RVN: 1st Amendment Auditors – the citizen who films the power
This week we start a short series about something that barely exists in Europe anymore.
The 1st Amendment Auditor.
Five days. Five layers.
Monday to Friday we look at what these people do, why it is allowed, which examples exist, how different it is in the Netherlands and Europe, and what we can learn from it here.
Current events come first.
If something big happens, we interrupt or do an evening edition. Narratives don’t wait.
What is a 1st Amendment Auditor?
A citizen with a camera.
He films police stations, city halls, officers on the street or civil servants behind a desk. Everything that happens in public space.
No hidden cameras. No infiltration.
He films openly and asks questions when someone tries to stop him: “What is the law? Why do you want my ID?”
They call themselves auditors because they check the government against its own rules.
The name comes from the First Amendment of the US Constitution: freedom of speech and of the press. Courts have repeatedly confirmed that filming public officials in their official capacity falls under it.
Some auditors are annoying.
That is sometimes exactly the point. They want to show where the boundaries are.
Why do they do it?
Three reasons:
-
Accountability
Power that cannot be filmed does not have to answer to anyone. -
Education
Many officers and officials know their own powers poorly. The camera forces the law to be checked. -
Culture
In the US the idea still exists that the citizen may control the state. Not the other way around.
It is not thrill-seeking.
It is not a conspiracy.
It is a practical test: does the Constitution still apply when the camera is on?
In the Netherlands recording public officials in their function is a lot harder.
We will come back to that later this week.
The coming days
- Tuesday – The legal basis: First Amendment + expectation of privacy
- Wednesday – Concrete cases (Long Island Audit, Patrick Ryder and how do we do this closer to home)
- Thursday – The contrast with the Netherlands and Europe
- Friday – What we can learn from this and how we build digital sovereignty
Question for you
When was the last time you openly filmed a civil servant or police officer in public space… and what was the reaction?
#1stAmendment #Auditors #FreeSpeech #ExpectationOfPrivacy #Accountability #RealityVsNarrative #RVN #OpenInternetManifest
https://openinternetmanifest.org
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