Freelance Battlefield Journalist-filter. How to get my critical Libya front line footage onto Youtube from Malta now that I've survived?

July 6, 2011 4:30 AM

I am a freelance battlefield photojournalist who just got out of Libya. I'm presently in Malta and have 120 gigabytes of critical material, including material illustrating the efficacy of NATO during the shelling on the 10th and lots of other very interesting stuff, that I need to upload to youtube. The internet here is very slow. Other than wait for my return to San Diego (I am going to be there until the first of August at which point I return to Misurata. The videos explain.) what can I do?

This was my first time out of the United States barring Canada or Mexico. In addition to being a freelance battlefield photojournalist I was also an aid mission. I took with me an enormous quantity of medical supplies. I documented the fighting from the front line. I saw amazing things, and horrible things, and wonderful things, and also the Libyan killdozer. Yes, there is a Libyan killdozer. It looks like a sand crawler from Star Wars.

It's actually more stuff than I can cogently explain here. I've detailed much of my experience on my facebook page (kevin.dawes2) and am presently doing my best to upload things to my youtube channel (orac22- please don't judge early. I'm only now uploading footage from June 9... you get to watch me age like I drank from the wrong grail cup over a period of 7 days. I am shelled continuously and then a sniper tries to kill me.) but it's an incomplete report. Incomplete until all of my videos are online. I also kept a diary.

My plan is to release everything to the public domain and then solicit donations. The cost of this endeavour was around $25k. I'll also need a little help with this. I like the model because if my work was good I will be able to pay for it. If it wasn't? The same debt situation every other american faces. Any surplus money will be spent on Libyan relief efforts.

I had no experience. I used to be an electrical engineer. Below are links to the first important clips. I met a man named Dr. Tameem.

Dr. Tameem is the man who drove a dying Tim Heatherington back from the front. He details the circumstances. I actually went to find this story, among other things, after I heard about their deaths on the 20th of April. I was a big fan of their work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAMPLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXAMPLE

Part 3 will be finished processing in about an hour and online in maybe another two. I'm presently in Malta. Caught a ship out with news crews from FOX, CNN, and the BBC. I smoked most of their cigarettes.

Here are some videos from later that show what it was like on the 10th of June. These are a little gory. There are a lot of other videos on my channel - most of my trip, excepting.. a lot. I've decided to skip to the front line pieces first. The parts showing Qaddafi's forces shelling the crap out of the aid station I found myself working at, the effect of NATO airstrikes on the shelling (you bought us one hour), and other things.

http://youtu.be/EXAMPLE

http://youtu.be/EXAMPLE

http://youtu.be/EXAMPLE

http://youtu.be/EXAMPLE

If anybody can help me out with distributing these once I return to San Diego I would be greatly appreciative. Likewise the donation setup. This is the first time that I have ever done anything like this.

Oh, and yes, I worked at the aid station and field hospital. Mostly blast injuries, no gunshot wounds, stuff you wouldn't even believe. Things you don't want to exist. This is what happens when you fail to be decisive.

Thank you for everything in advance.

Tim Heatherington died because they didn't have a chest needle.

posted by kpdawes to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

buy a USB hard drive, copy your material onto it (perhaps encrypted with TrueCrypt or similar), post or courier it back to someone you know and trust where there's faster internet, have them upload it to your YouTube account.

also, I imagine this was an incredible (and incredibly stressful) experience for you - I hope you've got a support network in place as you get back into the rest of the world

and AskMe isn't really the place to be linking all the material you've uploaded so far
posted by russm at 4:37 AM on July 6, 2011

Response by poster: Sorry. I'm still sort of out of it. Transitioning from hell to Malta has disoriented me somewhat. Even if this isn't the right forum I strongly encourage you to watch the clips. I could definitely use some help setting up some kind of donation system. I've seen that work here before.

If there are any mefi-ites in Malta who have good internet access... that would be ideal.
posted by kpdawes at 4:39 AM on July 6, 2011

Journalism (and crisis journalism in particular) is a trade. Rather than AskMe, you need to talk to people that have been doing this for longer than you and LISTEN to them. Best practices exist - for collecting, writing, disseminating, getting paid, being safe... But this isn't something learned on the Internet.

Please be safe.
posted by k8t at 4:54 AM on July 6, 2011

Kickstarter might be the place to run a donation system. But yeah, courier the hard disc to a trusted friend.

(Given we're in the middle of the UK workday, does anyone have contacts at the BBC who know enough to point this guy in the right direction? He sounds kinda shell-shocked, to be honest.)
posted by Leon at 4:57 AM on July 6, 2011