Temporary IMC in Edinburgh covering protests at the 2005 G8 summit

The Independent Media Center (aka Indymedia or IMC) is a global network of participatory journalists that reports with a left-wing perspective on political and social issues. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. The 31st G8 summit was held from July 6 to July 8 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder It originated in and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism, and its associated institutions. The global justice movement is the broad globalized Social movement opposing what is often known as “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution Originally coined by its critics and opponents " neoliberalism " is a label referring to the recent reemergence of Economic liberalism or Classical liberalism Indymedia uses an open publishing and Democratic media process that allows anybody to contribute. Open publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers Democratic Media is a form of media organization that strives to have the principles of Democracy underling not only the production of content but also the organization of the

Its motto reads: "Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. "^[1] Indymedia was founded as an alternative to government and mainstream media, and seeks to facilitate people being able to publish their media as directly as possible.

Overview

The first Indymedia project was started in late November of 1999 to report on protests against the WTO meeting that took place in Seattle, Washington, and to act as an alternative media source. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of Trade negotiations occurred Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. ^[2] This followed a successful experiment in June that year, reporting the events of the "Carnival Against Capital". The Media team there used software and unmediated reports from protest participants ^[3]. The open publishing script was first developed by video activists in Sydney, Australia.

After Seattle the idea and network spread rapidly. By 2002, there were 89 Indymedia websites covering 31 countries (plus Palestinian Authority)^[4], growing to over 150 by January 2006. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. The country with the most IMCs is the United States with 62, followed by Italy with 15. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

IMC Collectives distribute print, audio, photo, and video journalism, but are most well known for their open publishing newswires. Printing is a process for reproducing text and image typically with ink on Paper using a printing press A photograph (often shortened to photo) is an Image created by Light falling on a light-sensitive surface usually Photographic film or an electronic Video is the technology of electronically capturing, Recording, processing storing transmitting and reconstructing a sequence of Still images Open publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers Sites where anyone with internet access can publish their news. The content of an IMC is determined by its participants, both the users who post content, and members of the local Indymedia collective who administer the site. While Indymedias worldwide are run autonomously and differ according to the concerns of their users, they share a commitment to provide copyleft content. Copyleft is a play on the word Copyright and describes the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions The general rule is that content on Indymedia sites can be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes. ^[5] Indymedia sites run on a number of free software platforms, many developed especially for the purpose; these include DadaIMC, Mir, Oscait, Active, http://sfactive.indymedia.org/ SF-Active], Activismo, Drupal and Plone. Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified Drupal (ˈdɹuːpʰəl is a free and Open source modular framework and Content management system (CMS written in the programming language

Content and focus

Indymedia sticker in Canary Wharf

The origins of IMCs themselves came out of protests against the concentrated ownership and perceived biases in corporate media reporting. Canary Wharf is a large business and shopping development in London, located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, centred on the old West India Docks " Corporate media " is a term which refers to a system of media production distribution ownership and funding which is dominated by Corporations and is governed by The first IMC node, attached as it was to the Seattle anti-corporate globalization protests, was seen by activists as an alternative news source to that of the corporate media, which they accused of only showing violence and confrontation, and portraying all protesters negatively. Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change " Corporate media " is a term which refers to a system of media production distribution ownership and funding which is dominated by Corporations and is governed by ^{[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]}

As a result, between 1999 and 2001, IMC newswires tended to be focused on up-to-the-minute coverage of protests: from local demonstrations to summits where anti-globalization movement protests were occurring. " Anti-globalization " is a term that encompasses a number of related ideas In 2007, this is still the case ^[12] but some IMCs are attempting to broaden their coverage to include more of what "traditional" journalism ignores.

Print projects

There have been a number of print-based projects under the Indymedia banner, including short-run papers and longer-running newspapers. A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. New York City IMC has produced The Indypendent, a bi-weekly "free paper for free people" for over five years. The Indypendent is the newspaper of the New York City Independent Media Center a local branch of the world wide Indymedia network Winner of numerous awards from the Independent Press Association (unrelated media organization) for original writing, photography, design and art, the Indypendent is currently the largest circulation "underground" paper in North America. During the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC, the Indypendent printed hundreds of thousands of copies and briefly attained a mass circulation. Contentious issues have included standardized editorial practice, commercial advertising and a genuine diversity of perspectives rare among radical publications. Short-run papers for protests have included the Unconvention during the Philadelphia "R2K" protests during the Republican National Convention in 2000. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Other newspapers include the Bay Area's Fault Lines, and papers in Connecticut, Maine, Baltimore and St. Fault Lines is a free newsmagazine published by the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Louis in the United States, and W(((i)))ndy in Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Organizational structure

Local

Indymedia collective at Mato Grosso Federal University in Cuiabá, Brazil hosting a free radio broadcast in 2004. The Federal University of Mato Grosso ( Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, UFMT was created in 1970 Cuiabá is the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld

Local IMC collectives are expected to be open and inclusive of individuals from a variety of different local revolutionary, left-wing, anarchist, communist and other anti-capitalist stances, whether or not these have any definite political philosophy, so that even those without internet access can participate both in content creation and in content consumption. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Editorial policies, locally chosen by any Indymedia collective, generally involve removing articles which the Indymedia editors believe promote racism, sexism, hate speech, and homophobia. List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that Sexism is the belief or attitude that one Gender or Sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other and can also refer to a Hatred or distrust towards Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade intimidate or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their race, Gender BenPhelpsJPG|thumb|right|Westboro Baptist Church picket signs with Ben Phelps grandson of Fred Phelps All Indymedia collectives are expected to have a locally chosen, thoroughly discussed and clearly stated editorial policy for posts to their website.

Global

The overall Indymedia network is decentralized to the extent that the local IMCs operate independently once they are authenticated into the IMC network. The process of admission into the IMC network is somewhat centralized but is relatively relaxed and transparent compared to the occasionally contentious disputes within local IMCs and has not generated a great deal of criticism. Local IMC collectives vary widely in their openness, editorial policies and tolerance of different viewpoints. Along with the locally-organised collectives are IMC websites dealing with particular topics (such as biotechnology) or for different media (such as video). A collective is a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together on a specific project(s to achieve a common objective Along with contributing their own media, core organizers maintain IMC's open publishing infrastructure, enabling different people throughout the internet to publish their news. Open publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers IMC editing is done by a system of layered admin which contributors apply to join for each site, by participating on open email lists and attending open meetings.

Indymedia Video Activism workshop at the DIY Culture festival [2] held at the Decoy Centre, Digbeth, Birmingham, Jan 2005

As an example of different models for collective internal organizing, the DC IMC (one of the older IMCs in the network) became a Coop with dues with a workshop/office, now closed. Digbeth is an area of Birmingham, England. It is also the name of the main road through the area In contrast, other IMC local collectives are without any formally-defined membership and have minimal organizational structure. Some IMC memberships require its members to sign a mission statement – not every IMC has a formalized policy. Some collectives do ban members for repeated rules violations. Some feel that membership includes only those actively doing organizing or other IMC work, while some feel that it actually extends to every IMC contributor.

Funding

IMCs tend to be funded solely by donations of money and equipment from individuals. In maintaining its independence and anti-corporate stance, Indymedia has had struggles with funding issues. For example, in September 2002, the Ford Foundation proposed funding for an Indymedia regional meeting. The Ford Foundation is a Private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by This was ultimately refused because many volunteers, especially some from IMC Argentina, were uncomfortable with accepting money from the Foundation, which some believe to be linked to the CIA. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all

Reputation

Notts Indymedia volunteer in media bias debate at the University of Nottingham, March 2006

Indymedia has a variable reputation, both amongst its users and outside critics. A volunteer is someone who works for a community or for the benefit of environment primarily because they choose to do so The University of Nottingham is a Public, Co-educational institution of Higher learning in the city of Nottingham, England. While some criticize Indymedia for adopting a position hostile to the interests of capital, others believe that this is the purpose of the media. Still others believe that its editorial policy on feature selection and hiding or deletion of articles is overly biased in certain topic areas, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some critics argue that since anyone can publish with little to no editorial process, unsubstantiated allegations and conspiracy theories are often published as fact, along with inaccurate articles and content that can offend. A conspiracy theory attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually Political, Social or Historical events or the concealment

In its favor, others argue Indymedia is a viable or preferable alternative to corporate media. " Corporate media " is a term which refers to a system of media production distribution ownership and funding which is dominated by Corporations and is governed by Its operations are conducted by activists around the world, who, though they may be lacking in journalistic training and corporate funding, tend to make up for this with enthusiasm for reporting issues of social justice and unique related events, which in their view, the corporate media under-reports or censors. Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change " Corporate media " is a term which refers to a system of media production distribution ownership and funding which is dominated by Corporations and is governed by Project Censored is a non-profit, sociological project of an investigative nature within the Sonoma State University Foundation For example, the Bolivian Gas War in 2003 was virtually unheard of in the US media, while it received extensive worldwide and multilingual reporting through Indymedia. The Bolivian gas conflict was a social confrontation in Bolivia centering on the exploitation of the country's vast Natural gas reserves Another example is the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest in many US and European cities, which received detailed coverage written by its participants. The February 15, 2003 anti-war protest was a coordinated day of protests across the world against the imminent invasion of Iraq.

While Indymedia has global aspirations, the vast majority of IMCs are in North America, Latin America and Europe. Although the Middle East is an area of considerable interest to Indymedia, there are only three IMCs in the region, located in Beirut, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel, although there was a Palestine IMC in Jerusalem between 2001 and 2003. Beirut (بيروت Bayrūt) is the Capital and Largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2 Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the The Lebanon center is one of three IMCs in Muslim nations; the other two are in Jakarta, Indonesia and Istanbul, Turkey. Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta) is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey

Temporary removal from Google News searches

In early May 2003, after receiving numerous complaints about newswire stories that referred to the Israeli military (IDF) as "Zionazi forces" (^[13]) or to Israelis as "Zionazis" ^[14], Google temporarily stopped including some IMCs in Google News searches (many non-English IMCs remained in the search). Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) (צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, lit Google News is an automated News aggregator provided by Google Inc Google News described the term "Zionazi" as a "degrading, hateful slur" and refused to index the Bay Area IMC because it had appeared there; SF Bay Area Indymedia agreed that it "could be considered hate speech"^[15]. Google News is an automated News aggregator provided by Google Inc Indybay is the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center, an all-volunteer organization which operates a community news website Indybay Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade intimidate or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their race, Gender This spawned a petition which sought to promise that content the Indymedia community finds offensive will be moderated from the front page as a matter of editorial policy. IMCs were still included in normal Google web searches. As of October 2004, IMC articles were restored to Google News searches. October 2004: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September -

Controversy and criticism

Hate speech

Open publishing has left some IMCs in Europe vulnerable to legal action or threats of legal action related to questions of libel or hate speech. In law a lawsuit is a civil action brought before a Court in which the party commencing the action the Plaintiff, seeks a legal or equitable remedy Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade intimidate or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their race, Gender In some such cases, local IMC collectives took autonomous decisions to temporarily suspend the site while the different activist groups reorganized to find a consensual, constructive method of dealing with these problems and to increase openness and non-authoritarian organizing methods.

Informal hierarchy

The structure of IMCs is formally non-hierarchical in terms of authority within the projects; however, there do exist de facto hierarchies, due either to control over physical resources (e. @@@ main@@@ - title Hierarchy@@@ keywords structure; sociology; information@@@ review@@@ - g. servers); access to funds; accuracy determination; the fact that certain global functions are needed; or simply because it makes sense to coordinate within geographically close regions, without any formal link to geographical borders. Some operational decisions are made by a small core of individuals holding administrator passwords, but Indymedia strives to make decisions in an open, community level. Some decision-making, collaboration and mutual aid is required at the network, or global level, such as maintenance of the technical resources.

Another aspect of informal hierarchy is the perceived emergence of "Indymedia specialists". Rather than participants in protests writing the report themselves, some people go to a protest to "do Indymedia", as if they were professional journalists, thus reproducing the separation (mediation) between reporter and participant that Indymedia is supposed to break down. In addition to email and mailing lists, meetings and real-time communication are done via the Indymedia IRC network: chat.indymedia.org. A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients Various technical and other organizing documentation is available at the Indymedia documentation wiki: docs.indymedia.org. A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content using a simplified Markup language.

Editorial policy

Although attempts have been made to formalize global editorial standards, the autonomous and independent nature of Indymedia has meant that many IMCs prefer their own local policies. As a result, many deal with similar issues and complaints, particularly around matters of distinguishing between criticism and hateful comments ("hate speech"); and the criteria for selecting issues and authors for the websites' "featured articles". While freedom of speech is valued highly by Indymedia collectives, it is rarely the overriding principle guiding editorial policy. Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without Censorship or Limitation. ^[16].

Many IMCs now routinely remove from the front page "newswire" articles copied from corporate-run or state-run press sources. This policy (where implemented) is intended by those IMCs to keep Indymedia as an independent news source, rather than a blog of articles from existing news sources. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of

There is generally an editorial electronic mailing list, to which questions and complaints may be directed. An electronic mailing list (sometimes written as elist or e-list) is a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to

Indymedia servers seizures

Indymedia has had interactions with authorities in more than one country. For example, on October 7, 2004, several of IMC's servers based in the United Kingdom at Rackspace in London were temporarily seized pursuant to a court order, disabling about 20 IMC websites which were hosted there. Events 3761 BC - The epoch (origin of the modern Hebrew calendar ( Proleptic Julian calendar) "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has argued that the server seizure was unconstitutional. The Electronic Frontier Foundation ( EFF) is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated ^[17]

Seizure of servers by the FBI

On October 7, 2004, the FBI seized the servers used by a number of IMCs and hosted by US-based Rackspace Managed Hosting. Events 3761 BC - The epoch (origin of the modern Hebrew calendar ( Proleptic Julian calendar) "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " A server is a Computer dedicated to providing one or more services over a computer network typically through a request-response routine Rackspace US Inc (dba Rackspace is an IT hosting company based in San Antonio, Texas. The servers in question were located in the United Kingdom and managed by the British arm of Rackspace, but some 20 mainly European IMC websites were affected, and several unrelated websites were affected (including the website of a Linux distribution). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks ^[18] No reasons were given at first by the FBI and Rackspace for the seizure, in particular IMC was not informed. Rackspace claimed that it was banned from giving further information about the incident^[19] Some (but not all) of the legal documents relating to the confiscation of the servers were unsealed by a Texas district court in August 2005, following legal action by the Electronic Frontier Foundation^{[20] [21]}. The Electronic Frontier Foundation ( EFF) is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated The documents revealed that the government never officially demanded the computer servers -- the subpoena to Rackspace only requested server log files. This contradicted previous statements by the web host that it took the servers offline because the government had demanded the hardware. Thus, it is unclear whether it correct to say the servers were seized by the FBI. The documents also contradicted Rackspace's claim that it had been ordered by the court not to discuss publicly the government's demand. The seized servers were returned on October 13, 2004. Events 54 - Nero ascends to the Roman throne 409 - Vandals and Alans crossed the Pyrenees "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again "

A statement by Rackspace ^[22] stated that the company had been forced to comply with a court order under the procedures laid out by the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which governs international police co-operation on "international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering". A mutual legal assistance treaty is an Agreement between two Foreign Countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging Information in an The investigation that led to the court order was said to have arisen outside of the U. S. Rackspace stated that they were prohibited on giving further detail. Agence France-Presse reported FBI spokesman Joe Parris^[23], who said the incident was not an FBI operation, but that the subpoena had been issued at the request of the Italian and the Swiss governments. Agence France-Presse ( AFP) is the oldest News agency in the world and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Again, no further details on specific allegations were given. UK involvement was denied in an answer given to a parliamentary question posed by Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat MP. ^[24]

Indymedia pointed out that they were not contacted by the FBI and that no specific information was released on the reasons of seizing the servers. Indymedia also sees the incident in the context of "numerous attacks on independent media by the US Federal Government", including a subpoena to obtain IP logs from Indymedia at the occasion of the Republican National Conference ^[25], the shut-down of several community radio stations in the US by the FCC, and a request by the FBI to remove a post on Nantes IMC containing a photograph of alleged undercover Swiss police. ^[26]

The move was condemned by the International Federation of Journalists, who stated that "The way this has been done smacks more of intimidation of legitimate journalistic inquiry than crime-busting" and called for an investigation ^[27]. Template talkInfobox Union for usage --> International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, is Global union Criticism was also voiced by European civil liberties organisation Statewatch ^[28] and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)^[29]. Statewatch is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that monitors the state and Civil liberties in the European Union. The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters ( French: Association Mondiale Des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires, AMARC is the International umbrella

In Italy, the federal prosecutor of Bologna Marina Plazzi confirmed that an investigation against Indymedia had been opened because of suspected "support of terrorism", in the context of Italian troops in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. Nasiriyah ( BGN: an-Nāṣiriyyah; also spelled Nassiriya or Nasiriya) is a city in Iraq The Italian minister of justice, Roberto Castelli, has refused further details. In November 2003, 17 members of parliament belonging to the right-wing Alleanza Nazionale, including Alessandra Mussolini demanded that Indymedia be shut down. National Alliance ( Alleanza Nazionale, AN is a conservative Italian political party. Alessandra Mussolini (born December 30 1962 is an Italian Conservative Politician, previously an Actress and model. A senior AN member and government official had announced the co-operation with US authorities (AN was a member of the Italian coalition government), and AN spokesman Mario Landolfi welcomed the FBI's seizure of the Indymedia servers. Left-wing Italian politicians denounced the move and called for an investigation. ^[30]

Bristol server seizure

Graffito in Bristol, United Kingdom advertising the local chapter of Indymedia with the slogan "read it write it your site your news". Bristol ( ˈbrɪstəl is a city, Unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

Not long after the Rackspace affair another server in the UK was seized by police in June 2005. An anonymous post on the Bristol Indymedia server, came to police attention for suggesting an "action" against a freight train carrying new cars as part of a protest against cars and climate change in the run up to that year's Gleneagles G8 summit. Bristol Indymedia, is also known as Bristol Independent Media Collective or BIMC ^[31] The police claimed that the poster broke the law by "incitement to criminal damage", and sought access logs from the server operators. Despite being warned by lawyers that the servers were "journalistic equipment" and subject to special laws, ^[32] the police proceeded with the seizure and a member of the Bristol Indymedia group was arrested ^[33]. Indymedia was supported in this matter by the National Union of Journalists, Liberty and Privacy International, along with others. Template talkInfobox Union for usage -->The National Union of Journalists ( NUJ) is a Trade union for Liberty is a Pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith (later Scaffardi Privacy International (PI is a UK-based Non-profit organisation formed in 1990, "as a Watchdog on Surveillance and Privacy invasions This incident ended several months later with no charges being brought by the police and the equipment returned.

Other legal actions - IMC UK

See also: EDO Corporation

In 2005, Indymedia UK was threatened with a libel action by the US arms company EDO Corporation, for publishing articles accusing their UK branch EDO (UK) of EDO MBM Technology Ltd (who supply the US, UK, and Israel armed forces) of being 'warmongers'. EDO Corporation was an American company which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation ( EDO Corporation was an American company which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation ( EDO Corporation was an American company which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation ( Their lawyers ultimately withdrew the writ.

EDO MBM then launched a further High Court lawsuit against the protest group Smash EDO in April 2005, under anti-stalker laws, presenting as evidence articles that had been posted anonymously on Indymedia UK. EDO Corporation was an American company which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation ( Although a controversial interim injunction was imposed on this evidence, the suit collapsed without reaching a trial in early 2006.

Assaults on Indymedia journalists

A Greek riot policeman wielding a baton in the direction of a photographer during a protest at the Athens courts, as published by the Athens Indymedia. Riot control refers to the measures used by police military or other forces to control, disperse and arrest civilians that are involved in a Riot, demonstration Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's ^[34]

In July, 2001 at the 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Indymedia journalists claim to have been seriously assaulted at the Diaz school where Indymedia had set up a temporary journalism center and radio station. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. The 27th G8 summit took place in Genoa, Italy, in July 2001. The summit was overshadowed by riots in the city after a crackdown by police targeting Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English In an ongoing trial, twenty-nine Italian police officers were indicted for grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest during a night-time raid on the Diaz School, A further 45 state officials, including police officers, prison guards and doctors, were charged with physically and mentally abusing demonstrators and journalists held in a detention centre in the nearby town of Bolzaneto. Bolzaneto is a quarter of the city of Genoa, in northwest Italy, and is part of the Municipality Valpolcevera of Genoa Video evidence from Indymedia and from the video activist group Undercurrents, is being used as key evidence for the prosecution. Undercurrents is an alternative video news network which began with the UK distribution of Videotapes shot by volunteers ^[35]

On June 1, 2003, Indymedia journalist Guy Smallman was seriously injured by a police grenade ^{[36] [37]} in Geneva. Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking He was covering protests against the G8 summit in nearby Evian for Indymedia and Image Sans Frontière. The 29th G8 summit took place in Évian-les-Bains, France, in June 2003 Evian is a French Brand of Mineral water coming from several sources near Évian-les-Bains, on the south shore of Lake Geneva.

On June 9, 2003, Alejandro Goldín, a photographer for Indymedia Argentina claims to have been assaulted by Federal Police officers while covering an incident between police and factory workers at the Brukman textile factory in Buenos Aires. Brukman is a Textile Factory in Balvanera, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Jujuy 554 ^[38]Goldín claims that although he identified himself as press and showed his credentials, police tried to smash his equipment. Goldín claims that he was beaten on the head with a shotgun, shoved to the ground and kicked repeatedly by officers.

On May 19, 2005, two videographers were roughed up by the Houston Police Department's Mounted Patrol during the Halliburton Shareholders Meeting - both videographers were contributors to Houston Indymedia. The Houston Police Department ( HPD) is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States. Both videographers were charged with assault on a police officer, but the charges were dropped after mainstream media from KTRK-TV (ABC13), KPRC-TV (Local 2 Houston), and KHOU-TV (Channel 11 Houston) provided the Harris County District Attorney's office with video footage that exonerated the journalists.

Brad Will shooting

Indymedia banner in the Netherlands protesting the Oaxaca murder. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), in Spanish phonemically /oa'xaka/ named for its largest city, is one of the

Main article: Brad Will

On October 27, 2006, New York-based journalist Bradley Roland Will was killed along with two Mexican protesters in the city of Oaxaca. Bradley Roland Will (1970-2006 was a US Anarchist, documentary Filmmaker and a Journalist with Indymedia New York Events 312 - Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross. Bradley Roland Will (1970-2006 was a US Anarchist, documentary Filmmaker and a Journalist with Indymedia New York Oaxaca is the name of both a state in Mexico and that state's capital city People had been demonstrating in the city since May as part of an uprising prompted by a teachers strike. The Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least eighteen deaths and the occupation of the Lizbeth Cana, attorney general of Oaxaca, claimed the conflict was caused by the protesters and that the gunmen who engaged them were upset residents from the area. The U. S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, however, claimed the men may have been local police. Antonio Oscar "Tony" Garza Jr (born July 7, 1959, in Brownsville Texas) an American Lawyer and former county judge in Reporters Without Borders condemened the actions of the Mexican government in allowing the accused to go free. ^[39] Protesters also allege that the men were police and not local residents. Associated Press falsely reported that the protesters also had guns, describing the conflict as a "shootout". ^[40]

Prizes and Honors

• In 2006 december 6th, IMC received from Club de Periodistas de México A. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev C. - a mexican group of journalists - a prize for Journalism at Internet and Brad Will's memory was honored ^[41]. A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular Community of people The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks

• In 2008 april 1st, in Brazil, IMC and Brad Will received the Medalha Chico Mendes de Resistência (Chico Mendes Resistence Medal in portuguese) from the brazilian humanitarian group Tortura Nunca Mais (No more torture in portuguese) for their contribuition for Human Rights and a more fair society ^[42][43]. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Humanitarianism is an active belief in Humanism (the idea of the value of human life whereby Humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans Human rights refers to the "basic Rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions

See also

• Wikipedia:Guide for Indymedia authors
• Free content

References

External links

• Global homepage
• IMC Membership Criteria
• Mission Statement
• MANA - the Media Alliance for New Activism
• On open publishing
• Indymedia Frequently Asked Questions
• How to start an Indymedia site
• Indymedia Documentation Project (wiki)
• Indymedia IRC (chat, help, online meetings)
• Indymedia listservs (mailing lists)
• Independent media workshop in Poland
• Video of the 2008 Chico Mendes Resistence Medal cerimony (in portuguese)