Jesse Freeston
Jesse Freeston | |
---|---|
Born | February 18, 1985 |
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation | Video-Journalist/Filmmaker |
Jesse Freeston (born February 18, 1985) is a Canadian
2009 Honduran coup d'état
Since the
Honduran election fraud
In November 2009, the Honduran coup regime held elections that, in Freeston's words, "laundered a military coup".
Canadian mining in El Salvador
In 2008, Freeston reported from El Salvador on Canadian mining company Pacific Rim's attempt to open an industrial gold mine in the Central American country. He documented how the company hired 'promoters' in communities opposed to mining, a move that led to violence in a phenomenon the Salvadoran social movement began to call "social contamination".[11] His video reports for The Real News document the popular resistance to mining and the $100 million lawsuit Pacific Rim launched against the government of El Salvador itself for alleged losses when, after months of exploration, it was denied a mining permit. In a November 15, 2009 story for The Real News, Freeston interviewed Tom Shrake, the CEO and President of Pacific Rim about the lawsuit. Shrake claimed Pacific Rim followed El Salvador's mining, investment, and environmental laws and was therefore denied a mining permit illegally. Freeston's investigation from San Isidro revealed contamination of the country's little-accessible water during the exploration stage, the inflammation of conflict by company promoters, the perception that the 2% tax Pacific Rim would pay on its revenues, and other social and environmental concerns were behind the resistance to the proposed mining project.[12] He also reported on cases of murder and torture of anti-mining activists, such as that of Gustavo Marcelo Rivera. The Rivera family maintains that Rivera was killed for his opposition to the mining project and the local leadership that supports it.[13]
FMLN victory in 2009 Salvadoran elections
In 2009, Freeston covered the
G-20 coverage
During the
In a piece published by the
In the months following the summit, Freeston filed additional reports and opinion pieces about the G-20 aftermath including the story of Alex Hundert. Hundert is a Kitchener-based activist who was arrested in a house raid before the G-20 began and charged, alongside 17 other activists, with conspiracy. After being released on bail, Hundert was re-arrested and jailed for participating as an invited speaker on a university panel at Ryerson University in Toronto. The government argued that his participation on a panel broke his bail condition barring him from participating in public protests. The courts agreed and adjusted Hundert's bail conditions to ban all political speech, including to the media. In an apparent challenge to the ban, Freeston published a 10-minute video that included a lengthy interview with Hundert, which according to Freeston was filmed before the ban was put into place.[19]
Officer Bubbles
Also following the G-20, Freeston released a mini-documentary based around the experience of lawyer Riali Johanesson during the mass arrest of anti-G20 activists in the working-class Toronto neighborhood of Parkdale. Johanesson was detained without charges when she arrived to provide legal advice to a client who had been detained without charges.
Josephs quickly became infamous in Toronto under the nickname "Officer Bubbles". According to Jesse McLean of the Toronto Star, "The original video of Const. Josephs became a symbol for what many viewed as heavy-handed policing during the G20 summit that brought world leaders to Toronto in June."[23]
Josephs, with the support of the Toronto Police Union, filed a defamation lawsuit against Google-owned YouTube, a user who posted a "collection of eight cartoons… that show a police officer resembling Josephs engaging in abusive acts of power" and 24 additional YouTube users that commented on the cartoons. The animations depict "Officer Bubbles" arresting Santa Claus and Barack Obama, punching a news photographer, and overreacting in various ways.[23] Josephs' lawsuit also targets 24 YouTube users who commented on the animation.[24] However the lawsuit did not target the original news video.[25]
The cartoons were removed by YouTube but copies were immediately uploaded by dozens of other YouTube users. Legal commentators across the spectrum said the lawsuit had zero chance of success and views of the original video tripled as a result of the lawsuit.
Telesur
In 2012, Freeston made three 30-minute documentaries for the Venezuelan government television propaganda network, Telesur. Informar y Resistir en Honduras details the repression of critical journalists in post-coup Honduras, and includes interviews with numerous survivors. ¿Un sueño aplazado? is a look at activism in the United States following the Occupy Wall Street movement. Also in the U.S., Todo está bien argues that the two major political parties deny the true nature of the ongoing economic crisis, the film focuses on the regions of Detroit and Central Appalachia, alongside interviews with Noam Chomsky and Richard D. Wolff.
Resistencia
Freeston is currently finishing a feature-length documentary, called Resistencia, on the farmer-led land occupation movement in Honduras' Lower Aguan Valley. According to Resistencia's Facebook page, the film is about "landless farmers [who] have taken over the most fertile land in Central America, the palm oil plantations of Miguel Facussé, the richest and most powerful man in Honduras. Just months after he helped organize a military coup."
Resistencia finished in second place at the Cuban Hat Pitch Contest at the 2012
Acknowledgements
- Professor of Viral Video at the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism in Cancún, Mexico.[27]
- Invited speaker at the 2011 1st International Blogger Conference in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.[28]
- Invited filmmaker for the Center for Independent Documentary's 2011 Kopkind Retreat.[29]
Notes
- ^ Vigna, Anne. "Au Honduras, comment blanchir un coup d'état". Le Monde Diplomatique. January, 2010.
- ^ a b Freeston, Jesse. "TRNN Exclusive: Honduran elections exposed". The Real News Network. December 6, 2009.
- ^ a b c LaFlamme, Lisa. "Toronto cleaning up from G20 vandalism". CTV. June 28, 2010.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Honduran Teachers Get Shock Treatment". The Real News Network. April 18, 2010.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "SlutWalk Lands in Tegucigalpa" Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine. The Real News Network. June 19, 2011.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Honduran Regime Targets Musicians". The Real News Network. September 26, 2010.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. “Massive Turnout for Zelaya Launches New Chapter of Honduran Struggle” Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine. The Real News Network. June 1, 2011.
- ^ “Honduran police burn community to the ground”. GRAIN. October 14, 2011.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Honduras: Elections as Coup Laundering" Archived 2012-01-04 at the Wayback Machine. The Real News Network. November 28, 2009.
- ^ "Manuel Zelaya, Adrienne Pine, y Jesse Freeston en Radio Globo (22 de diciembre 2009)". Radio Globo. December 22, 2009.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Shredding Social Fabric". The Dominion. November 11, 2008.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "El Salvador's gold fight goes international". The Real News Network. November 15, 2009.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Gold, impunity and violence in El Salvador". The Real News Network. August 12, 2009.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Historic power shift in El Salvador". The Real News Network. March 19, 2009.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "G-20 Fallout Continues in Toronto". The Real News Network. September 27, 2010.
- ^ Warmington, Joe. "The blue-wall two-step". The Toronto Sun. June 6, 2011.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Access denied: journalist tells his side of the G20 story". Canadian Journalism Project. July 20, 2010.
- ^ "McGuinty says no to a G20 public inquiry". CTV Toronto. July 2, 2010.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Canadian Court Bans G-20 Defendant from Speaking". The Real News Network. October 16, 2010.
- ^ Freeston, Jesse. "Toronto Neighborhood Defends G-20 Activists". The Real News Network. July 10, 2010.
- ^ Islam, Nazrul and Jesse Freeston. "Officer Bubbles" - From Bubbles to Bookings?. YouTube. July 10, 2010.
- ^ Speerin, Dan. "Officer Bubbles" Launches lawsuit against YouTube!". (video) Truth Mashup. October 15, 2010.
- ^ a b McLean, Jesse. "'Officer Bubbles' sues YouTube and users over cartoons". Toronto Star. October 16, 2010.
- ^ Morrow, Adrian. "'Officer Bubbles' launches suit against YouTube". The Globe and Mail. October 15, 2010. (subscription required)
- ^ McLean, Jesse (2010-10-16). "'Officer Bubbles' sues YouTube and users over cartoons". Toronto Star. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
- ^ "Resistencia Indiegogo Campaign Homepage"[dead link]
- ^ Giordano, Al. “Meet the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism Faculty”. The School of Authentic Journalism. September 17, 2009.
- ^ “Programação” Archived 2011-11-12 at the Wayback Machine. Encontro Mundial de Blogueiros.
- ^ “Kopkind Retreat 2011 Filmmakers Announced” Archived 2011-09-18 at the Wayback Machine. Center for Independent Documentary.