By John Sexton in Beijing and Heiko Khoo and Dan Read in London
Gil Scott-Heron famously sang that the revolution will not be televised. But the minor disturbances at the G20 protests in the City, London's financial district on April 1st, were twittered, blogged, facebooked, youtubed, googled and boogled from every possible angle. Journalists from the Guardian, the Telegraph, even the Financial Times were all at the scene twittering away like paper rabbits caught in the headlights of the digital future.
One of the most telling images of the day was of protesters raising a forest of hands outside a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland as its windows were smashed and some computers removed. They were not carrying sticks, bottles or even placards, but mobile phones and digital cameras that they were using to video the action, which was being carried out by perhaps half a dozen people.
A few miles away several thousand demonstrators against war, for economic justice and for action on climate change, gathered in Trafalgar square to hear speakers call for an end to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Full story>>>
(China.org.cn April 3, 2009)
