Twenty three new photo exhibitions on the theme of 'Freedom' have been unveiled for the second phase of the International Festival of Photography, Bangladesh 2009.
DEMOTIX promotes street wise 'citizen journalism'
With an international photo festival taking place, Dhaka has become a destination for a remarkable mix of people, and not just photographers. The capital also finds individuals arriving to share new ways of expressing our opinion as global citizens.
Published : 3 Feb 2009, 03:19 AM
Updated : 3 Feb 2009, 03:19 AM
Dhaka, Feb 3 (bdnews24.com)—With an international photo festival taking place, Dhaka has become a destination for a remarkable mix of people, and not just photographers. The capital also finds individuals arriving to share new ways of expressing our opinion as global citizens.
The theme of this year's Chobi Mela V is 'Freedom', which encompasses freedom of expression, and the international event also inevitably brings a global aura.
bdnews24.com spoke to Turi Munthe, the exuberant thirty-something founder and CEO of street news wire agency DEMOTIX, which exemplifies the ethos of global citizen journalism, publishing photo-based stories from every corner of the world.
"We are looking for photos and writers from Bangladesh and with such extraordinary variety of life here, photos and stories should pour in," says Munthe, his expectation high from what he has observed during his visit so far.
There is no restriction on topic, and there is more reward from DEMOTIX than just having your photos and stories published, he says.
"We also sell these stories on to big media houses and the earnings are split in half. The writer gets half and we get half."
What is the purpose of DEMOTIX, what makes the site different when, for news, people can just click on to Reuters or AP?
"Well, big agencies are usually about big news items and that is their expertise but our motive is to allow the small everyday human stories to come out to the world," says Munthe.
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