work of John Tully, the photographer in question, and his blog, while you’re at it.

(via APAD)

In early 2009, the think tank POLIS together with Oxfam published a report warning that international coverage is likely to decrease under the new public service broadcasting regime being worked out in the U.K. And in 2008, the U.K. tabloid the Daily Mirror said as part of the latest round of job cuts they were abolishing the post of foreign editor altogether. Meanwhile, citizen journalists and NGOs have been rushing to fill the gap. The mainstream media, getting free filmed reports and words, often sees this as a win-win situation. This raises three key issues:

• Do these new entrants to humanitarian reporting mean that we are seeing more diverse stories being told and more diverse voices being heard? Does the fundamental logic of reporting change?
• Are viewers/readers aware of the potential blurring of the lines between aid agencies and the media when NGOs act as reporters?
• How are aid agencies being affected by citizen journalists acting increasingly as watchdogs?

-Glenda Cooper in When lines between NGO and news organization blur

The Nieman Journalism Lab has recently been publishing an intriguing series of articles exploring the relationship between the media, NGOs, and journalists, especially as more and more international and investigative journalism is produced, funded, and distributed initially or in cooperation with NGOs and charities. There’s much to read here, and I’ve only just started, but it’s a necessary conversation to have as news organizations drop foreign and investigative bureaus and turn to advocacy organizations for reporting. Be sure to check out all the articles:

• NGOs as newsmakers: A new series on the evolving news ecosystem
• Kimberly Abbott: Working together, NGOs and journalists can create stronger international reporting
• Simon Cottle and David Nolan: How the media’s codes and rules influence the ways NGOs work
• Natalie Fenton: Has the Internet changed how NGOs work with established media? Not enough
• Saving us from noise that kills: NGOs as news coordinators in a networked public sphere
• Bringing NGO news into the mainstream: The case of OneWorld.net and Yahoo News
• Glenda Cooper: When lines between NGO and news organization blur

This is a touchy subject, because of the moral ambiguities inherent in partnerships between NGOs (which generally advocate particular agendas/causes) and journalists or journalism organizations (which strive for editorial independence and objectivity). In the past few years mainstream NGOs have been producing some stellar work. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has been producing strong photography, for instance, and VII recently partnered with the International Committee of the Red Cross for a compelling global documentary effort. A Developing Story chronicles more journalism produced by NGOs. Ultimately, I think the responsibility for journalistically-sound reporting funded by NGOs will rest on the shoulders of the journalists working with the NGOs, who must make sure that their reporting is a truthful representation of the subject being reported according to long-established rules of journalism ethics.

Something to be thankful for today: The New York Times is reporting that Amanda Lindhout (previously on dvafoto) and Nigel Brennan have been freed from captivity after 15 months being held and tortured in Somalia. Great to hear!

Reporters without Borders is reporting this morning that twelve journalists were among those killed in a horrible election-related attack in the Philippines, in the Maguindanao province of the southern island of Mindanao. The New York Times has a broader report about the attack and context of other recent violence in the province. Our thoughts go out to the families of all of those killed and injured.

“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We convey our condolences and sympathy to all journalists in the Philippines, who are in state of shock after this appalling massacre.”

The press freedom organisation added: “We have often condemned the culture of impunity and violence in the Philippines, especially Mindanao. This time, the frenzied violence of thugs working for corrupt politicians has resulted in an incomprehensible bloodbath. We call for a strong reaction from the local and national authorities.”

Unfortunately this attack is the latest in a province with a history of election-related violence, related to an institutionalized “gun culture” in the country. The Philippines’ President’s adviser on the island is reported as saying, “Everyone should be disarmed. Anything less will not work.”

From The New York Times: “Gates Blocks Photographs of Prisoners”

Federal courts had rejected the government’s arguments to block their release, so Congress gave Mr. Gates new powers to keep them private under a law signed last month by President Obama.

The promised/reneged release of new prisoner abuse photographs by the US Military has been an ongoing story but this, I believe, is the first use of this specific new power given to the Secretary of Defense by the Congress. He is now the final arbiter to decide what is released and what is not. End of discussion?

I hadn’t heard much about Amanda Lindhout’s kidnapping recently (wikipedia). She’s been held hostage for more than a year in Somalia without adequate food, water, or medicine. There’ve been unconfirmed accounts of rape and of her having given birth to a Somali child as a result of rape. Her captors have released statements that she is “very contented with her marriage relationship with one of her captors.” I cannot imagine the hell she is living through. I hope for her safe and speedy return to freedom.

(via lightstalkers)

Just hitting the airwaves, the Noorderlicht Photography Festival, one of the great photojournalism events of the year, has been forced to remove an essay curated by Magnum’s Stuart Franklin. The festival’s press release (warning: pdf) states, in part,

The Associated Press does not object to the exhibition as such, but to the content of Franklin’s accompanying essay. This essay acknowledged that criminal acts were committed by both sides [Palestinian and Israeli], but assigned the principle responsibility for the extent of the bloodshed to Israel. Both Franklin and Noorderlicht believe this conclusion is justified by the critical reports [regarding the matter] from Amnesty International and the United Nations…”

The AP believed Franklin’s text expressed a political statement, and further that having AP photos in the exhibition, the essay associated a political statement with AP’s photos, which violates Associated Press guidelines. Whatever the case, this is the first time in Noorderlicht’s twenty years that an essay has been removed due to potential legal threats.

(via Conscientious)

As expected, Americans Laura Ling and Euna Lee were put on trial in North Korea and the pair have just been sentenced to 12 years “reform through labor” in a prison camp, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The pair were reporting on the China-North Korea border for CurrentTV when they were arrested and jailed. The Obama administration has said they are trying “all possible channels” to resolve the matter and secure the women’s release, but North Korea has become increasingly hostile to negotiations over the past weeks and months. Ling and Lee have become pawns in high stakes political negotiations, and it may cost them their lives. The prison camps in North Korea have an alarmingly high death rate, according to reports.

The New York Times Lens Blog has just published a heretofore unknown picture of the Tank Man from the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. AP reporter Terril Jones had been covering the demonstrations and snapped a picture of the famous confrontation between an unknown man and a line of tanks. The Lens blog has more details. I am quite surprised Jones had shown the picture only to friends previously.

Lens also interviewed 4 photographers who each got the iconic shot: Charlie Cole, Stuart Franklin, Jeff Widener, and Arthur Tsang Hin Wah. This is not to be missed; great behind-the-scenes stories about the shooting conditions and the difficulty of getting the pictures out (involving toilets and poorly-dressed hippies!). Youtube has video of the confrontation and the PBS Frontline documentary Tank Man explores contemporary Chinese perspectives on the famous photo.

James Fallows reports about his experience in Tiananmen Square the night before the 20th Anniversary this week and his wife’s the day of and Shanghaiist has video of plainclothes police interrupting international news reports with, of all things, umbrellas.

Meanwhile, BagNewsNotes has a dispatch from Alan Chin in Beijing on the Anniversary, ChinaBeat has a ton of contemporary and historical reporting on the 1989 events, and there’s plenty more. DanWei’s must-read China news is another great place for a variety of reporting and remembrance; I can’t link to search results, so you’ll just have to type in the words yourself. And here’s a couple of stories about information about 1989 slipping past China’s censors in the past couple of years. Magnum’s also got a small but interesting edit of a number of photographers’ pictures from Tiananmen.

Meanwhile, further south, it’s been a couple of days just like all others.