I'm based in London, UK, where I run a small digital media and human rights consultancy, Macroscope.
For the last three years I worked for WITNESS in New York, where I ran the Hub, a video-sharing website focused on human rights. Prior to that I worked in the field of media development for six years, on projects and strategies supporting local media in developing countries (particularly in Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean).
Latest posts by Sameer Padania
Caught On Camera: Human Rights Video on GV
It has been a bumper few weeks on GV for human rights video, so let's get straight into it… Bandh of brothers… [via Neha] This footage, filmed by Dinesh Wagle, of United We Blog!, shows motorcycle riders being turned backed by members of the National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs...
Caught On Camera: Human Rights Videos on GV
You'd be forgiven for thinking it's been Saddam, Saddam, Saddam, in recent weeks, but GV has covered other human rights videos that deserve a bit of limelight – so, in this regular new feature, I'm going to round up the best of those recent stories. Something for WITNESS's Amazon Wishlist...
Saddam execution video re-ignites death penalty debates worldwide
Over the past four months, we've tried to feature and contextualise videos we felt should be seen and debated by a wider audience. Today's featured human rights video is something completely new. You may be one of the millions who have sought it out online – or you may have...
GV Summit Delhi '06 Session Four: Tools and Technology
The room is alive with post-coffee buzz, as this session, led by Salam Adil and Preetam Rai, tries to get under the skin of the tools and technology that would broaden out the range of people writing and reading blogs worldwide. In Salam’s twist on GV’s tagline, The world is...
Egypt: Bloggers open the door to police brutality debate
‘Extraordinary rendition’ has passed into common parlance over the last year as human rights organisations have accused the US government of exporting suspects to be tortured in regimes like Egypt, Morocco and Syria. But while cases involving international suspects get the headlines, these countries are regularly cited by human rights...
China: Videos emerge of clashes between police and students in Jiangxi
Hot on the heels of the Chinese government's claim of a 22.1% reduction in “mass incidents” (read “protests”), here's some more video of “mass incidents” from China, in case you missed this portion of John Kennedy's latest Beijing bulletin: Backing up to China late last month, students at one technical...
Egypt: Cairo's women speak out against violence
In the run-up to the annual global campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Egypt's First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak, addressing a meeting of the Arab Women's Organisation, issued a heartfelt plea: What shall we do to face challenges of discrimination, extremism and religious fanaticism? It's a vexing question...
USA: Video-sharing places L.A.'s police in the spotlight
Hop over to Technorati right now and you'll see that six out of the top fifteen videos being linked to by bloggers show the same incident – University of California police officers using a taser gun on an Iranian-American student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, in the Powell Library at UCLA (University of...
Mexico: The last moments of Bradley Roland Will
Journalism seems like a precarious profession to practise in Mexico. It's ranked by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. The latest tragic example of this came on Friday 27th October, in the southern state of Oaxaca, with the shooting...
Video exposes child-soldier's identity
If you've seen the guidelines for this site, you'll know that there are types of footage that we wouldn't post, and circumstances surrounding the shooting of particular videos that mean we wouldn't even link to them. Today's post is about one of those videos. I was researching a possible post...
Zimbabwe: Smuggled DVD brings union protest beatings to light
This video reached me late last night via Ethan Zuckerman. At nearly ten minutes, it's longer than the other videos we've put up, but I strongly recommend you watch this. It includes footage of the Zimbabwean police and security intelligence services breaking up a peaceful demonstration by members of the...
Iraq: Rare testimony of abuse by the Iraqi Security Forces
Torture in Iraq, says the UN, is “out of control”, and “worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein”. So it was especially timely for Brian Conley at Alive In Baghdad to e-mail us to say that he had an interview with a man who claims to...
Tunisia: Opening prisons to the world
At this site, I’m trying to show videos that show or speak about human rights abuses, and – as in the Tunisian video above – the impact of human rights abuses on ordinary people. I don’t speak Arabic, so how do I know what this video’s about? It's thanks to...
Eastern Europe: Video documents homophobia on the rise
The latest twist in the long-running saga of anti-gay violence and state oppression took place yesterday in Moscow, as an appeals court upheld the earlier lower court ruling to ban Moscow's Gay Pride March in May 2006. The gay rights activists who brought the case will now attempt to challenge...
China: Government's video-censorship foiled
When a young teacher is found dead outside her apartment building in Ruian, the police report concludes suicide, but her family and students suspect a cover-up. Over a thousand people take to the streets in protest, and are met with police violence. Protestors film the clashes on their cellphones, and...
Malaysia: Cellphone video captures police excess
When the Malaysian police started accepting crime reports sent in by members of the public from their cellphones, little did they expect that their own misdemeanours would one day be caught in the frame. Malaysians have had to put up with police corruption and misconduct as a part of everyday...
