Saint Clair Bourne Passes

Photo Credit: Chester Higgins, Jr.
"Most of mainstream and public television in the late ’60s, and even during the ’70s,” he said, “was from the point of view of an outsider looking at a subculture — white people looking at black people. We said we identify with and are a part of the subjects we are filming.” -- SCB

St. Clair Bourne, pioneer filmmaker and activist, died on Saturday due to complications following an operation to remove a brain tumor. His many great documentaries will continue to be a definitive collection of African American art and history. He did the key biographical films on Paul Robeson, Amiri Baraka, Walter Mosley, Gordon Parks, John Henrik Clarke and Langston Hughes among others. His film on Spike Lee and the making of "Do the Right Thing" was called as tense and ingrossing as the film itself. In addition to producing and directing many films that chronicle the experience of Black Americans, St. Clair founded Chamba Notes, an important list serve and website.
The New York Times Obituary has a video of him on their site. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/arts/18bourne.html
Arrangements have been set for 7:00 pm on January 25th, 2008 at Riverside Church to memorialize the life and untimely loss of St Clair Bourne.

Way Beyond YouTube! Wiki on US PEG Streaming

The Alliance for Community Media has set up a Wiki with links to streaming PEG (Public, Educational and Government) channels in the U.S. You can get a sense of what sort of programming is being presented on these channels. Access centers can add their own url if it has not been included on the interactive site. http://communityaccessmediastreaming.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

Street Art Workers

This is a stencil from 2004 when the theme was media.

STREET ART WORKERS
SAW was founded in March 2001. Every year our members pick a theme, make art, and put up each other´s work. We aim for the largest possible impact by posting art simultaneously across North America. Most people in the network exchange posters, stencils or stickers designed for guerrilla wheat pasting or spray painting, but SAW submissions are limited only by your imagination. Submissions need to be mass produced, easy to ship and relatively easy to display. Production costs are covered by each artist, and distribution costs are covered by SAW. The group is run by volunteers with a shoestring budget, but our collective strength promotes all of our work.

The most recent project is about globalization.

From Nicaragua: The Dilema of Information and Communication

Dilemas de la información y la comunicación para un "buen gobierno" Arturo Zamora, Nicaragua, 07-12-2007
“Escuchar es el principio del entendimiento”

La información y la comunicación no pueden, ni deben seguir siendo manipuladas como factores de poder desde una concepción autoritaria, sino que por el contrario, debe ser vistas como bien social, como recursos útiles para propiciar la participación ciudadana, racionalizar recursos, facilitar la solución de problemas y necesidades sociales y agilizar los procesos de desarrollo y de transparencia que el país y sus ciudadanos anhelan. No se debe, pues, discutir qué tipo de control hay que tener sobre la información, sino, qué tipo de sociedad deseamos: Autoritaria o democrática.

Apremia abrir las instituciones publicas y hacerlas más participativas, democráticas y eficientes. Compromete transformar los sistemas de información y comunicación entre el gobierno y la ciudadanía. Obligan nuevas relaciones con los medios de comunicación y los trabajadores de la información y la comunicación social. Hoy apura cambiar radicalmente este tipo de relación pervertida y conflictiva entre gobierno y ciudadanos. Precisa la creación de un Consejo Nacional de Información y Comunicación Social.

La exclusión, el control y la erección de barreras para evitar el acceso a la participación ciudadana en la administración pública, fue entre otras, una de las características predominantes de los dos últimos gobiernos en Nicaragua. Estos gobiernos trabajaron por la desmovilización de los ciudadanos, acostumbrados a afrontar con entereza problemas comunes. Fustigaron permanentemente a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil, generando temor, pasividad, apatía, alienación e impotencia; con la consiguiente pérdida de los valores de solidaridad social. Generaron desconsuelo, desconfianza e incertidumbre.

Se fomentó la confrontación entre los servidores públicos y la gente, en vez de propiciar la colaboración para solucionar problemas sociales que afectan a todos. Desarmó consejos y estructuras que permitían la participación de diversos sectores sociales en la formulación de políticas de salud, educación y otros ámbitos de bien común. Fomentó la impunidad, la evasión de la justicia y de la verdad. Subestimó la energía potencial de la gente para “empoderarse” y contribuir a solucionar problemas, que la administración pública debía resolver. Ensalzó la displicencia, la falta de ética. Premió el arribismo, la ceguera; el yo no fui.

Si en las administraciones anteriores la información y la comunicación estuvieron centralizadas, hoy debe ser descentralizada. Si estuvo restringida, para adormecer la inteligencia ciudadana e inmovilizarla, hoy deberá ser abierta para acrecentar el conocimiento y fomentar la movilización de la población. Si se manejaba como propiedad de la burocracia, hoy debe ser entendida como de utilidad pública. Si la información sobre la gestión gubernamental, el acceso y utilización de la misma obedecía al modelo autoritario, hoy debe corresponder a un modelo horizontal, inclusivo y democrático.

Si la comunicación fue vertical, jerárquica y vocinglera, hoy debe ser dialógica y de doble vía, y más aún, debe darse de múltiples formas. Debe propiciar equilibrio, estabilidad social, respeto, empatía, solidaridad, participación ciudadana. Debe ser inclusiva, responsable, educativa y movilizadora. Estos y otros, son los dilemas de la información y la comunicación del gobierno actual en Nicaragua.

Aunque la mayoría de los problemas que afronta el país no pueden ser resueltos a través de la información y comunicación únicamente, son una herramienta que usadas adecuadamente pueden contribuir a modificar hábitos y costumbres que nos atrapan en el atraso y oscurantismo autoritario. La información y la comunicación por sí solas no van a reducir la pobreza ni los problemas del desarrollo del país, mas sin embargo, campañas eficaces de información y comunicación educativa, contribuirán a la convivencia ciudadana, educarían a la población sobre alternativas para sus vidas, motivarían a la acción, acrecentará sus conocimientos y reforzara las conductas que se deseen modificar. Arturo Zamora es Sociólogo y Comunicador Social

JOURNALISTS IN NIGER RELEASED

Niger journalists free, but two still in prison
Niamey - Police in Niger have released two journalists held for allegedly defaming the country's finance minister but they still face prosecution, a press association said on Friday. "They have been freed but the prosecutor has notified them that legal procedures will follow their normal course," Boubacar Diallo of the Association of Independent Press Editors told AFP.

Soumana Maiga, founder of the biweekly L'Enqueteur, was detained Wednesday, while Ibrahim Souley, the publication's director, was briefly detained last Thursday before being held again for questioning five days later. L'Enqueteur published a series of articles last month that included allegations that Finance Minister Ali Lamine Zeine had been involved in embezzlement and favouritism in ministry appointments.

Two other journalists are also being held in Niger. Moussa Kaka, Radio France Internationale's correspondent in the country, has been detained since September 26, while Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, director of the biweekly Air-Info, has been held since October 9. They face charges over alleged links to a Tuareg rebel group active in the country's north. Prosecutors at Agadez, in the north of the country, questioned Manzo Diallo for the first time on Friday, grilling him for three hours in the presence of his lawyer Moussa Coulibaly, who also represents Kaka.

FOR AN EARLIER WAVES OF CHANGE POST ABOUT THE SITUATION IN NIGER, GO TO
Niger Radio Station Head Taken to Prison

Music in the Korean Workers' Movements

A new Korean documentary shows how Yeon Yeongseok, a popular Korean singer, uses his work in support of Korean workers.It is called To the Bitter End and shows the determination of the Korean workers and how Yeon's music is part of their struggle.His music is played at rallies and recordings are brought to sit-ins.
Labor activists in Korea have used video for decades. There have even been contracts negotiated which require that companies pay a video-activist (chosen by the union) to record working conditions and labor issues in a particular work site. The tapes are then played back in the lunch room of the factory. Korean documentaries are often very emotional, this one showing the pain and courage of the striking workers as they band together when the police try to disperse them.
A recent dispute within the union community concerned the rights of migrant laborers. Migrants are given three year visas. They are not allowed to bring their families into Korea. Their pay is low and their working conditions are harsh. Many work as much as twelve hours a day. Some of the traditional union members did not want to support these "irregular workers" but others felt that this would be siding with the "bosses".A tactic often used is sit-ins. This one at Koscom ended with an agreement to bargain in good faith, but further negotiations were stymied.The documentary is directed by Tae, Jun-seek, Produced by Lee, Sangyeop. Contact: docuzine@gmail.com

World AIDS Day Intervention- Dia Mundial de Sida

Bacanalnica is a web site which is visited each day by 10 million young people from throughout Central America. In an effort to intervene in that space, the following tape was posted.
My friend Arturo sends this message:
Después de hacer las gestiones personales con Bacanalnica, he puesto en la Web el anuncio de Perrozompopo. Dialogo intrafamiliar para la prevención del VIH.
Haga circular la direccion del Blog http://www.bacanalnica.com/blog.php

La epidemia está afectando principalmente a personas entre 20 y 34 años (58%). Ahora se desplaza rápidamente hacia los adolescentes y jóvenes de 15 a 19 años.

En el año 2006 los adolescentes en este grupo de edad representaron el 6.8% de las nuevas infecciones por VIH en Nicaragua, mientras los niños y niñas de 0-14 años representaron el 5.6% de nuevas infecciones.

Las mujeres jóvenes y adolescentes en Nicaragua son más vulnerables.

El 71.4% de los nuevos casos de VIH en adolescentes de 15 a 19 años, ocurrieron en mujeres en el año 2006.

En Nicaragua la principal causas es por la falta de información objetiva, específica, científica y actualizada, derecho que se encuentra establecido en el artículo 44 del Código de la Niñez y Adolescencia, que indica: “Que las niñas, niños y adolescentes tienen derecho a recibir una educación sexual integral, objetiva, orientadora, científica, gradual y formativa, que desarrolle su autoestima y el respeto a su propio cuerpo y a la sexualidad responsable, el Estado garantizará programas de educación sexual a través de la escuela y la comunidad educativa”.

Los cambios sólo se pueden lograr con la participación de la juventud. 1. 5 millones de habitantes de Nicaragua (25% de la población) somos adolescentes y jóvenes, que con información y habilidades podemos lograr un cambio en el comportamiento de la epidemia del VIH en el país.

International Radio Event for Migrants

Radio 1812/2007 invites you to Tune in on International Migrants Day!
It is estimated that some 200 million people live outside of their home countries. And this is not a new phenomenon: Europe, America, and Australia were all built on the influx of millions of people in search of a better life. Since 2000, the international community has designated 18th of December as International Migrants Day, to celebrate the achievements and highlight the struggles of migrants around the world.
Last year, December 18, the international advocacy and resource centre on the human rights of migrant workers launched Radio 1812, a global radio event where community stations, commercial radios and national and international broadcasters in over twenty countries stretching from Australia to Peru produced and broadcasted on one day more than 50 programmes in the most various languages, from Chinese and Thai to Spanish and Kazak.
December 18 was also honoured to welcome the support of former Irish President and Human Rights defender Mary Robinson, and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. Both used the Radio 1812/2006 event to reinforce their message: that human rights for all means human rights for migrants too.
This year, supported by UNESCO and ™Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, amongst others, Radio1812 is back hoping to bring together more radios, more migrants and more concerned citizens to take part in the celebrations on 18th December 2007.
Rene Plaetevoet, Director of December 18, says: "Last year, Radio 1812 was a successful and exciting new initiative that put the voices of the often-voiceless at the centre of the debate around migration through the power of radio. This year, we call on all radio stations and migrant solidarity groups around the world to come together and join this exciting second edition of Radio 1812 to celebrate International Migrants Day 2007."
For a taste of what happened in 2006 you can listen to a short remix of last year's event and browse through all of the content from the past edition on our new multilingual radio portal.
In 2007, audio programming on migration will be updated regularly thanks to the generosity of all the radios that wish to share their existing and future programming on this issue. Regular feeds on migration-related news, exciting features and briefings and helpful tips on how to take part in Radio 1812/2007 are some of the new additions to this year's initiative.
For more information on how to take part in Radio 1812 or to share any existing audio content you may have on migration, please check the Radio 1812 website at:www.radio1812.net, or contact us at: radio1812@december18.net

The mission of DECEMBER 18 is to promote and protect the rights of migrants worldwide. Our goal is that the human rights of all migrants are recognised and protected effectively, and that an environment is created for migrants to be full participants in any society. We promote an approach to migration policies that is based on existing international and regional human rights instruments and mechanisms.

Students in India Take to the Airwaves

From India Times: Campus radio has students hooked 8 Nov, 2007, 1637 hrs IST,Shreya Biswas, TNN
NEW DELHI: It's time to tune in folks! Ever since the government announced revised guidelines on community radio service (CRS), hordes of educational institutes and universities are hitting the air waves with their own versions of FM radio. While FM radio service by some premier universities such as Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi, University of Agricultural Sciences and Holy Cross College in the south have already gone on air, scores of others are planning to jump on to the bandwagon including IIT-Kanpur. There are others such as IIM-Kozikhode and Lucknow that have chosen to launch Internet radio, a students only initiative to provide a live and interactive platform their community. While IIM-K's K-dio is already
operational, IIM-L is plans go live shortly.

In the last one year alone around 10 campus radio stations across the country have become operational. "The CRS initiative didn't get as much response initially and institutes were reluctant to sign on due to some infrastructural issues," says M V Vijayan, under-secretary, FM, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. "However, in the last one year, after the announcement of revised guidelines, they are responding well and institutions who stayed back due to lack of awareness are now coming forward."

Delhi University's campus radio, launched last month, has already got the students hooked. There have been three auditions for the various programmes and students create the content. While the number of students for the initial auditions was a mere 20-25, the fourth audition has attracted close to 100 applicants. "Almost 50% of the content will be for the students and the issues they are attached to and the rest will be for the community around the campus," says Vijaylakshmi Sinha, head of the project for DU and former director-general, AIR. She adds that the response has been "great".

The programmes are of general interest like girls' safety or academic like career counselling besides softer genre programmes on junk jewellery, eating jaunts, music and discussions. That's exactly what the community radio initiative is aimed at, providing the students or the community an interactive platform to reach out to each other, discuss issues of common interest and provide a platform to develop talent.

IIT-Kanpur, which plans to come up with its own community radio by next March, wants to reach out to the community around the college besides the students. There are plans to air programmes on agricultural research, newer technologies and topics of general interest. "By March next year, the studio would be operational. It will operate within a radius of 15km, reaching out to the students and the people around the campus and addressing topics of their interest." says Sanjay Dhande, director, IIT-K.

Till now, competition from FM channel and limited reach has restricted the success of such community radio to a few. Pune University's Vigyaan Vaani launched in 2005 is a case in point. The channel is received within a radius of 7km of the assigned 10km while majority of its target audience is in the centre of the city. Obviously, they can't be reached. Besides, the huge
competition from FM channels has also been a cause of concern. "Unless we can reach out to more students and people, no one will know the utility of such an effort," says Anand Deshmukh, director, Vidya Vaani. "Though there have been efforts to make it interesting, the efforts are noticed only if you reach out to them. What we have now done is to put up the programmes on the website of the channel so that it is accessible." The channel airs various programmes on issues related to student community, general interest and music where students perform. This, the institutes feel is a good way to nurture talent and give them an opportunity to connect with their immediate neighbours and come up with ideas for problem solution.

Korea's RTV Celebrates 5th Anniversary

RTV is the first public access channel in Korea. It is celebrating its fifth year of broadcasting.This project grew out of the work of Mediact, an impressive media center in the heart of Seoul.These sorts of flower towers are a Korean tradition. There was an entire row of them sent by corporations who do business with the channel.To celebrate the anniversary, there was a seminar on community media, with international guests: Catherine from Vive TV in Venezuela, Adilson Cabral from Brazil, Myung Joon Kim from Korea, Ellie Rennie from Australia, DeeDee Halleck from US, Supinya Kiangnarong from Thailand, Kate Coyer from Hungary and the US and Jon Stout from the US. This is a trio from the US, Brazil and Thailand. Supinya Kiangnarong has been struggling to get freedom of expression in Thailand.Myung Joon Kim, coordinator of Mediact, the Korean media center, explains the exhibit of five years of Mediact's work.

Hype Vs Reality in Internet/Lap Top Development

A lot of buzz at the Tunis meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (organized by UNESCO and the ITU in 2005) was generated by a presentation by Nicholas Negroponte about an MIT project to design and implement an inexpensive, hand-cranked laptop which could be marketed (sic) to poor countries to "bridge the digital divide". The "unveiling" of the device brought out a crush of TV journalists, radio reporters and eager bloggers. At the time, a Kenyan communication specialist remarked privately,"The project is so "American"." He explained that the whole notion of INDIVIDUAL (or as they are called PERSONAL) computers is a concept that is not necessarily the best solution to information problems in places like his country. He mentioned the successful community telecenters where technology and skills are SHARED as being a model for the more practical immediate needs, and of course the over-ridding need for backbone infrastructure access. He also scoffed at the trials of the machines--mainly done with MIT grad students not in the dusty environment of an African village. Without any basic trials, Negroponte seemed to imply that they would go into massive production of several million and that orders were in place from Brazil and India. That would be without even trying a larger test of, say, several hundred in a variety of situations-- urban barrios, villages, etc.
Last week, with similar hoop-la, Negroponte presided over a UN event for the lap tops. After being questioned by skeptics in the discussion period Negroponte admitted that the massive orders had fallen through, but that they were going ahead with production on a large scale. A useful accounting of the UN event is at http://taz.de/blogs/netizenblog/2007/10/24/one-laptop-per-child-can-it-become-a-reality/ The questions posed in that article are quite striking. For example, why would the UN sponsor this presentation by a single company/institution without opening up a broader discussion of the various problems with connectivity in developing countries? Why was there no discussion of the infrastructure needed to provide broadband? Or, for that matter, no discussion of the real divide: the stark poverty of townships in Africa compared with the shiny commodity-filled malls of Cambridge and Boston (and Sandton in RSA and the YaYa Center in Nairobi).

liso Labantu: Photo Project in South African Townships

liso Labantu is a group of photographers who live in the townships around Cape Town, South Africa. We are using point-and-shoot digital cameras to document our neighborhoods one by one. Every other month, we meet in a new neighborhood and shoot—all of us—for 48 hours, from sun up on Friday until late on Saturday night. We then edit, print, and laminate the work. On Sunday morning we hang the photographs on the streets for the community to see. We call these 'Flash Photo Weekends.' Collectively, we are documenting our lives, our families, our struggles and our accomplishments.The group is growing, as well as getting more professional. And, we are in need of more equipment. Here’s where you can help.Do you have:
* old point and shoot or SLR digital cameras (3.2 Megapixels and up)
* Battery chargers
* Flash Cards or Memory Cards
Or.... Maybe you have...
* an old laptop?
* hard drive
* firewire cables and power chargers
We are also building a library for the organization. If you have photography books that you would like to give a happy second life, please consider donating those.
Send to Sue Johnson
169 Avenue A #13
NYC, NY 10009

Filmmaker Florian Opitz facing 14 years of prison in Nigeria

from:http://annalist.noblogs.org/post/2007/10/05/florian-opitz-facing-14-years-of-prison-in-nigeriaFlorian Opitz was arrested in Nigeria by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) and has to appear in court today. He is accused of 'endangering national security' and faces up to 14 years in prison. Florian Opitz is a freelance documentary filmmaker, author and journalist. His last very successful documentary "The Big Sell-Out"is a political film. In various episodes the abstract phenomenon of privatisation is depicted in stories about very concrete human destinies around the globe. The documentary tells tragic, tragicomic but also encouraging stories of the everyday life of people, who day by day have to deal with the effects of privatisation politics, dictated by anonymous international financial institutions in Washington D.C. and Geneva, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO)."

Arrested with him were filmmaker Andy Lehmann (Berlin), Danjuma Saidu (Nigeria) and Judith Asuni (US/Nigeria), doing research in the Niger delta for their next film. They were alledgedly taking pictures of oil refineries, pipelines and ships. The Niger Delta has seen many bloody conflicts about resources, oil revenue and distribution of wealth, often depicted as 'ethnic conflicts' by neighbouring tribes. Judith Asuni has lived in the region for 36 years and works with the peace work NGO
Academic Associates/PeaceWorks. http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/en/node/18

The Niger Delta moved in the focus of attention with the trial against Ken Saro-Wiwa, author, television producer, and environmentalist who received the Right Livelihood Award in 1994 and was nominated for the Peace Nobel Price in 1996. He was executed in 1995. The German Journalist Association demands all four arrested to be released and calls the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene. http://www.djv.de/SingleNews.20.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]
=1093&tx_ttnews[backPid]=18

Florian Opitz has screened 'The Big Sell Out' during the last Globale film festival in May in Berlin together with Andrej Holm, leading to a public debate about privatisation. http://www.globale-filmfestival.org/en/node/9 Before he left to Nigeria he left us his card and said "Call me if there is anything I can do to help from from there." It's up to us now to help
free him.

Coolock Teens Send Message to Paper Tiger

Niger Radio Station Head Taken to Prison

Niger: Moussa Kaka Taken to Niamey Prison Without Explanation Reporters sans Frontières (Paris) PRESS RELEASE 25 September 2007Reporters Without Borders today condemned the transfer of radio station head Moussa Kaka to Niamey prison after a prolonged period in custody without being taken before the prosecutor or being given any explanation, as demanded under law. Kaka, of privately-owned Radio Saraouniya, and correspondent in Niger for Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Reporters Without Borders, was moved to prison on 24 September, four days after his arrest."It is astonishingly lax to arrest one of the country's most prominent journalists without producing any serious proof and flouting the law. In such a serious case, it is beyond belief that the Nigerian authorities should show such contempt. It gives legitimate reason to question the credibility of the procedure which led to Moussa Kama being sent to prison," the worldwide press freedom organisation said. The journalist was held in custody for a four-day period which expired at 6pm on 24 September without ever being formally charged.

The only indication of what the journalist is accused of came from the prosecutor general of the Niamey appeal court, Adama Harouna, who said on 21 September that he faced proceedings for "violating state security", because of his alleged links with the Tuareg rebellion of the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ). His lawyer, Mr Coulibaly said that he should be taken before the prosecutor's office during 25 September.

In a statement released yesterday, RFI voiced its "very serious concern about the fate of our correspondent". "In the absence of precise facts setting out the details of the accusations against our correspondent, RFI questions the exact reasons which led the authorities in Niger to arrest and then imprison a journalist, well known for his professionalism and independence," it said.

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

RELEASE!!
Niger journalists free - for now

Niamey - Police in Niger have released two journalists held for allegedly defaming the country's finance minister but they still face prosecution, a press association said on Friday.

"They have been freed but the prosecutor has notified them that legal procedures will follow their normal course," Boubacar Diallo of the Association of Independent Press Editors told AFP.

Soumana Maiga, founder of the biweekly L'Enqueteur, was detained Wednesday, while Ibrahim Souley, the publication's director, was briefly detained last Thursday before being held again for questioning five days later.

L'Enqueteur published a series of articles last month that included allegations that Finance Minister Ali Lamine Zeine had been involved in embezzlement and favouritism in ministry appointments.

Two other journalists are also being held in Niger.

Moussa Kaka, Radio France Internationale's correspondent in the country, has been detained since September 26, while Ibrahim Manzo Diallo, director of the biweekly Air-Info, has been held since October 9.

They face charges over alleged links to a Tuareg rebel group active in the country's north.

Prosecutors at Agadez, in the north of the country, questioned Manzo Diallo for the first time on Friday, grilling him for three hours in the presence of his lawyer Moussa Coulibaly, who also represents Kaka.