The human rights advocates who founded Witness have spent the past 15 years effectively using the gripping medium of video to lobby for change.

This autumn, the international advocacy group launched the Hub, which has become an award-winning portal to that two-way street called participatory journalism – an avenue which founders hope will increase the ability of the everyman to document human rights abuses.

The established programme, Witness, which was founded in 1992 by a consortium headed by singer Peter Gabriel, distributes cameras, trains groups on how to use video for advocacy, and partners with various other aid organizations to produce its own documentaries.

Documentary subjects have ranged from the impact of war in Chechnya to the plight of women in Papua, Indonesia, to the abuses along the Mexican/US border, to the struggles of Romani children in Bulgaria. The content, usually in documentary form, has been aired on various American television programmes. Some video has been shown to lawmakers in Mexico, United States, Senegal, in the International Criminal Court and elsewhere.

The NY Times Company recognized Witness for nonprofit excellence in 2007; the group received a Webby Award nomination in 2006.

Recently though, it’s the Hub which has been in the news. A November 29 Economist article points to the Hub as one of several sites which have been created for the kind of participatory journalism that can spark civic activism. It lauds the Hub’s willingness to encourage the use of mobile phones as image capturing-devices.

The Hub, which is available in English, French and Spanish, allows users to create an account and upload video. It does not act as a gatekeeper or editor – and as such cannot guarantee the authenticity of any material on its site – but allows the users of the site to rank and rate the videos it hosts.

The top-rated video at this time depicts police officers in Egypt slapping a man in their custody. The same video was submitted to YouTube, which initially took it down.

Other content includes clips of longer documentaries produced by Witness, as well as a growing body of user-generated content. The end result – besides activism – is a well-catalogued body of documentation.

The site allows videos to be e-mailed, embedded or linked to.

It also provides, on the same web page as the video, articles and tipsheets informing viewers about issues - and producing video itself. It provides e-mail addresses and websites for politicians.

The are also message boards and forms on which interested parties may create communities to keep each other informed, debate, or even organise civic participation – the end goal of both Witness and the Hub.

To all these ends, the Hub – based in New York City – won the new media award from the London-based One World Broadcasting Trust.

The jury there noted:

“This site was recognised as potentially transformative. It was agreed that it sets a benchmark that others must meet in using technology and digital media to bring to light injustices that would not usually be under such global scrutiny, and therefore had the potential to effect real change. It shows how the power of collaboration, distribution and aggregation can amplify the plight of others in an unequal society. It clearly fulfilled the One World Media Awards judging criteria and it was felt that the site provided a much needed portal, space and context, with the support of ethical and thoughtful editorial content, to shine a spotlight on global inequalities.”

Published: December 6, 2007