Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Seriously crap reporting from Indymedia

hoping for better | 03.04.2007 17:10 | Analysis | Indymedia | Social Struggles | London

Last saturday, after months of organising, a huge event called Reclaim The Future took place in a squatted building on Holloway road. The event itself kicked off at 1pm and throughout the afternoon there were workshops and discussion on a wide variety of issues and campaigns. The events during the day are just part of the story. The previous days had seen large numbers of people self organising the space in order to be ready for the day - a real example of doing it for ourselves.

You'd have thought that the logistics of putting on an event like this - providing cheap food laid on for everyone - running a ten hour cinema - the specifics of a particular workshop etc. would have inspired somebody enough to write a report or upload some audio, perhaps recordings of the bands that played, photos of people fixing bikes, a report about how much money was raised or what campaigns would be getting it or whatever. But no.

Almost without exception, the only coverage on indymedia was of the disruption to the event by the police. In fact, even before the police began to prevent people from entering the party, the coverage on indymedia was about the fact that there were a few cops outside during the afternoon with CCTV camera vans. The only exceptions to this pitiful reporting was a post by the Space Hijackers documenting their workshop, yet there were dozens more workshops and many campaigns represented as info stalls. ( http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/366791.html)

If you were to be looking on corporate owned user content sites like youtube a flikr then you'd find a nice set of photos taken at the RTF during the day ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasmatika/sets/72157600038736595/), but nothing but pictures of cops on indymedia. Is that all we are interested in? Is that what indymedia reporting is about? Does it really need specialist 'indymedia journalists' to parachute in to these events as a result of a phone call in order to get something resembling coverage?

Do the people who did all the work of organising the program of workshops and the lineup of bands etc. really want the event to be remembered only for the actions of the cops? Do the people who took the time to facilitate or take part in one of the many workshops feel that what they were doing was not equally or more significant than the presence of the police?

If we want to reclaim the future we know that it will require that we reclaim the media and frankly we don't seem to be doing much of a job of it right now. Indymedia is about all of us reporting the news as it relates to us, not simply allowing a few 'alternative journalists' to mediate the experiences for us. Indymedia is more than just a place to complain about the predictable behavior of cops and conflict but also a place to document and celebrate or daily practical resistance in all it's forms.

Where is our news?

hoping for better

Comments

Display the following 15 comments

  1. I totally agree, but — imc?
  2. Do it yourself — Bill
  3. I agree — me
  4. DIY culture — RTF
  5. human — imc?
  6. reply to Bill — Me
  7. helping people to be the media — vg
  8. the whole evening — neck
  9. Fair play to the rtf crew - fuck oscar beard — clean shaven
  10. adding to the debate ... — maqui
  11. Beer ,Beer. beer, — Midnight
  12. ??????????????what r u talking about???????? — me
  13. Get some perspective! — who is hoping for better?
  14. pretty rubbish really — squidder
  15. Just to say... — Parent
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech