The price to pay for providing such an open platform is high. During the G8 summit in Genoa last month, paramilitary police attacked the volunteer-run Independent Media Centre. As hundreds of armed troops destroyed computers and cameras, a video activist from Undercurrents escaped on to the roof and recorded the brutal raid. Using a water tower for cover, Hamish Campbell had problems steadying his digital camcorder while listening to the screams of his colleagues being tortured below.

Bill Hayton, a BBC reporter, was so shocked by the raid that he published his own report using the independent media portal. He wrote: "The thought that a European police force can line protesters up against a wall and beat them until their blood literally flows across the floor chills me to the bone." Police assaults on the Independent Media Centres during the protests in Davos and Quebec received little or no mainstream coverage.

MediaGuardian.co.uk

. . .

line protesters up against a wall and beat them until their blood literally flows across the floor

. . .

no mainstream coverage

. . .

Who owns what you read?