The Camera Revolution World wide

Spare a quick thought for this team of intrepid camera-folks, not filming in the City of London, but rather on the streets of Burma 18 months ago. For all the importance of pushing cameras around during protests in this country, I feel the gravity of working on the streets of Rangoon and elsewhere in that country, and the work done in Tibet months later, were both far more commendable.

Where people risked being beaten or having their cameras stolen in London a month ago, these people risked being incarcerated, perhaps even killed, to bring us footage of the brutality of the Burmese regime. The camera may be helping us see horrific state violence a few (hundred) miles away in central London, but it can also help us see it in places like Burma and Tibet.

The question is, do we just respond by shaking our heads, thanking God or whoever that it isn’t us, and getting on, or do we use this as a reminder that we still have more freedom than some, and risking the comparatively little that we must, get out onto the streets ourselves? Do we become arm chair bystanders, or do we offer solidarity here in Britain?

I worry a bit that, whilst this could be a way of motivating others, it becomes a way of turning protesting into a sport. But I suppose the only way we really can respond is to keep organising.