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halensphotography-blog · 6 years ago

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Shooting the truth: Photojournalism

Adrian Baduria 101158144 Halen Morrice 101108865 Jeongwoo Park 101137983 Melody Dong 101100828 Tsai Yun Chen 101136428

What's the role of photo journalism?

Photojournalism distinguishes itself from other forms of professional photography by following the main principles such as: timeliness, accuracy, providing a fair representation of events and facts reported, and by being accountable to the public. The primary role of photo journalism is to visually report on the significant events and varied viewpoints in our common world through the use of photographs while maintaining the trust of its public audience. Photo journalism is meant to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.

Here is a photo taken by Scott Davis during the March for Our Lives gun control protest that happened shortly after the shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. ( https://dcphotoartist.com/tag/photojournalism/)

Are there rules that photojournalists should follow? Why? Why not?

Yes, photojournalists should follow some form of rules to ensure they are remaining trustworthy to its audience. The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) has a code of ethics that we believe photojournalists should follow. That code of ethics includes:

Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.

Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.

Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one's own biases in the work.

Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.

While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.

Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.

Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation.

Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.

Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.

Do not engage in harassing behavior of colleagues, subordinates or subjects and maintain the highest standards of behavior in all professional interactions.

Photojournalists should follow these rules due to the fact that they operate as trustees of the public and provide a faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand. Photojournalists have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its history through images. These images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. By breaking any number of these rules, they are no longer reporting the truth to the public which can cause great harm due to the false information provided.

Below are some photographs of North Korean citizens taken by Eric Lafforgue. Lafforguehas since been banned in North Korea due to the fact that he disobeyed government officials to expose the truth of North Koreas living conditions to the public eye. ( https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/742985/north-korea-photos-banned-propaganda-kim-jong-un-Eric-Lafforgue)

Is the ethics of taking journalistic photos different than the ethics of writing a news story?

No, photo journalism and written news stories go hand in hand due to most written articles providing photographs as a visual aid to enhance their writing. We believe that the ethics are the same due to when you are writing an article you are explaining what happened through the use of words and you should not change anything and only follow the facts, the same goes with photo journalism just instead of describing what happened you are showing events through the use of the visual aid that is a photograph.

For example, below are a few photos also shot by Eric Lafforgue of some people in North Korea. To someone who did not know anything about the way North Korean Citizens are living these two photos would tell them that they are happy and free, which we know is not the case. ( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4248546/North-Koreans-seen-smiling-rare-photographs.html)

What’s the impact of altering press photographs? Should they be edited (at all) in postproduction?

As mentioned earlier one the main things to follow in the NPPAs code of ethics is to not alter photographs. There are of course some exceptions when it comes to editing such as removing red eyes caused by a flash or making the photo visibly clearer. We believe that once you alter a photo you are changing the way someone may view it. The main purpose of the photographs used throughout the media is to tell a story without changing the reality.Due to the fact that photos are meant to be real and images of time we believe that press photos should not be edited due to how it can affect how the viewer interprets the image.

Below are two edited photos, as well as the originals. The first is of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King that was used as an election poster for the prime minister. The theory behind this photo is thatKing George VI was removed from the original photograph to make the Prime Minister seem more powerful to whoever is viewing the photograph at the time. The second photo is an edited photo that was made by using three different prints: the first is a portrait of General Ulsses S. Grant, the second comes from a photo of Major General Alexander M. Cook, and the third is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, Virginia. All three of these photos were used to create the end result which appears as Grant in front of his troops during the American Civil War.

(https://twistedsifter.com/2012/02/famously-doctored-photographs/)

Reference List

Hannah Al-Othman. (February 22, 2017). Grin Jong-un: North Koreans are seen smiling in rare photographs that show people making the most of life in the hermit state.Retrieved October 2018, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4248546/North-Koreans-seen-smiling-rare-photographs.html

Joey Millar. (December 14, 2016). Secret North Korea: The photographs that Kim Jong-un does not want you to see. Retrieved October, 2018, from https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/742985/north-korea-photos-banned-propaganda-kim-jong-un-Eric-Lafforgue

National Press Photographers Association. (n.d.) Code of Ethics. Retrieved October 2018, from https://nppa.org/code-ethics

Photo Staff. (February 24, 2016). A Brief History of Photojournalism.Retrieved October 2018, from http://www.photography-schools.com/photojournalismhistory.htm

Scott Davis. (April 2, 2018). March for Our Lives. Retrieved October 2018, from https://dcphotoartist.com/tag/photojournalism/

Twisted Sifter. (February 6, 2012). 12 Historic Photographs That Were Manipulated. Retrieved October 2018, from https://twistedsifter.com/2012/02/famously-doctored-photographs/

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wionews · 7 years ago

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What is surprising about the communal clashes in West Bengal

The recent communal clashes in Baduria Block of West Bengal came as a surprise to me. Surprise, not because I think that Hindus and Muslims never fight and hate each other unless instigated. No. That would be simplistic and utopian. Religion does cause animosity and hatred and there is a long history of Hindus and Muslims disliking each other in Bengal. Organisations, political or otherwise, can provoke and manipulate tensions in order to push people towards violence but they cannot do so unless there is a latent feeling of mistrust between them.

So, why was I surprised?

Towards the beginning of this century, I had taken a somewhat unplanned decision to start working in the rural development sector. I felt that I needed to spend time in rural areas in order to develop an understanding that one cannot get from academic literature such as Subaltern Studies. After a brief stint in Birbhum district, I landed up in an NGO in Baduria Block, named Swanirvar. If one takes a local train from Sealdah station towards Bongaon, one can get down at a station named Machlandapur. There is nothing special about the station. It is crowded with the unplanned growth of shops around it, a familiar sight in southern Bengal. One sweet shop was particularly popular though. After getting down from the station platform, I usually got into a “trekker”, an illegal four wheeler which managed to fit in an absurd number of people inside it. Sometimes, I used to stand on the back and enjoy the lovely wind as the “trekker” moved towards Baduria. It usually took about forty minutes.

So, once more, why was I surprised to hear about the communal clashes? This is because, although I had seen a lot of rivalries of different kinds in Baduria, I never saw communal rivalry

I usually got down a few stops before Baduria, at a village named Andharmanik. By West Bengal standards, this is a fairly developed area. The landscape is lush green, the soil is fertile, there are big ponds which are used for fish farming. Three crops a year is usual and poultry farming is also popular. But there are problems – arsenic poisoning of ground water being the most serious one. Also, population density is among the highest in the country and, therefore, landholding size is quite small. Over time as properties have become fragmented the size of agricultural land per household has shrunk further and further. The input of agriculture was already going up when I started working there, and it has gone up even more over time.

Swanirvar, by West Bengal standards, was a medium sized NGO, with 60-70 people working there. Except for two persons, who were Kolkata-based bhadraloks, and one person who was a local rural middle class, the rest of the staff were local villagers spread over Baduria and a few other adjoining Blocks. They worked on issues such as sustainable agriculture, pre-primary and primary education, adolescent boys and girls and Self Help Groups. In Andharmanik village, there was a large building which was both a training centre and the main office of the NGO. This is where I also stayed when I went there. I mostly worked with the microfinance team, trying to rescue a programme in bad shape, apart from helping out in documentation and setting up a small library.

I was not there to do ethnography but I had a good exposure to the rural society as well the semi-urban society of Baduria. This place was located only about 50 kilometres from Kolkata, and therefore the residents were not far away from metropolitan city life. However, they did not have the benefits that a Calcuttan like me had. There was a sense of grudge and perhaps even jealousy which came out every now and then. Their condition was much better than the condition of most villagers in West Bengal, but they preferred to compare themselves with Calcuttans rather than with the villagers from other parts of West Bengal. Among the young people who worked there this sense of deprivation was quite acute. It took me a while to realise that I was a bhadralok elite from Calcutta. It took quite a lot of time for some of the staff to accept me.

Hindus and Muslims sat down every day to have lunch together, Hindu and Muslim women belonging to Self Help Groups stayed together in the campus to have residential training

As this was my first serious exposure to rural society, I was quite surprised by the amount of animosity I saw among villagers. Once I went to document a farmer who had won an award his sustainable agriculture practices. I found that although he was an award winner, his own brother was not willing to accept his practices. When I asked why he explained that there was jealousy involved. His brother was jealous of the success he has had and therefore, stubbornly refused to adopt his practices. Later on, I have found this to be quite common in West Bengal. There were other cases of rivalry as well. Anyone trying to do pond based fish farming had to be on the guard against rivals poisoning their ponds at night.

And of course, in those days there was a party based rivalry. However, it was not as if party affiliation determined personal rivalries all the time. It could be the other way round as well. Same family but different party affiliation was not uncommon either.

So, once more, why was I surprised to hear about the communal clashes?

This is because, although I had seen a lot of rivalries of different kinds in Baduria, I never saw communal rivalry. The NGO I worked in had staff, both male and female, who were Hindu as well as who were Muslims. There were rivalry and competition among them. But this was never along religious lines. In a faction fight inside the organisation, a Hindu and a Muslim could be in one faction trying to supersede another faction consisting also of Hindus and Muslims. Hindus and Muslims sat down every day to have lunch together, Hindu and Muslim women belonging to Self Help Groups stayed together in the campus to have residential training. This was not the result of any special culture developed by the NGO. This was normal.

Why was this normal?

To explain this, we must avoid the trap of liberal sentimentalism. No, the innate humanity of the people did not bring Hindus and Muslims together in an enlightened alliance. This was because the primary identity of the people of Baduria was that of a Bengali. The Bengali language was the only language they knew. There were some who knew a little bit of English or Hindi but most people were at heart a Bengali. Since this was their primary identity, it was not unusual for Hindu and Muslim women to stay together for SHG training or the staff to have lunch together cooked by a woman named Jahanara who looked like a Hindu married woman. In fact, I never asked her whether she was Hindu or Muslim, the question itself never arose.

Local Bengalis have helped each other. It is their local pride, that their locality should not earn a bad name

Is the society fundamentally different today? There is no clear answer. There are stories of both Hindu and Muslim extremist organisations developing their strongholds in the region. However, my source, a former colleague, told me that the riot was engineered by outsiders and there are plenty of media reports available now to suggest that Hindus and Muslims have helped each other to bring Baduria back to normalcy. There is one small problem with such reporting. I will say local Bengalis have helped each other. It is their local pride, that their locality should not earn a bad name, that has motivated them to help each other. But we need ethnographers to spend more time there than journalists typically do to get a firm answer to the question.

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politicalfilth-blog · 8 years ago

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Indian Child Welfare Officer Arrested For Involvement In Child Trafficking Ring

We Are Change

The American mainstream media immediately twisted the idea of an elite pedophile ring such as “Pizzagate” as being something crazy and unheard of. As if American political leaders could never be involved in such a sick practice of child sex-trafficking despite the past limelight of cases of abuse like the Franklin Cover up and allegations against the CPS by former Senator Nancy Schaffer.

Now India is having its own exposure of a huge child sex trafficking ring that involved the U.S. equivalent to the CPS and abortion clinics.

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In India, a child welfare officer, India’s equivalent to a Child Protective Services official was arrested for her role in a child-trafficking ring.

India’s State’s Criminal Investigative Department (CID) made the arrests. According to the Hindu, “The CID had unearthed the child trafficking racket during raids at homes and nursing homes in Baduria area of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal in November last year.”

Abortion clinics in the area bribed mothers to give birth to their children in exchange for money ranging between $1,400 and $4,500 USD. Other clinics lied and told the mothers their children were stillborn, when they weren’t, enabling the clinic to steal the babies and sell them on the black market. The children were “transported in bread baskets to nursing homes in the area where they would remain until they were sold into servitude, as sex slaves, or brothels,” according to authorities.

“It is a huge network of NGOs, nursing homes, doctors and middlemen dealing in illegal adoption and baby trafficking that the police have busted. Our men are now building on the huge leads they have already got in this case,” Rajesh Kumar, CID’s Additional Director General told the press. Additionally, investigators believe that foreigners may have been purchasing the children due to Currency from other countries being found at the time the children were discovered during the raid. Police also found a shocking number of corpses of infants on the property of the businesses that were raided.

Meanwhile back in the U.S. last month an international adoption agency in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was raided by FBI agents on accusations of the exact same charges bribery, and trafficking.

The agency has denied any wrong doing stating that “we do not feel the action is warranted and we are evaluating our appeal and the other options available to us.”

The State Department’s investigation found that the company and its providers overseas committed several violations, including soliciting bribes and lying to officials to affect adoption eligibility.

[RELATED: International Adoption Agency in Ohio Raided by FBI over Bribery, Trafficking Accusations]

As an old documentary “Boys For Sale” documents vigorously the sex trade of children is nothing new and adoption agencies and foster homes are frequently used to conceal the abuse for profit sale of kids to elitist.

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If you think that child trafficking doesn’t go on in elite circles you are sorely mistaken it’s those who are rich and powerful that feel most above the law and feel entitled to sexually abusing children as the documentary “An Open Secret” exposed in Hollywood with the perpetrators in the film saying it was “normal.”

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Then there is DC, Former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert was imprisoned for his abuse of multiple young boys and trying to bribe one man to shut up by paying his victim Hastert now wants the money back.

There is also the case of convicted Pensylvania football coach pedophile Jerry Sandusky and his son Jeffrey Sandusky both arrested for child sex abuse allegations. Jerry ran Second Mile a charity for boys that frequented high ranking government officials Second Mile is under investigation for a potential child sex ring run out of the charity.

[RELATED: Disgraced Former House Speaker Wants ‘Hush Money’ Back From Victim He Abused]

President Donald Trump condemned international and domestic human trafficking last month signing into law an executive order that would give the FBI extra powers to enforce the law against human trafficking and traffickers.

For more cases on elite child sex trafficking see our article on pedophile rings in the U.S., UK and more.

[RELATED: The Ultimate Exposure of Pedophile Rings in London, Hollywood, and More]

[RELATED: Infamous Sex Offender Jerry Sandusky’s Son Arrested for Child Sexual Assault]

The post Indian Child Welfare Officer Arrested For Involvement In Child Trafficking Ring appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change https://wearechange.org/indian-child-welfare-officer-arrested-for-involvement-in-child-trafficking-ring/

#We are Change #We Are Change

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visionmpbpl-blog · 8 years ago

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WB: BJP women's wing leader held in child trafficking case Jalpaiguri: The CID on Tuesday night arrested BJP women's wing leader Juhi Chowdhury from the Batasia area close to the Indo-Nepal border in North Bengal for her alleged involvement in the Jalpaiguri child trafficking case. With Chowdhury's arrest, a total of four persons have so far been arrested in connection with the case for their alleged involvement in selling of babies and children across India and also to foreign couples in the last few months from an NGO Bimala Sishu Griho. Sonali Mondal, Chief Adoption Officer the NGO, Chandana Chakraborty, Chairperson of Bimala Sishu Griho and Manas Bhowmik, Chandana's brother, were arrested by a seven-member CID team. The three were charged with selling at least 17 children, aged between 1-14 years, to foreign buyers at high price while falsely claiming that the children were handed over for legal adoption to needy couples after due screening and official procedures. CID sources said Juhi Chowdhury was being brought to Jalpaiguri for further interrogation and would be produced before the District Court on Wednesday. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has already said the party was looking into the allegations against Chowdhury and would take action if she was found guilty. The CID blew off the lid of a child trafficking racket conducting raids in homes and nursing homes in Baduria of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal since November 2016. Visionmp.com News Service http://www.visionmp.com

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vsplusonline · 5 years ago

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Italy to reopen factories in staged end to coronavirus lockdown

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/italy-to-reopen-factories-in-staged-end-to-coronavirus-lockdown/

Italy to reopen factories in staged end to coronavirus lockdown

Italy will allow factories and building sites to reopen from May 4 and permit limited family visits as it prepares a staged end to Europe’s longest coronavirus lockdown, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Sunday.

More than two months after the first case of COVID-19 appeared in a small town outside Milan and following weeks of lockdown, Italy is looking ahead to a second phase of the crisis in which it will attempt to restart the economy without triggering a new wave of infections.

“We expect a very complex challenge,” Conte said as he outlined the road map to restarting activities put into hibernation since early March. “We will live with the virus and we will have to adopt every precaution possible.”

Manufacturers, construction companies and some wholesalers will be allowed to reopen from May 4, followed by retailers two weeks later. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to reopen fully from the beginning of June, although takeaway business will be possible earlier.

“The reopening is allowed on condition that all companies involved strictly respect security protocols in the workplace,” Conte said, adding that the reopening would lay the ground for deeper reforms of the economy in the months ahead.

In addition, parks will be allowed to reopen and limited family visits and funerals with no more than 15 people present will be permitted. But movement between regions remains suspended and people moving about will still have to carry a declaration explaining the reasons for their journeys.

Museums and libraries can reopen from May 18, when sports teams will also be able to resume group training, although Conte said conditions would have to be assessed before any decision on resuming the top-flight Serie A soccer championship.

Schools will remain shut, however, until the start of the new academic year in September, leaving families facing childcare problems for months to come.

ECONOMIC HIT

The lockdown has put a strain on the euro zone’s third-largest economy, which is headed for its worst recession since World War Two. Italian business leaders have called for the restrictions to be eased to head off economic catastrophe.

Conte said the more limited restrictions would likely remain in place until the discovery of an effective vaccine or cure for COVID-19, which is not expected for many months.

On Sunday, Italian authorities reported a third consecutive daily fall in coronavirus fatalities, with 260 deaths, the lowest number since March 14.

Italy’s death toll remains the heaviest in Europe, with more than 26,000 dead and almost 200,000 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease. But the number of new cases has been slowing and the number of patients in intensive care has been falling steadily.

Hit hard by the virus weeks before other major Western countries, Italy has been forced to serve as a model for how to fight it. It is being closely watched around the world as it takes its early steps to chart a path out of a strict lockdown it imposed in early March.

Some businesses deemed “strategic”, including activity that was mainly export-oriented, could reopen this week providing they get the go-ahead from local prefects.

Exporting companies need to resume activity sooner to reduce the risk of being cut out of the production chain and losing business, Conte said in an interview with the daily Repubblica earlier on Sunday.

Rome has introduced a series of measures including state-backed loans to help businesses stay afloat. But some business officials have complained about delays in implementing them.

Conte said the government was monitoring banks to make sure state-guaranteed liquidity arrived to companies in need.

He also said the government was working on a series of measures to help industry by cutting bureaucratic red tape.

READ | Upto 7 years in jail for attacking Covid warriors, govt brings in ordinance

READ | Coronavirus: ASHA workers endure abuse and assault on field in Nagpur

READ | 3 cops injured in clash over relief materials in West Bengal’s Baduria

WATCH | Civic workers attacked, locals oppose burial: Thuggery amid India’s battle against Covid-19 pandemic

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visionmpbpl-blog · 8 years ago

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visionmpbpl-blog · 8 years ago

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