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.

News For Sale

d.bernstein | 02.03.2005 00:53 | Globalisation | Indymedia | London | World

Context of NEWS FOR SALE: information in the age of market-driven journalism - a conference 12 March, Camden Hall, London WC1 - Organised to highlight commodification of the media. Features 14 speakers from 6 countries and will cover Ownership, control and distribution, Impact of GATS and TRIPS agreements, internet, EU policies, Regulation vs. deregulation.

Democracy and market-led media: how it works, where it fails
Camden, D. Bernstein  newsforsale@bernstein.f9.co.uk


“Civil Society is on the march to reclaim the media”, says Dr. Serge Halimi, writer and journalist. In effect, meetings and conferences on the state of the media have been numerous lately. During the European Social Forum in London last November a network of European groups got together with a view to linking campaigns and demands both at European and National level. Some seminars attracted hundreds of people grouping ordinary citizens, and such diverse groups as MediaWise, Indymedia, Red Pepper, Positive News and media students and activists for an in-depth look at developments in media-ownership, the self-censure of journalists and international trade agreements encouraging the corporate takeover of information.

On the continent, Ignacio Ramonet, the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique has written extensively and passionately about the degeneration of journalism and the collusion of business interests and ownership of Newspaper, in France where firms producing and selling armaments have bought up reputed newspapers (Le Figaro, Le Monde, and publisher La Hachette) and where even Libération! The newspaper founded by Jean-Paul Sartre as the voice of the ‘the people’ has been bought by a Banker, Eduard de Rothschild .

In the light of the accelerated downgrading of information and the increasing blurring of the boundary between informative documentaries and virtual reality, they might have a point. It seems that the USA will only buy docu-dramas, spurring the gradual erosion of fact in the direction of fiction.

In London a voluntary group, Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique, has joined forces with the National Union of Journalists and Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom to organise an in-depth, International one-day conference at the Camden Centre on Bidborough St. on March 12th bringing together scholars, writers and academics to discuss the state of the media in France, the UK, USA, Russia and India.

The Conference, NEWS FOR SALE, will cover media ownership and distribution, the impact of international trade agreements on news, the effect of the internet and new media, European policies and the future of Public Service Broadcasting and the BBC..

The initiative has received favourable response from a wide variety of people, and is followed soon after by a London meeting to discuss alternatives, and the need of citizens to be properly informed. The speakers all have several books to their credit and with audience participation, this should make for lively debate on the day.

Booking Information: Tel. 07984 178 193, send SAE with cheque for £15/£10 concession to : Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique, c/o NUJ 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8DP
For Conference Information: www.monde-diplo-friends.org.uk
For related Information:
www.mondediplo.com, including wonderful editorial in January by Ignacio Ramonet
www.medialens.org

Ignacio Ramonet, , "Wars in the 21st Century", Ocean Press and "La Tyrannie de la Communication", Gallimard
Serge Halimi, “Les Nouveaux chiens de garde”, Liber-Raisons d’Agir

d.bernstein
- e-mail: newsforsale@bernstein.f9.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.monde-diplo-friends.org.uk

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