Public appeals over YouTube have recently become very popular in Russia. Some of them had a lot of important consequences:
These examples made a lot of noise and created an impact and were important in beginning the process of police reform.
In some cases video messages are the last tools victims of injustice can resort to.
Video messages are powerful and confident - there is no anonymity. Typically if someone records a video message it means that he or she is ready to communicate with media. The public may not believe in text, which could be written by anyone, but do believe ordinary citizens speaking onscreen.
Video messaging can be widely accessible to the population. They can be recorded by individuals who have not knowledge of how to use the media, blogs or PR to communicate, so it is easy for everyone.
Challenge:
Create a portal to collect YouTube messages posted by whistle blowers. All messages will be collected in one place and all comments and activity on each post are written and tracked. If there is a special website dedicated to collecting these messages, people can post their messages knowing that they will not get lost among the millions on YouTube but will get seen by the target viewer audience.
A video portal will help activists all over the country to raise their voices and to combat censorship in local and federal media.
Comments (1)
Matthew Murray said
at 11:58 pm on Sep 20, 2011
I would like to express strong support for this idea to create a protall for collecting and distributing video testimonials of citizens who are blowing the whistle on a specific example of official corruption and abuse of power. If a person with an important case to discuss or piece of evidence to reveal believes that he/she would get 50,000 instant viewers on this platform, he/she may be more inclined to take the step of blowing the whistle. Thus, one reason that people do not blow the whistle more often is they may believe that no one is really listening. The wide public exposure offered by such a video tool provides citizens a new incentive to act.
At the same time, the instant exposure and large following would help create a level of protection for the whistleblower against false prosecution by authorities. It would harness the support of public opinion behind whistleblowers and help facilitate constructive official action on specific cases.
Let me also add one variation on this theme of the video platform. It could also be used as a means for citizens to distribute success stories for of how they have applied Russian law successfully to induce government transparency and openness. The video platform would show positive examples that others can emulate. This would be an excellent means to spread the legal tools that a citizen, activist lawyer or business used to fight corruption, secure government information and take other steps.
Thus, one centralized video platform could provide whistleblowers and legal activists a chance to share their stories and know-how.
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