Sue Clayton • THE FUTURE OF ACTIVIST MEDIA

The Stansted 15: On Trial

Digital communication, including social media sites and smartphones, is rapidly changing the way we make activist and interventionist media, allowing covert practices to be highlighted quickly and effectively, and blurring the distinction that has existed between ‘professional’ news gatherers and citizen journalists.

The Stansted 15 were a group concerned with the fact that the UK government was deporting people with long-term (‘Windrush’) claims to remain in this country, people who had nevertheless been locked in detention centres without access to lawyers or the internet. Some managed to phone their stories to a site called Detained Voices. When the 15 group read these stories, they staged a peaceful demonstration at Stansted Airport as the deportation flight was due to leave. They filmed their action on smartphones - something that was achievable even in pitch-darkness - and live-streamed it to get publicity. They managed to delay the flight.

Sue Clayton made a film of their action and subsequent trial. She added further images of violent arrests by police and security firms employed by the Home Office, all captured on phones by concerned onlookers. The Stansted 15 were supported by Amnesty International, who uploaded Clayton’s film to support the campaign for their acquittal at Stansted 15 On Trial. Another development is that television news now accepts 4G phone material for broadcast, so as a consultant for Channel 4 News Clayton was able to record the trial’s result outside court, both for her own film and to contribute to the national news story on TV hours later: Channel 4 News

Sue Clayton is Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths, a fiction and documentary film writer and director, and a consultant for Channel 4 News and ITV News.