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In the Apr. 20 LEDE column on the New York Times website, Robert Mackey discussed the coverage of the Arab uprising.

Latest Updates on the Uprisings in Libya and Syria

About half way down, Mackey takes on  videos by citizern journalists posted at YouTube and simialr sites from the fighting.

He talks about the motivation behind the postings:

In many cases, activists do so to make sure that there is some record of those deaths in countries where the professional media is partly or entirely controlled by the governments whose security forces have done the killing. In others, such as in Libya, government opponents are compiling what they see as important evidence of crimes against humanity, and some of those images have already been reviewed by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, who has warned Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his commanders that they could end up in court after the war.

Mackey then noted that many journalists view these feeds -- along with text messages about the fighting -- as part of their reporting.