Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

A Declaration of Media Independence

Pete | 16.07.2003 12:44 | Indymedia | London | World

From the US:

Media Justice: Media for All the People


Media filled with stereotypical and demeaning imagery. Media
that denies our basic humanity and renders us invisible.
Media that promotes and justifies our oppression and murder.
Too few outlets from which to tell our stories, to speak
truth to power. The connections between media -- its form,
content, and who owns it -- is inextricably tied to issues
of social justice, power, and equity. From the
criminalization of youth to the war in Iraq, the mainstream
media has continued it's historical role as a willing
propaganda machine for corporate interests, and has blocked
dialogue and debate on the publicly owned airwaves.
Communication is a human right, yet our communities are
denied this fundamental right every day. This will not
change until we hold all institutions, public and private,
to a higher standard of accountability, one that ensures
that media serves the needs of all the people.

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that people of color
are members of an ongoing continuum of struggle for fair and
just media: from the indigenous and enslaved peoples who
fought to speak in the shadow of genocide, to the historic
fight to develop and sustain independent ethnic newspapers,
to the courageous organizers who stood up for fair
television coverage in the '60s, to the public access
battles of the '70s, to the cyberspace and multimedia
pioneers of the '80s and '90s, to the thousands who recently
marched, protested, and sat-in to challenge increasing media
concentration, people of color are the most critical
indicator of how democratic media really is. Today, Media
Justice organizers are working to build meaningful
participation from communities of color and indigenous
communities to claim the undeniable right to communicate --
to liberate our airwaves, networks, and cultural spaces. We
aim to fundamentally change the ownership structure,
language usage, and policy discourse around media within the
United States and internationally, so that those communities
most directly affected by media inequities can own the
movement and bring into reality the vision behind Media
Justice.

We also recognize the interconnectedness between our
literacy as media producers/cultural workers, the fight for
media accountability and just media policy, and the need for
community-owned and controlled media institutions and
networks. Therefore, we define the Media Justice movement to
include those working in the areas of media advocacy, media
accountability and policy, cultural work and training in
media production, alternative journalism, and virtual/real
world technology organizing.

Why Media Justice?

Media Justice speaks to the need to go beyond creating
greater access to the same rotten corporate media structure.
We are interested in more than paternalistic
conceptualizations of "access," more than paper rights, more
than taking up space in a crowded boxcar along the corporate
information highway. Media Justice takes into account
history, culture, privilege, and power. We seek new
relationships to media and a new vision and reality for its
ownership, control, access, and structure. We understand
that this will require new policies, systems, and structures
that will treat our airwaves and our communities as more
than markets for exploitation.

We believe that communities of color, indigenous
communities, and other oppressed and underrepresented
communities need to stake out a distinct space within and
apart from the media democracy/reform movement -- similar to
the environmental justice movement's relationship to the
mainstream environmental movement. We believe this is
necessary in order to meaningfully address differences in
focus and approach to media organizing. At the heart of our
work is a rigorous power analysis, with race, class, and
gender at the center. We are not content to have these
issues relegated to one segment of a "mainstream"
discussion. We need a unique space so that our communities
can move forward the visions and strategies for this work
that are grounded in their own reality, which we believe
will lead our society towards a truly free and democratic
media.

Moving Media Justice Forward!

In the Spring of 2004, community groups and networks will
meet at the first Media Justice Summit to discuss issues,
develop a set of core principles, and invite others to
participate and widen the circle of those familiar with and
connected to Media Justice organizing. The Media Justice
Summit Organizing Committee is eager to increase the number
of people explicitly working towards Media Justice. If
you're interested in learning more or would like to endorse
this statement, please contact us at
.

Media Justice is a powerful and necessary step toward
liberating our institutions and building the world we want.
Are you ready? Then let's get free.

Art McGee, Project Change
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Third World Majority
Makani Themba-Nixon, The Praxis Project
Malkia Cyril, Youth Media Council
Jeff Perlstein, Media Alliance

Pete

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World 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

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure 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.

IMCs


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