AsiaLIFE

With greater accessibility to new technology, video recording of human rights abuses is coming of age in Cambodia. Words by Clive Graham-Ranger.

Cambodia’s oppressed have a lot to thank Peter Gabriel for . . . and it’s not just his music. Twenty years ago the former Genesis singer founded Witness. With a catch line of, “See It, Film It, Change It”, the empowering organisation has secured justice for tens of thousands across the globe by handing out cameras and training human rights activists in 50 countries in the use of video to back-up courtroom testimony.

“Armed with cameras, front-line activists are letting the truth do the talking,” Gabriel told a press conference when he launched his initiative in the use of video reportage.

“Video can be very powerful, as the filmed beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991 showed,” says Ryan Schlief, Witness’s New York-based Asia project manager.

The organisation works closely with the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights [Licadho] providing training in storyboarding, scripting, filming and editing evidence to be presented in court.

“It has produced some powerful and influential advocacy videos–including coverage of the forced evictions in Dey Krahorm, Borei Keila, Group 78, Boeung Kak Lake, Kampong Speu and others,” says Schlief. “It now has 60 video cameras in 18 provinces and the results have proved to be vital for the communities and individuals who have used them.”

Video evidence came of age in Cambodia when Sovath Loun, a Buddhist monk in Siem Reap, used his mobile phone to film 100 police and military personnel as they opened fire on farmers in Chi Kreng. He transmitted the pictures along with other material he received from a farmer who had recorded the attack on his phone. Video of the deputy district police chief giving the signal for another officer to open fire with his AK-47 was sent to human rights groups in Phnom Penh.

Reporting such incidents as occurred in Chi Kreng is neither without restriction nor risk.

“Before anyone comes to work for us, we explain that you can say some things about Cambodia, but it’s very restrictive and it’s getting worse,” explains Naly Pilorge, a Licadho director. “There has definitely been a shift since the last election in terms of intolerance to criticism.”

Advances in video, though, have gone hand in hand with the emergence of a class of citizen-reporter prepared to ignore Big Brother. Digital technology and the advent of cell phone cameras have opened the way for everyone to record vital evidence. In the wrong hands, though, an event can take on a wholly different and untruthful meaning. For that reason, Licardho sees handing out cameras as only stage one of an operation that is subject to a series of editing checks and balances before a finished video is released.

So before a shot is framed and the record button pressed, potential video advocates attend tutorials in the classroom. Top of their mental checklist is that their evidence must answer the vital where, what, who and why questions to set the scene.

They are then moved on to the practical use of zoom, tilt and pan to give visual emphasis and the need to record clear and distinct audio when covering demonstrations. Close-ups to convey emotions such as anger, frustration and fear, are recommended as is the gradual isolation of such emotions in a crowd.

In many cases those new-found skills are put to the test in real-life situations in the field, sometimes exposing the digital operatives to potential risks. The end-product is subsequently edited together to create an accurate and truthful record of events.

Efficient, compelling and reliable are three words drummed into editors as they approach raw footage and compress time and space to create a meaningful and dynamic video record. Their work is then viewed, sometimes altered and ultimately given the seal of approval from experienced human rights advocates who ensure the evidence will pass the close scrutiny of lawyers looking to ban the footage.

Back out on the street, safeguarding the subjects of interviews in often high-risk situations is also taken into account.

“Security is paramount,” Schlief told me. “Each person with a camera is instructed to explain the entire project to their interviewees, the potential risks and thereafter request consent for the use of each interview. At times it may be necessary to not include footage or blur out faces if there is a chance an individual would be put at risk.”

Risk is high on the agenda for groups such as Licadho, Human Rights Watch, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which continue their criticism of abuses. Fear of arrest and imprisonment, however, have driven many human rights activists underground and on to the internet as bloggers and self-styled cloggers and Khloggers (Cambodia’s English-speaking and Khmer internet clique) rather than face a daily barrage of threats, arrest, violence, criticism and complaint.

“Generally speaking, I’ve found most Cambodians embrace the internet as a place for self-expression ‘first’, with human rights then being reflected in their opinions,” says John Weeks, an American in Cambodia who regularly consults with human rights groups on net strategy.

Sopheap Chak is among cyberspace’s most controversial Cambodian bloggers, openly addressing subjects such as human trafficking, corruption, forced land evictions and women’s rights. Her public profile is brave. Rather than hide behind such sobriquets as “Details are Sketchy”, “Idiot/Savant” and “KI Media” as do others, she is identifiable, reasoned but confrontational. “If everyone keeps silent to intimidation, intimidation will gain its position,” she says, adding that she is far from dispirited. “By making our voices heard, we can create change.”

Her crusading work is being followed up by a new generation of cyber-savvy youngsters who are becoming a potent sounding board for the present and future. After some initial training in Phnom Penh, Lux Mean, who works for the International Republican Institute, is giving young people a voice on the internet.

“I hope they will put important issues on their blogs such as health, employment, their immediate environment, education, gangsters and the like,” he says. “I would like to see the day come soon when young Cambodians will be as familiar with the internet as are others their age around the world.”