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I would like to start
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with the story of Mary,
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a woman from an African village.
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Her first memories
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are of her family fleeing violent riots
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orchestrated by the ruling political party.
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Her brother was murdered by the state-sponsored militia,
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and she was raped more than once
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just because she belonged to the wrong party.
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One morning, a month before the election,
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Mary's village was called to another intimidation meeting.
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In this meeting, there is a man standing in front of them,
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telling them, "We know who you are,
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we know who you will vote for,
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and if you're not going to drop the right paper,
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we're going to take revenge."
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But for Mary, this meeting is different.
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She feels different.
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This time, she's waiting for this meeting,
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because this time, she's carrying a small hidden camera in her dress,
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a camera that nobody else can see.
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Nobody is allowed to film in these meetings.
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You risk your life if you do.
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Mary knows that, but she also knows that the only way to stop them
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and to protect herself and her community
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is to expose their intimidation,
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to make sure they understand somebody is following them,
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to break the impunity they feel.
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Mary and her friends were filming for months, undercover,
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the intimidation of the ruling political party.
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(Video) ["Filmed with hidden cameras"]
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Man: We are now going to speak about the upcoming elections.
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Nothing can stop us from doing what we want.
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If we hear you are with [The Opposition]
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we will not forgive you.
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["Militia intimidation rally"]
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[The Party] can torture you at any time.
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The youth can beat you.
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["Disruption of political meeting"]
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For those who lie, saying they are back with [The Party],
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your time is running out.
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["Party youth militia"]
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Some have died because they rebelled.
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Some have lost their homes.
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If you don't work together with [The Party],
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you will lead a very bad life.
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Oren Yakobovich: These images were broadcast all over the world,
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but more importantly,
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they have been broadcast back to the community.
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The perpetrators saw them too.
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They understood somebody is following them.
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They got scared. Impunity was broken.
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Mary and her friends forced the ruling political party
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not to use violence during the election,
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and saved hundreds of lives.
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Mary is just one of hundreds of people
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that my organization had helped to document human rights violations
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using cameras.
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My background should have led me to a different direction.
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I was born in Israel to a right-wing family,
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and as long as I remember myself,
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I wanted to join the Israeli army to serve my country
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and prove what I believed was our right for the whole land.
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I joined the Israeli army just after the first intifada,
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the first Palestinian uprising,
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and I served in one of the hard-minded,
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toughest, aggressive infantry units,
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and I got the biggest gun in my platoon.
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Quite fast, I became an officer
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and got soldiers under my command,
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and as time passed, I started serving in the West Bank,
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and I saw these images.
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I didn't like what I saw.
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It took me a while,
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but eventually I refused to serve in the West Bank
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and had to spend time in jail.
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It was a bit —
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(Applause) —
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It was not that bad, I have to say.
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It was a bit like being in a hotel, but with very shitty food.
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(Laughter)
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In jail, I kept thinking that I need people to know.
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I need people to understand
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what the reality in the West Bank looks like.
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I need them to hear what I heard,
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I need them to see what I saw,
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but I also understood, we need the Palestinians themselves,
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the people that are suffering,
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to be able to tell their own stories,
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not journalists or filmmakers that are coming outside of the situation.
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I joined a human rights organization,
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an Israeli human rights organization called B'Tselem.
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Together, we analyzed the West Bank
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and picked 100 families that are living in the most risky places:
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close to checkpoints, near army bases,
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side by side with settlers.
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We gave them cameras and training.
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Quite fast, we started getting very disturbing images
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about how the settlers and the soldiers are abusing them.
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I would like to share with you two clips from this project.
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Both of them were broadcast in Israel, and it created a massive debate.
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And I have to warn you,
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some of you might find them quite explicit.
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The masked men you will see in the first clips
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are Jewish settlers.
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Minutes before the camera was turned on,
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they approached a Palestinian family
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that was working their land
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and told them that they have to leave the land,
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because this land belongs to the Jewish settlers.
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The Palestinians refused.
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Let's see what happened.
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The masked men that are approaching are Jewish settlers.
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They are approaching the Palestinian family.
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This is a demonstration in the West Bank.
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The guy in green is Palestinian.
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He will be arrested in a second.
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Here you see him blindfolded and handcuffed.
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In a few seconds, he regrets he came to this demonstration.
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He's been shot in the foot with a rubber bullet.
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He is okay.
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Not all the settlers and the soldiers are acting this way.
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We're talking about a tiny minority, but they have to be brought to justice.
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These clips, and others like them,
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forced the army and the police to start investigations.
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They've been shown in Israel, of course,
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and the Israeli public was exposed to them also.
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This project redefined the struggle for human rights
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in the occupied territories,
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and we managed to reduce the number of violent attacks in the West Bank.
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The success of this project got me thinking
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how I can take the same methodology to other places in the world.
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Now, we tend to believe that today,
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with all of the technology,
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the smartphones and the Internet,
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we are able to see and understand most of what's happening in the world,
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and people are able to tell their story —
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but it's only partly true.
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Still today, with all the technology we have,
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less than half of the world's population
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has access to the Internet,
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and more than three billion people —
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I'm repeating the number —
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three billion people are consuming news that is censored by those in power.
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More or less around the same time,
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I'm approached by a great guy named Uri Fruchtmann.
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He's a filmmaker and an activist.
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We understood we were thinking along the same lines,
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and we decided to establish Videre, our organization, together.
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While building the organization in London,
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we've been traveling undercover to places
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where a community was suffering from abuses,
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where mass atrocities were happening,
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and there was a lack of reporting.
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We tried to understand how we can help.
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There were four things that I learned.
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The first thing is that we have to engage
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with communities that are living in rural areas,
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where violations are happening far from the public eye.
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We need to partner with them,
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and we need to understand which images are not making it out there
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and help them to document them.
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The second thing I learned
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is that we have to enable them to film in a safe way.
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Security has to be the priority.
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Where I used to work before, in the West Bank,
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one can take a camera out,
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most likely not going to get shot,
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but in places we wanted to work,
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just try to pull a phone out, and you're dead — literally dead.
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This is why we decided
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to take the operation undercover
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when necessary,
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and use mostly hidden cameras.
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Unfortunately, I can't show you the hidden cameras we're using today —
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for obvious reasons —
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but these are cameras we used before.
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You can buy them off the shelf.
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Today, we're building a custom-made hidden camera,
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like the one that Mary was wearing
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in her dress to film the intimidation meeting
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of the ruling political party.
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It's a camera that nobody can see,
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that blends into the environment,
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into the surroundings.
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Now, filming securities go beyond using hidden cameras.
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Being secure starts way before the activist is turning the camera on.
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To keep our partners safe,
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we work to understand the risk of every location
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and of every shot before it's happened,
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building a backup plan if something goes wrong,
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and making sure we have everything in place
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before our operations start.
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The third thing I learned is the importance of verification.
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You can have an amazing shot of atrocity,
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but if you can't verify it, it's worth nothing.
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Recently, like in the ongoing war in Syria or the war in Gaza,
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we've seen images that are staged or brought from a different conflict.
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This misinformation destroyed the credibility of the source,
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and it's harmed the credibility of other reliable and trustworthy sources.
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We use a variety of ways to make sure we can verify the information
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and we can trust the material.
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It starts with vetting the partners,
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understanding who they are, and working with them very intensively.
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How do you film a location?
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You film road signs, you film watches,
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you film newspapers.
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We are checking maps, looking at maps,
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double-checking the information,
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and looking also at the metadata of the material.
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Now, the fourth and the most important thing I learned
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is how you use images to create a positive change.
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To have an effect,
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the key thing is how you use the material.
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Today, we're working with hundreds of activists
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filming undercover.
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We work with them both to understand the situation on the ground
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and which images are missing to describe it,
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who are the ones that are influencing the situation,
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and when to release the material to advance the struggle.
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Sometimes, it's about putting it in the media,
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mostly local ones, to create awareness.
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Sometimes it's working with decision makers,
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to change laws.
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Sometimes, it's working with lawyers to use as evidence in court.
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But more than often,
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the most effective way to create a social change
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is to work within the community.
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I want to give you one example.
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Fatuma is part of a network of women that are fighting abuses in Kenya.
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Women in her community have been harassed constantly
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on their way to school and on their way to work.
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They are trying to change the behavior of the community from inside.
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In the next clip,
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Fatuma is taking us with her on her journey to work.
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Her voice is superimposed on images that she filmed herself
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using hidden cameras.
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(Video) Fatuma Chiusiku: My name is Fatuma Chiusiku.
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I'm 32 years old, a mother,
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And Ziwa La Ng'Ombe is my home.
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Each morning, I ride the mini-bus
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Number 11.
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But instead of a peaceful journey to work,
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each day begins with fear.
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Come with me now
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and use my eyes
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to feel what I feel.
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As I walk, I think to myself: