IP Democracy: Cell Phone Video Rocks Malaysian Justice

The Washington Post has a fascinating page one tale today about how an amateur video shot with a cell phone spurred public outcry and law enforcement reform in Malaysia. A young woman, 22 year-old Hemy Hamisa Abu Hassan Saari, had been forced to strip naked and perform squat thrusts following what she claims was a false arrest for drug possession, a mortifying ordeal for the modest Moslem woman.

Unbeknownst to her, a male police officer was video taping the episode with his cell phone. He then sent it to friends and colleagues (presumably and appallingly for titillation purposes). It ended up on YouTube and then national Malaysian television, sparking public outrage over the woman’s obvious humiliation. Armed with video evidence of abusive practices by police, Malaysian authorities investigaged and implemented reforms.

The clip began circulating phone to phone, e-mail to e-mail. Eventually it was posted on YouTube and other Internet sites, to be viewed by millions. What started as cheap voyeurism escalated into an unstoppable cyberspace phenomenon, which forced the prime minister to establish an official inquiry that led to changes in police practice. The episode also underscored the growing power of amateur video, shot on cellphones and ever-tinier digital cameras, to hold the powerful to account.

What’s interesting is that human rights groups had been complaining about this practice to Malaysian authorities, to no avail. And they had taken their case to newspapers, but in a country which licenses its press, no newspaper would risk criticizing the police.

But the video changed everything. The rise of cell phone and tiny camera video recording capabilities has made it easier to uncover abuse and make changes in how authorities treat prisoners. One organization is setting up a web site devoted to exposing abuse through the use of amateur videos.

“Images have more resonance,” said Gillian Caldwell, executive director of Witness, a New York-based human rights group whose credo is “See it. Film It. Change it.” Her group has already gathered almost 3,000 hours of footage of human rights abuses from people in more than 75 countries. It is getting ready to launch a YouTube-like Web site for human rights. Caldwell said rights groups are increasingly harnessing the “power of images and human stories to motivate change.”

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 15, 2006 8:23 AM to IP Democracy