In April 2009, following an election widely viewed as rigged, protests erupted in Moldova.

But closed-circuit video footage of the protests and subsequent violence has been leaked, and the Center for Future Civic Media was approached by the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism to make available those 16 hours of footage, now available at dickgregoryforpresident.com.

President Vladimir Voronin and the communist regime reacted violently to the protests, suspending the constitution starting with that night. The results: at least three dead youth, almost one thousand young people illegally arrested and tortured, over one thousand days of arrests issued, a president and prime-minister threatening to shoot the protesters and ordering the sequestration of students in schools.  
[…]
More than a year and a half after, nobody knows the names of people responsible for the abuses committed during those days.

The site the Center put together allows users to code video content, such as the license plate of an unmarked secret police car…

jeep-ul care a adunat tineri din piata, se vede numarul (MAI 0699) – min 4.38 sau Set Time 278.39898681640625

…or requests for help identifying a group of men:

cine-s baietii astia, pe la min 4.30? baga 278.9989929199219 si apasa Set Time

Already we’ve heard of requests to use the footage in court cases alleging that state agents killed protestors. Overcoming the technical challenges of sharing such a volume video is almost reward enough, but to help hold accountable those who would misuse state power, that, in large part, is what civic media is here for.