hydrarchist writes: "According to yelah.net, Swedish Police have been accused of copyright infringement by two national television stations. The allegations arose subsequent to a documentary screened last week on the alteration of evidence in a trial against a demonstrator who was shot and seriously injured during the European Union Summit in Gothenburg this summer. The 19 year old youth, Hannes Westerburg, was prosecuted for rioting offenses and convicted last month.
The incident was captured by a number of video cameramen on the scene. Both prosecution and defense received the materials on tape. As the video footage documenting the shooting of Hannes Westerberg did not adequately support the police's version of events, they manipulated the evidence, creating a montage which made it appear that a sole rioter was in fact part of a mob. They also replaced the sound track with audio recorded elsewhere to once again give the impression that Westerberg was part of a large and threatening crowd. State justification for the shooting rests upon the claim that it was necessary in order to protect an injured policeman from further attack, a claim squarely refuted by the evidence.
This manipulation was chronicled in a documentary on Swedish television last week, which included interviews with the Belgian videographer who shot the most comprehensive footage of the incident (in English). He confirms that the audio track has been altered. The TV program is available in its entirety on the web, with the interview appearing towards the end of the second segment.
http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1106/gbg2.
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Context
Many readers are already familiar with the facts of what happened in
Gothenberg this past summer. On the occasion of the EU Summit,
demonstrations were organized by a combination of forces ranging from social democrats to environmentalists to anarchists. On the evening of the second day of protests police harassment of a dance party - 'Reclaim the City'- in a local park provoked clashes which culminated in the shooting of a 19 year old Swede by
the Police. At least two other people were also shot. The shootings took place after clashes broke out subsequent to the police surrounding and attacking a peaceful dance party in a park not far from the center of the town.
Several hundred arrests took place and a number of other individuals were tried and convicted.
In October there occurred a second set of searches and arrests, targetting people apparently identified through video evidence.
The challenge to the authenticity of the video evidence used by the police in the most high profile case so far has reopened the polemic about the polic's handling of the demonstrations. Westerburg appears prominently in the various videos shot at the scene, throwing stones, but it is evident that in the circumstances of the shooting he posed no threat to the heavily protected riot police.
An earlier trial in relation to Gigi Longo, an Italian national now resident in Norway, also involved faked video evidence. During his first trial the police manipulated the time/date stamp of a video used as evidence to try and make it appear as if Gigi was in Gothenburg three hours earlierthan he was. Unfortunately for the prosection Gigi
was filmed by Norweigan TV at that time, playing guitar in a bus heading to Gothenburg. Longo was subsequently convicted based on other evidence and received a sentence of four years.
Swedish TV-channels SVT and TV4 have decided to
jointly press charges against the police for violating copyright
restrictions by using and manipulating sequences taken from both channels.
A more detailed report on the documentary is provided below, courtesy omf 'Tomas and MM', posters on Indymedia Sweden.
"MM":
Chief prosecuter Bjrn Eriksson decides to start
investigation again after having (finally) seen the film about the events. A documentary made by one of Sweden's main television stations claims that
police manipulated film material about the
shooting.
When the news about the riots in Gothenburg during
the EU-meeting came, the exact pictures of
the shooting was shown all over the
world.......expect in Sweden where the population didnt
get to see the pictures until 2 months after the
shootings, and until then it had just been fed by the
police version of the events.That version said that
a "hooligan" had attacked and thrown a stone
against a police officer from behind in the head, and
when he tried to attack the fallen officer
again, a cop had no choice but to fire his gun. No
wonder Swedes were upset.
Now we know that nothing could be further from the
thruth. The fact is that the 19-year old
attacked a line of about 30 cops that had full body
armour, including shields and dogs. We know
that he was completely alone, because the police had
fired shots before (6 of them) which made
everyone flee away from them. We know that the cop
who was injured was in no danger
whatsoever (he was way in the background and could
not be reached by the 19-year old). We
know that none of the stones hit ANY cop,or was
even close to hitting one. We know that , not
one, but TWO cops aimed and fired their guns
against the 19-year old. And we know that there
was no reason for them to fire at the
protester.(this has all been shown on the film)
Chief prosecuter Bjrn Eriksson is, however ,not
aware of the tape until this day. He doesnt
watch TV, or read newspapers. He doesnt even seem to
bother to look up the evidence out there to
get a full picture of what happened (after all, a
prosecutor is supposed to be objective and examine
facts both for and against the
accused), instead he buys his collegues version completely
(and prides himself about collegue code of honour
and solidarity during an interview) and drops the
pre-investigation.
This new material apparently comes as a complete
suprise to him and has made him consider
picking up the investigation again, he says, though
that he dont think it will change anything.
But this is not the real news.
Tonight in a documentary on Swedish national TV it
seems like the police have manipulated the film
material on the events to try to make a stronger
case for their fellow officers.In this documentary
the filmer who made the now famous film about the
shooting gets interviewed (a Belgian
newsphotographer named Daniel Demoustier) to answer
accusations that the film was edited by
the reporter who made the documentary. He assures
that the film was not and showes the whole
thing as he explains what happens.
However, the police have edited the material. Rather
a lot, apparently.
There were 6 cameras from different angles on the
scene during the event. Both the police and the
reporter got them. But when the two is
compared, whenever the material speaks against the
police,it has been edited! This is not a lie.
The police claims that nobody reacted when the
police fired their guns prior to shooting and injuring
the 19-year old.This indicates that the 19-year old
was NOT alone when he confronted the
police. But when you look at the one that has not
been with the police, you clearly see people
screaming and running away, you also see the
19-year old walking back alone.
What's worse, instead of the pictures of protester
running away,the police have put in fast
"action clips" of masked teenagers brutally
attacking a line of cops.This was however, which you
will notice if you live in Gothenburg, another place
at another time (it was close to the place
where the shooting took place).This gives the
viewer the impression that the police WAS in great
danger and did NOT have any other choice but to
fire their guns, when the real film infact shows
that it was quite calm before, during and after the
shooting. This is a trick that is commonly used by
moviemakers to manipulate the viewer to think he is
somewhere else than where they really are.
But this is not enough, on top of this, the police
have edited in shouts from a crowd screaming "ein
swein,drein,nazi polizei" (sorry to all my german
friends, i dont know how to spell it, i hope you get
it anyway) during the pictures of the lone
protester confronting the line of cops.It is easy to
understand why; they want to make it appear that
there was in fact alot of more protesters behind
the 19-year old.
IF this is true,and it sure seems that way
according to the documentary show (uppdrag
granskning,it is like "60 min",sort of),wich is the
most respected (and best in my view) news show
in Sweden, this is an outrage.
SOURCES:uppdrag granskning on swedish
television,aftonbladet (newspaper),TT (news)
-------------------------------------------------
Highlights of the programme:
the entire
investigation against the police is classified. This was not
the case when three neo-nazi copkillers (Malexander
om ni minns) stod trial in Sweden a while
back. They were allowed to read through the
*entire* police investigation - thereby adding a
more than a few leftist to nazi deathlists.
The technical investigation of a lamp-post that may
have been struck by a police bullet (fired into a
crowd of people) is also secret, but one of the
technicians responsible says he hasn't even been
ordered to investigate the lamppost.
A photographer who got shot in the leg at the same
time took a picture at the precise moment of
the shooting - this is evident from the flash of
his camera - but the police took the roll of film and
then it
mysteriously "disappeared".
--------------------------------
Here is a list of the different video files available on the web:
http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/0814/gbg1. ram
The clip is 16 minutes long and opens with the section of the shooting.
Later, 8 minutes 45 seconds in, you'll find the section about the
Reclaim the City, showing them surrounded by the police, the incursion
of the fascists (pixelated), the police closing in,
the confrontation emerging and then the shooting again, and close ups
of him after the
shooting.
Unedited original video sequences of GBG shooting -
http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1106/gbg1.
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http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1106/gbg2.
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http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1106/gbg3.
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http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1106/gbg4.
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Prosecuter's "new & improved" version, used as evidence :
http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1120/polis .ram
This one features added sound (ein, zwei, drei,
nazipolizei) to make it appear as if there is a
crowd behind Hannes when he is shot.
The whole programme :
http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1120/gbg1.
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http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1120/gbg2.
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http://www.svt.se/granskning/video/2001/1120/gbg3.
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