![\"Margo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/MARGO-ARREST.jpg\")
<\/a>Margo Kingston arrested on March 31 at Whitehaven Coal mine site, arresting officer at right. (Photo: Georgina Woods @georgefwoods).<\/p><\/div>\n
My third trip to\u00a0#leardblockade\u00a0<\/a>last week helped me clarify my vision for\u00a0No Fibs<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(see Mass arrests at #leardblockade: @margokingston1 Twitter report<\/a> and Picnic at boundary of Whitehaven State Forest: @margokingston1 April Fools Day Twitter report<\/a>).\u00a0I\u2019m happy to answer your question in comments.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never been an \u2018embedded journalist\u2019 before, and it\u2019s testing. I was allowed inside the #leardblockade camp and was privy to its plans and problems, most of which I could not report as it would tip off the other side. The journalistic upside was being able to report and photograph the camp and the people who had come along to help. Since no-one else was reporting them, this was fresh and interesting colour.<\/p>\n But my main job was to live-tweet actions and arrests. This ensured that the actions and words of Australians prepared to be arrested for a cause were documented for a wider audience. I also reported the police arrivals, actions and arrests.<\/p>\n It is highly unusual for a civil disobedience movement to be reported from the inside, and this in itself is informative for the wider debate on climate change and protecting what\u2019s left of our natural environment. Luckily for me I was trusted by the group due to being vouched for by trusted members who are friends of mine.<\/p>\n Why was I the only professional journalist present?<\/p>\n Several journalists have the trust of the environment movement, but there is simply not the money to send them on location way out west for a day, let alone a week. My Twitter reporting allowed the MSM to get the facts virtually live.<\/p>\n In\u00a0an interview<\/a>\u00a0two days after my arrest for trespass on March 31 at the Whitehaven Coal mine site, The<\/em>\u00a0Daily Telegraph\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>Geoff Chalmers remarked that the mainstream media could not afford to send to send anyone to the area. True, I replied, and that\u2019s why I see the future as a collaboration between professional and citizen journalists. My Tweet information and photos were available free to the MSM with credit, and were used by\u00a0The Guardian<\/i>\u00a0and the Tele.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s the vision. No Fibs<\/em> will be a respected, well read Twitter-based hub of citizen journalism run and written for by a bunch of dedicated volunteers, including me. People who write for No Fibs<\/em> will\u00a0strive to comply<\/a>\u00a0with the Media Alliance code of professional ethics and will have their work looked after by sub-editors. As editor, I am accountable for what is published.<\/p>\n The idea is that mainstream media will come to trust the work of No Fibs<\/em> contributors and the honesty of my editorship and that of everyone who gives time to her success.<\/p>\n One way or another, citizen journalism is being merged into professional reporting, and I want to encourage citizens to write for the public in the best journalistic traditions.<\/p>\n I have to admit it – I do see No Fibs<\/em> as\u00a0Webdiary<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>reincarnated. The motto for my Independent Webdiary<\/a>, from which I retired in late 2005 but which survived as a volunteer-run website until July 2012 was ‘Patron Power: Independent, Ethical, Accountable and Transparent’. Nothing has changed.<\/p>\n Geoff kindly gave me the transcript of my answers in our interview, which ranged over my arrest, my journalism philosophy and my views on climate change and Coal Seam Gas. I publish it below, along with my recollection of the questions asked.<\/p>\n INTERVIEW APRIL 2 on the road from #leardblockade to #Pilliga<\/span><\/p>\n Q: Geoff advised that the Police brass had blasted me for breaching the \u2018rule\u2019 that junior officers should not be named or photographed and asked for my response<\/b><\/p>\n Is this some sort of protocol that I don\u2019t know of? Or are they arguing that I breached some guideline? I guess what\u2019s happening on the site is that protestors are photographing police and security. Security are photographing protestors, police are photographing protestors. Everyone is photographing each other, everyone wants this to be on the record.<\/p>\n Q: Geoff asked if I had been underhand in any way<\/b><\/p>\n Absolutely not \u2013 and none of it was surreptitious and completely out in the open and as they gave me their names I typed it into my tweet. There is no subterfuge at all \u2013 to me they are in a public role, performing a public act.<\/p>\n Can't drive in to Leard State Forest, walk, cycle #leardblockade<\/a> – policeman Mike arrested me yesterday pic.twitter.com\/gDPSkW7fyx<\/a><\/p>\n — Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) April 1, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n