A world traveler and citizen journalist was deported from China for recording the video below. It is Noel Hidalgo’s chance encounter in Tiananmen Square with protesters from the West decrying the human rights violations in Tibet.

Noel is on a trip around the world:

on 07 july 2007, noneck noel (aka noel a. hidalgo) will depart new york city for a journey around the world to learn from you. affably named “on the luck of seven” or “luck of seven.” this is an open-source journey documenting free culture, social innovators and global change.

for seven months, i will stand on the seven contents, dive into the seven oceans, and contemplate seven topics of freedom. while on the way, i will document the journey through stories, photos and videos. this is not my story, this is our story. though your hospitably, donations, projects, connections and friends, our stories will merge into one. (Source)

Noel isn’t the only one being deported. The protesters were also deported, after a 10-hour interrogation.

The action came a day after three Americans from the group were detained while displaying Tibetan flags near the entrance to National Stadium, which hosted the opening ceremony for the games Friday night. They were deported Saturday on flights to New York, the group said. On Wednesday, four other members hung pro-Tibet banners from two light poles outside the stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest. They were led away by police and later deported to Europe and the United States.

The video has been viewed 32,567 times, so far.

Jim Long, NewMediaJim on Twitter, posted a link to the video. He, too, was taking video of the event. But, Jim works for NBC (see his blog), and had his “permission slips” in hand.

Something tells me that phone calls to qik.com will now be blocked from China. We discussed in class this semester how qik.com is a perfect tool for spot news coverage. This is one great example. Reported live as it unfolded in Tiananmen Square, this incident will, I believe, bring more attention to qik.com. Hope their servers can handle the new traffic.