The Paris Attacks and Eyewitness Media

The Paris Attacks and Eyewitness Media Legal and Ethical Issues for International News Providers Report on Forum 20 March 2015 The Open University, Camden Town, London The Paris Attacks and Eyewitness Media 1 The Forum In March 2015 The Open University and Eyewitness Media Hub hosted a closed forum for invited journalists to discuss the main challenges of using eyewitness media during breaking new. [...] In the case of the Paris Attacks, it was acknowledged that while professional news crews could gather better and richer footage, even journalists at the scene found themselves referring to and sourcing images and reports from Twitter in an effort to stay relevant and up to date. [...] Several vocal participants strongly argued that being the first to report a story and inform the public of a grave incident, especially in cases like the Paris Attacks, outweighs the potential penalty of a copyright claim. [...] In the case of the Paris Attacks, this could have very easily compromised the safety of eyewitnesses and their right to privacy. [...] This is due to the information that travels with the embedded content, such as the name and social profile of the eyewitness, and in some cases, their location data.