KEY POINT: INCLUDE ONLY FACTS. LEAVE OUT UNSUPPORTED OPINIONS. If you decide to include key factual information that will assist the viewer in understanding the footage (see above) then, approximations and educated guesses are okay and can be helpful but do not include firm conclusions, unsupported opinions, exaggerations or misinformation. FILMING It is hard to set opinions aside when documenting human rights incidents because the situations you are documenting are heartbreaking but try. Try because unsupported opinions can sometimes make a video “prejudicial”. And if a video is prejudicial, it may not be allowed in court as evidence. On December 27, 2008, there was an explosion outside of and elementary school in eastern Kabul, Afghanistan. The account below has been adapted from a news article about the bombing for illustrative purposes only. DO Don’t • This footage documents an alleged attack near an army post and primary school located in eastern Kabul. According to witnesses, tribal elders were meeting at the post. • This is footage of one of our schools. As you can see, it has been violently bombed in an act of terrorism by our enemies who seek to kill innocent children. • The alleged bombing took place around 3 pm on December 27, 2008. Witnesses told us that the children were gathered in their classrooms to receive end-ofyear certificates when the explosion happened. • Our enemies attacked just as the children were receiving their end-ofyear certificates. • According to witnesses, the blast was detonated by a suicide bomber. • I do not know the exact count but it looks like approximately 10-15 children were killed. The young victims look to be between the ages of 8-10 years old. This makes sense since the blast impacted an elementary school. It also looks like another 50 or so people were injured. • Our enemies committed this horrific attack using a bomb detonated by a suicide bomber to directly target children. • So many are children are dead. So many have been violently injured in this inhumane attack. It is one of the deadliest strikes in months. • As you can see from this video, the children’s text books and shoes are covering the ground, bloodied by this brutality and blatant disregard for human life. FOR MORE INFORMATION To learn more about “prejudicial” see All About Evidence but in short, if a video is deemed prejudicial, it’s simply means the video is thought to be biased and will not be considered by a court of law. • I am now going to film close up shots of text books and shoes at the blast site.. 108 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: ADDING ESSENTIAL INFORMATION V 1.0