Paul Lewis: How mobile phones helped solve two murders
Paul Lewis: Crowdsourcing the news
Reporter Paul Lewis harnesses the power of mobile phones and social media -- innovations that are making every person a potential journalist. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
type de journalisme.
a new way of doing journalism.
"citizen journalism,"
« journalisme citoyen »,
"collaborative journalism."
pour des gens comme moi,
for the journalists, people like me,
that you can't know everything,
qu’on ne peut pas tout savoir
through technology,
grâce à la technologie,
for other members of the public,
the passive consumers of news,
et ne pas être
a really empowering process.
nous donner le pouvoir,
to hold powerful organizations to account.
des comptes aux organisations puissantes.
to you today with two cases,
controversial deaths.
des morts suspectes.
put out an official version of events,
la version proposée par les autorités
utilizing new technology,
permis de révéler une autre vérité.
particularly Twitter.
notamment Twitter.
is, as I said, citizen journalism.
le journalisme citoyen.
the man in the foreground.
l'homme au premier plan.
he died at the G20 protests in London.
anti G20 à Londres le 1er avril 2009.
his way home from work
has covered his face with a balaclava.
était couvert par une cagoule.
his badge numbers.
son matricule.
he was PC Simon Harwood,
de l’agent Simon Harwood,
Metropolitan Police Force.
to the elite territorial support group.
d’élite de support territorial.
Harwood struck Tomlinson with a baton,
a frappé Tomlinson avec une matraque,
the police wanted us to tell.
dévoiler cette version.
and off-the-record briefings,
et les réunions officieuses,
had died of natural causes.
était due à des causes naturelles,
no contact with the police,
rien à voir avec sa mort
blessure sur son corps.
tried to resuscitate him,
la police avait essayé de le réanimer,
were impeded from doing so,
n’y était pas parvenu
projectiles, probablement des bouteilles.
believed to be bottles, at police.
were stories like this.
that Ian Tomlinson had been selling
had an obligation
qui se devait
what had been going on,
y compris la mienne,
including my news organization --
version of events put out by police.
par la version officielle de la police.
aux policiers
being thrown at police
this edition of the newspaper.
was more to the story.
de cette photo,
you see in the image,
notre enquête, ils avaient disparu.
by the time we started investigating.
vraiment intéressant.
where it got really interesting.
de Twitter aujourd'hui.
you've heard a lot about it today.
when I began investigating this case,
inscrit depuis deux jours.
I'd signed up two days earlier.
was a microblogging site.
un site de microblogging.
short, 140-character messages.
messages de 140 caractères.
in which other people were gathering
où les gens se réunissent
independently of journalists,
indépendamment des journalistes,
exactly what had happened to Ian Tomlinson
était arrivé à Ian Tomlinson
after he collapsed.
Ian Tomlinson après sa chute.
they didn't see any bricks.
that the stories weren't quite as accurate
des faits ne soit pas fiable.
we started encountering
on a commencé à trouver
photographs, evidence.
on Ian Tomlinson,
l’attaque d’Ian Tomlinson,
with the police officers next to him?
policiers près de lui ?
to investigate further, to dig deeper.
enquêter en profondeur.
stories ourselves.
présenter nos informations.
about the internet is:
is freely available to anyone,
sont visibles par tous,
for citizen journalists,
on Facebook or Twitter.
sur Facebook ou Twitter.
de manière gratuite,
of a paywall, i.e, it's free,
the official version of events,
la version officielle,
that we had questions ourselves.
que nous nous posions des questions.
help us were drawn toward us
on a trouvé près de 20 témoins.
to track down around 20 witnesses.
of Ian Tomlinson's death,
that we plotted on the map,
small bullet points,
see their videographic images as well.
police attack Ian Tomlinson
être frappé par la police
investigation into his death.
officielle sur sa mort.
manager in New York.
fonds d’investissement de New York.
he'd been in London on business,
il était à Londres pour travailler,
This is the crowd at G20 protest
Voilà la foule qu’il y avait
near the Bank of England.
la Banque d’Angleterre.
of a police investigation
pour une enquête
through this area,
to show how it poses serious questions
comment elle remet en cause
to riot officers and dog handlers
policiers et aux maîtres-chiens
Tomlinson's leg area with a baton.
aux jambes avec une matraque.
and hits the floor.
et tombe par terre.
pour la première fois,
the video for myself,
this investment fund manager in New York,
l'homme d'affaires new-yorkais,
qui avaient vu la scène
who said they had seen this happen,
of the phone was saying,
d'avoir regardé la vidéo.
until I saw it for myself.
I was there with an IT guy --
vraiment important.
something quite significant.
elle était déjà en ligne.
was they came to our office --
in two days' time,
an inquest jury in London,
that Ian Tomlinson was unlawfully killed.
a été tué par la police.
I said two cases today.
je vous avais parlé de deux.
he was a father, he lived in London.
comme Ian Tomlinson.
refugee from Angola.
politique angolais.
the British government decided
britannique a décidé
a flight from Heathrow.
sur un vol partant de Londres.
the official explanation,
the plane had returned to Heathrow,
l’avion était rentré à Londres
and pronounced dead.
et déclaré mort.
to Jimmy Mubenga,
my colleague Mathew Taylor and I,
Mathew Taylor et moi avons découvert :
began trying to restrain him
l’avaient bloqué
et ils l’avaient forcé à rester assis.
they were restraining him in his seat.
une position dangereuse
and he was making a lot of noise.
le silence car il était bruyant.
to positional asphyxia,
causer une asphyxie,
there were other passengers on the plane,
Ils me tuent ! »
They're killing me!"
les témoins étaient à Londres.
the witnesses were still in London.
étaient rentrés en Angola.
many of them, had returned to Angola.
attirent les internautes.
stories -- they're online magnets.
journalism professors might frown upon
sont réticents
émettent des hypothèses.
perhaps speculative,
journalists shouldn't do.
et d’utiliser Tweeter.
and we needed to use Twitter also.
dies on a flight.
a level of speculation.
message, s’il vous plaît. »
please pass down the chain.
things about Twitter
l’information est en ligne,
of a piece of information,
to reach their intended destination.
où ils sont censés arriver.
that's the flight number --
le numéro du vol -
that I did nothing."
de n’avoir rien fait. »
when he sent me this tweet.
quand il m’a envoyé ce tweet.
what happened on the flight.
s’était passé sur ce vol.
he typed in the flight number.
et a cherché le numéro du vol.
he had encountered our stories.
to tell a different version of events;
raconter une autre version des faits.
it'll turn out to be asphyxiation.
qu’il s’agit d’asphyxie.
was he couldn't breathe.
c’était qu’il ne pouvait pas respirer.
like 100-kilo plus,
peser au moins 100 kg.
down -- from what I could see,
que j’ai pu voir -
to pull him down below the seats.
sous les sièges.
sticking up above the seats,
dépassant des sièges,
you know, "Help me!"
« Aidez-moi ! »
guards sitting on top of him from there.
in the back of my mind.
every time I lay down to go to sleep now.
chaque soir avant de fermer les yeux.
kicked off the flight and lose my job.
et de perdre mon travail.
pour en tenir un autre,
of what had happened on the flight.
des faits.
one of five witnesses
most of them, as I said,
pour la plupart,
through social media.
leurs places dans l’avion,
exactly where they were sat.
dimension to all of this
par les journalistes :
of the Ian Tomlinson witnesses,
de Ian Tomlinson,
to the scene of the death
we couldn't do that,
their boarding passes.
les cartes d’embarquement.
what they were saying
other passengers were saying, too.
d’autres passagers.
et pour nous tous,
for journalists -- for all of us --
fed into the public domain.
puissent être diffusées sur Internet.
the power of citizen journalism.
puissance du journalisme citoyen.
into the Hudson two years ago,
a amerri sur l'Hudson,
because a man is on a nearby ferry,
and photographs the image of the plane
found out initially,
about the plane in the Hudson River.
news stories of the year.
informations de l’année 2011 :
and the tsunami.
et le tsunami.
back to the images that you saw
huit kilomètres à l’intérieur des terres.
living rooms, supermarkets shaking --
les supermarchés qui tremblaient.
shot by citizen journalists
de journalistes-citoyens
the political crisis,
la crise politique,
in the Middle East.
au Moyen-Orient.
Egypt or Libya or Syria or Yemen.
en Libye, en Syrie ou au Yémen.
the repressive restrictions
les restrictions répressives
en racontant leurs histoires sur Internet.
on the internet.
compliquées à vérifier
a huge layer of accountability.
n’importe laquelle,
shown you any, actually;
apparemment pacifique au Bahreïn.
unarmed protester in Bahrain.
if the individual being mistreated,
technology has inserted
et la technologie entraînent
into our world,
dans notre monde.
of the conference, "Why not?" --
it's quite simple, really.
the boundaries of what's possible,
that happen in our world now go recorded,
les fait divers sont documentés
we would have been able to investigate
enquêter sur ces histoires
five years ago.
to say that the two deaths,
et de Jimmy Mubenga
and the death of Jimmy Mubenga,
exactly what had happened in those cases.
that you believe is problematic,
à une situation difficile,
an injustice of some kind,
bref, une injustice,
doesn't feel quite right,
record it and share it?
documenter et partager ?
recording and sharing is journalism.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Paul Lewis - JournalistReporter Paul Lewis harnesses the power of mobile phones and social media -- innovations that are making every person a potential journalist.
Why you should listen
Paul Lewis uses social media and cellphone video and photos to build hard-hitting stories. He first gained notice for his reporting on the death of Ian Tomlinson, when he used a witness’ cellphone video to prove that the police attacked Tomlinson at the 2009 G-20 protests. The international story led to an internal police investigation and changed the way we think about self-policing in a digital era.
He leads a team of journalists at The Guardian who specialize in using the very reporting methods he helped popularize. He reflects on citizen journalism as part of the book Investigative Journalism: Dead or Alive?
Paul Lewis | Speaker | TED.com