Note – this video is the oldest known copy, posted on YouTube June 20, 2009. The copy we posted on June 21, 2009 is likely a re-post of the YouTube video. We posted a copy again on YouTube but it was taken down in October 2009.

The biggest story of video news story of 2009 was not filmed by a major news network, or by a professional videographer.

It was the cell phone video of Neda Agha-Soltan’s death in the streets of Tehran. Neda Agha-Soltan, a young girl is killed by plainclothes in Tehran

The story wasn’t spread by CBS, BBC or the CBC although it was a reporter who sent me the story when his own network wouldn’t carry it.

The video and the citizen journalists who spread it around the world on the Internet with YouTube, LiveLeak and blogs shared anonymously in the recognition of the George Polk Award. LiveLeak was my source for the video and I posted it again YouTube June 21, 2009 along with the first story. Ironically, YouTube took the video down in October 2009.

Long Island University “Long Island University has announced the winners of 13 George Polk Awards for 2009, including a reporter kidnapped and held by the Taliban for more than seven months and journalists who demanded transparency from the Federal Reserve Board, changed the way professional and youth football leagues deal with head injuries and exposed a state child-care program plagued by fraud and deceit.”

“For the first time in the 61-year history of the Awards, judges have honored work that was produced anonymously. The panel acknowledged the bravery of those responsible for videotaping — and then broadcasting on the Internet — the horrific images of a young woman dying from a gunshot wound during a protest in Iran.”

“This video footage was seen by millions and became an iconic image of the Iranian resistance. We don’t know who took it or who uploaded it, but we know it has news value,” said John Darnton, curator of the George Polk Awards. “This award celebrates the fact that, in today’s world, a brave bystander with a cell-phone camera can use video-sharing and social networking sites to deliver news.”

“The George Polk Award for Videography will recognize the efforts of the people responsible for recording the death of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan at a June protest in Tehran, Iran, and uploading the video to the Internet. Ms. Agha-Soltan reportedly was shot by a pro-government militiaman. The video, which shows the woman collapsing to the ground and being attended to by several men as she lay dying on the street, became a rallying point for the reformist opposition in Iran after it was broadcast over the Internet. Seen by millions as it spread virally across the Web, the images quickly gained the attention of international media.”

It took the Internet and bloggers with their millions of daily posts to make the reporting of this story possible.

Andrew Grove, founder of Intel and the modern computer processor, would call this an inflection point -the “time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end.”

“Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change. They can be caused by competitors but they are more than just competition. They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient. They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting a finger on what has changed, yet you know that something has. Let’s not mince words: A strategic inflection point can be deadly when unattended to. Companies that begin a decline as a result of its changes rarely recover their previous greatness.” Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company

The George Polk Awards
Ranked among America’s most coveted journalism honors, the George Polk Awards have been administered by Long Island University since 1949.They memorialize CBS correspondent George W. Polk, who was slain covering the civil war in Greece in 1948. A committee of jurors made up of University faculty members and alumni select the winners from entries submitted by journalists and news organizations as well as nominations made by a panel of journalists and editors, including a number of former winners.

Massoud Ali-Mohammadi

An Iranian nuclear physics scientist has been killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Dr. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the Tehran University and a staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution, was killed in booby-trapped motorbike blast on Tuesday.

The explosion took place near the professor’s home in Qeytariyeh neighborhood, in northern Tehran. Iran’s More..police and security bodies are investigating the terrorist case to identify those behind it.

Meanwhile, Tehran’s Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi confirmed the assassination of the university lecturer on Tuesday morning and said that he taught neutron nuclear physics at the University of Tehran.

“No suspect has been arrested yet,” he told the Iranian Students News Agency. He added that Ali-Mohammadi was killed when a motorbike parked near his car.

Video and story from LiveLeak

In the early evening of June 20, 2009, Neda Agha-Soltan was in her car stuck in the traffic on Kargar Avenue in Tehran. She was with Hamid Panahi, her music teacher, and two others people who have not been identified.

They may have been going to the election protest to participate or just to watch. No one can say for sure. The protests or demonstrations had a social aspect that drew people.

The air conditioner broke down so they stopped and got out to walk, about 1 kilometer from the main protest.

Neda was standing on the sidewalk watching and you can see her fall from the gunshot in the video. She was shot in the chest and the bullet entered her heart.

Related Stories

Iran State TV Suggests Neda’s Iconic Death Was ‘Faked’
Neda Agha-Soltan her death shocked the world
Neda Agha-Soltan, a young girl is killed by plainclothes in Tehran
New Tribute to Neda Agha-Soltan
Neda Agha-Soltan’s fiancée sadly remembers her tragic death
Neda Agha-Soltan’s sister speaks for her murdered sister

The video is taken outside of Iran, ostensibly in Germany since the woman is speaking in German. Although their is no proof she is Neda’s sister, the video is widely accepted as authentic. The close relatives of the dead girl lived under house arrest and any communication with those left in Iran would have been impossible.

The narrative translated into English:

I am here in order to tell you that she died in her father’s arms.
I am here in order to tell you that my sister had big dreams.
I am here in order to tell you that my sister was very modest [in her dreams].
She longed – like me – after one day feeling the wind in her hair,
and just like me she loved poems by Farukh (?), a Persian poet,
and she longed for freedom and equality.
She longed for one day being able to say, ‘I am Iranian’ with her head held up high.
She longed to one day fall in love with a man with, giving birth to a daughter, singing lullabies at her cradle, plaiting her child’s long hair.

My sister died because she was not allowed to live like a human being,
my sister died because injustice would not end,
my sister died because she loved life so much,
and my sister died because she cared lovingly for her fellow humans’ well-being.

All our brothers and sisters in Iran: You are not alone!

The killing of Neda Agha Soltan

In the early evening of June 20, 2009, Neda Agha-Soltan was in her car stuck in the traffic on Kargar Avenue in Tehran. She was with Hamid Panahi, her music teacher, and two others people who have not been identified.

They may have been going to the election protest to participate or just to watch. No one can say for sure. The protests or demonstrations had a social aspect that drew people.

The air conditioner broke down so they stopped and got out to walk, about 1 kilometer from the main protest.

Neda was standing on the sidewalk watching and you can see her fall from the gunshot in the video. She was shot in the chest and the bullet entered her heart.

Related Stories

Iran State TV Suggests Neda’s Iconic Death Was ‘Faked’
Neda Agha-Soltan her death shocked the world
Neda Agha-Soltan, a young girl is killed by plainclothes in Tehran
New Tribute to Neda Agha-Soltan
Neda Agha-Soltan’s fiancée sadly remembers her tragic death
Neda Agha-Soltan’s sister speaks for her murdered sister

Neda Agha-Soltan was an innocent young woman in Tehran, Iran walking with her music teacher after their car’s air conditioner shut down. The next minute she caught a bullet from a plain clothes policeman and lay bleeding to death on the street.

The image of her body dying for no reason has galvanized people around the world in support of freedom in Iran. It still evokes sadness months later about the tragedy brought home in the death of one young woman.

Video from LiveLeak.

Related Stories

Iran State TV Suggests Neda’s Iconic Death Was ‘Faked’
Neda Agha-Soltan her death shocked the world
Neda Agha-Soltan, a young girl is killed by plainclothes in Tehran
New Tribute to Neda Agha-Soltan
Neda Agha-Soltan’s fiancée sadly remembers her tragic death
Neda Agha-Soltan’s sister speaks for her murdered sister

At 0:05 in the video you can see the whole building exploding.

It is said that at least 5 from Basijies were killed.

Fires are burning in different parts of city.”

The Basij are paramilitary first organized by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. They were initially young men unfit for military service. Khomeini used them as cannon fodder in the human wave attacks against Saddam Hussein’s army in the Iran — Irag war. They were sent into battle as human waves.

For the rest of the story, see NJN Network Tehran On fire – Basij Headquarter blown up by protesters, basijies Killed

Video and quotes from LiveLeak

Video from LiveLeak July 1, 2009 in tribute to Neda Agha-Soltan, shot in the streets of Tehran during the post-election demonstrations. Portions of this video may contain copyrighted material.