Mobile phones providing visual reportage

WITH MUCH of the foreign media unable to cover events in Iran, some of the most dramatic pictures have come from the mobile phone…

WITH MUCH of the foreign media unable to cover events in Iran, some of the most dramatic pictures have come from the mobile phone. The footage – grainy and jerky – is the visual counterpart to the tweets, e-mails and messages on social networking sites that have helped to convey a measure of the turmoil.

One disturbing clip shows a woman, apparently called Neda, lying in a pool of blood. Many Iranians have drawn the attention of the world’s media to the footage, available on YouTube.

An Iranian who e-mailed the Guardian, wrote: “I’m writing to ask that you take the time to reference a young girl’s needless death . . . I didn’t have the stomach to post the video, she literally dies on camera.”

Mobile phone footage also shows Iranians setting fire to pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. – (Guardian service)