All are welcome: Iranian protester protects Basiji paramilitary

A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi helps evacuate an injured Iranian riot-police officer during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a crushing victory in Iran's hotly-disputed presidential vote, according to official results that triggered mass opposition protests. AFP PHOTO/OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI (Photo credit should read OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Images)

Message to News Organizations:

I have received a number of requests to use these photographs from multiple news organizations.

These are not my photographs. They have been collected from Twitter and other social networks. They are being gathered together in the Flickr collection for the convenience of the press and others and to ensure that there is an additional depository for these images in the event that their original location is compromised by hostile action.

As they are not mine, I do not have the ability to authorize their use. However, one major news network has decided that;

"We recognize the risks people are taking to get the pictures out and intend to use as many of them as editorially appropriate. We will not currently require formal license agreements considering the situation."

I would invite your news organization to reach a similar decision and to use all photographs that do not contain a watermark, or annotation, indicating that they were taken by professionals.

The individuals that took these photos, risked their lives to do so and it is incongruous that having done so they would not wish these photographs to be used by the world media. In light of this I beg your news organization to use these photographs and to disseminate them as wide as possible. Constant press coverage by the international media is the only thing preventing a massacre in Iran. The re-publication of these photographs will help to save lives. There is a clear moral duty in this context. Be human.