- How To Make a Trustworthy Video Video activists risk everything to film human rights violations. But unverified footage can't stand in newsrooms or courtrooms, so their efforts may be in vain. How can activists prevent that? Archivist Yvonne Ng explains a few simple steps they can take.
- Oral History and the Law: Boston College’s Woes At WITNESS, the importance of negotiating informed consent within human rights video is paramount. By helping interviewees recognize the reach that their testimony may have in today's digital age, both intended and unforeseen consequences quickly become part of the greater conversation. Education is the key.
- Join WITNESS For An Online Dialogue On Archiving Human Rights I'm excited to announce that starting today (May 16) through May 22 my fellow archivist Yvonne Ng and I will be co-hosting an online dialogue hosted by New Tactics in Human Rights titled Archiving Human Rights for Advocacy, Justice and Memory.
- Archiving Human Rights on the Web The web has given human rights organizations unprecedented access to global audiences. However a website will last only as long as funds are available for maintenance and hosting.
- 7 Tips to Ensure Your Video Is Usable in the Long Term n the past year, we have witnessed an unprecedented amount of media created by activists, citizen journalists, oral historians, and others who are documenting contemporary protest movements worldwide. As the volume of material continues to grow, questions about how to find, identify, verify, organize, and maintain this media for use as evidence and as historical documentation have become more pressing than ever.
- Inside the Media Archive: our Cataloging Manual now available online Inside the Media Archive is an ongoing, occasional behind-the-scenes look at the practices, methodologies, tools, and resources the WITNESS Media Archive has developed and implemented to manage our collection of human rights video documentation.
- First ICC trial begins in the Hague On Monday this week the historic and long-awaited first trial of the International Criminal Court began in the Hague. In the dock is Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese warlord accused of conscripting children under the age of 15 - some as young as seven - as soldiers in the civil war.
- Saving Human Rights Video from an Online “Deadpool” Perhaps serving as a reminder to video creators that video sharing platforms are not archival repositories for their media (nor do they claim to be), Google Video will be finally shutting down entirely next month. Starting April 29, videos hosted on Google Video will no longer be available for playback; after May 13, the videos will be removed. Google is encouraging content owners to download or migrate their videos to YouTube before the deadline.
- Sharing Truth Two weeks ago I participated in a remarkable event, called Sharing Truth, an international forum convened in Vancouver under the auspices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada.
- Inside the Media Archive: Archiving Digital Video Inside the Media Archive is an ongoing, occasional behind-the-scenes look at the practices, methodologies, tools, and resources the WITNESS Media Archive has developed and implemented to manage our collection of human rights video documentation.
- Inside the Media Archive: Indexing Human Rights Inside the Media Archive is an ongoing, occasional behind-the-scenes look at the practices, methodologies, tools, and resources we have developed and implemented to manage our collection of human rights video documentation.
- Reimagining the Archive: Rethinking Archival Practice and Theory The tone was set on Friday evening with Rick Prelinger’s animated keynote presentation, in which he spoke about the dynamic nature of moving image archives as sites of creation, participation, artistic practice, and activism rather than as places where content goes to die.
- The Documentation Affinity Group: Embedding Archive in Activism The Documentation Affinity Group (DAG) is a small international peer-to-peer network of local action groups originally established by six NGOs in 2005 to consider the role of documentation in protecting and promoting human rights worldwide.
- Kate Doyle: “Archivists Can Be At the Heart of Accountability and Justice” On October 27, the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, I spoke with Kate Doyle, Senior Analyst of U.S. policy in Latin America at the National Security Archive (NSA), about the Guatemala Project, the notion of the activist archivist and how archives can advocate for open societies.
- WITNESS’ Grace Lile wins 2010 Archival Achievement Award Today is UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and so, particularly relevant to share the following great news: our Director of Operations, Grace Lile, has been awarded the 2010 Archival Achievement Award by the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York.
Archiving Human Rights
Posts from the WITNESS Media Archive whose mission is to collect, document, preserve and provide access to audiovisual human rights media in the support of advocacy, prosecution of justice, truthtelling and the historical record.
These posts are devoted to news of our activities and work, and to discussion of topics relevant to it, including human rights archives and documentation, audiovisual archiving, social issue documentary, the social justice responsibilities of archives and archivists, etc.
Posts are written by Grace Lile, Director of Operations; Yvonne Ng, Archivist; and occasional other contributors.