Yesterday, Japanese videojournalist Kenji Nagai was laid to rest, nearly two weeks after being killed as he filmed Burmese soldiers firing on protestors in that nation's capital city, Rangoon. The BBC has sent another reporter undercover.

At the same time, human rights activists held a rally to mark the first anniversary of the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and critic of Russian human rights abuses in Chechnya amid reports that her killer has been identified.

i wanted to start this post by remembering these brave journalists, both to honor them, and to remember that the journalist's job, is to be a witness as well as a watchdog.. At their best, this is what journalists do. So I'm raising a glass to them, and to some folks in the US who are doing journalism that matters.

The Chicago Tribune's Howard Witt has raised the profile of several important stories related to our juvenile justice system, such as the case of Shaquanda Cotton, the Paris, Texas teenager who was sentenced to a juvenile detention center for up to seven years for shoving a hall monitor at her school. Witt's stories helped spark a blog-driven protest campaign that ultimately led to Cotton's release.

One reason that Cotton's advocates were so indignant iis that the judge who order Cotton to jail handed down a radically different verdict in the case of white female teenager who deliberately torched her parents' home. That child was only sentenced to probation.

Now Witt has done a follow-up story on the fate of that girl, and the tale isn't pretty. According to this story the young woman violated her probation and was sent to the same detention facility that had once housed Cotton. There,, she was alleges, she was sexually assaulted by guard who is now under indictment for molesting her as well as several other accusers.

Grits for Breakfast, a blog focused on the Texas criminal justice system, is glad Witt did the story:

"The portrayal of Shaquanda Cotton's case was an important but incomplete look at problems with Texas juvenile justice. The biggest issues aren't all or even mainly about race. White kids get abused as frequently as everybody else incarcerated in the Youth Commission, and many kids still incarcerated haven't received the counseling and support they need to get over what's happened to them."

In another case of juvenile justice gone wrong, Joy Reid is one of the bloggers who has been paying close attention to the trial for the accused killers of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14-yearold boy who died in January, 2006 after being beaten by guards at a Florida boot camp. The guards as well as the boot camp's nurse have been charged with manslaughter. Here is Reid's take on the trial so far:

"The trial is pretty much going according to rote -- the use of force was "justified" because of Anderson's size (he had no criminal record and had only been there one day, so i'm not sure how they determined that he was a threat), the tape magnifies the horror but it's "misleading", it was sickle cell trait that killed Anderosn, not the brutal half-hour beating by seven adult men, and the conflicting autopsies constitute reasonable doubt. Throw in an all-white jury in Jena-esque Bay County and you've got a recipe for acquittal."

MSNBC buys Newsvine

These days, citizen journalism matters to the news industry. Nothing more amply demonstrates that than the announcement this week that MSNBC.com has bought Newsvine, a popular citizen journalism site. Neither party divulged he sale price. Both parties say that the editorial operations of the two sites will remain independent, but Newsvine content will likely show up on MSNBC.com. Natch.

Kristen Nicole at Mashable says:

This says a lot towards MSNBC’s growing online presence and the quality of Newsvine as a user-generated network.

Leah McBride Mensching offers details on the strategy behind the acquisition:

MSNBC has 29 million unique users, while Newsvine averages 1 million uniques. The coupling is aimed as spreading participatory news, reported Brand Republic.