Interview with the YouTube User Behind Neda’s Video [#neda]

Andy Plesser points to an interesting interview this afternoon that took place with a Holland YouTube user who took the infamous and iconic video of Neda meeting her fate at the hands of the Basij in Iran.

The fellow’s name is Hamed, and he described how he came into possession of the video, and the speed at which it propagated across the web.
Listen!

“I was collecting information on my Yahoo 360 blog, as it wasn’t blocked in Iran. At the same time one of my friends on Facebook wrote ‘My wife just came home, and someone was killed next to her.’ I reported this on my weblog, but as I was not sure, I removed it some minutes later.”

“I called to one of my friends who was at the same location and ask him what was going on over there. He said ‘nothing.’ I said ‘Are you sure?’ He said ‘I will go out and report to you.’ I didn’t get anything from him. I called to one of my other friends in Tehran on his landline, and he answered me and said that friend went to the roof of his home and said there was smoke.”

“Just at this time, another friend a wrote to me a girl is killed next to me right now. He asked me is it possible to publish through you the video that I took next to me right now. I said, ‘absolutely.’ He emailed it to me. I was ready to send it to CNN and BBC. I published it to CNN and sent it two times to BBC. I sent it to YouTube and to Facebook. Five minutes later, it started to get several email and messages, and published everywhere.”

Hamed is protecting the identity of the one who took the movie.