Have collected these cutting from e-mail passing through here.
BLOODY HECK.!!
Am I journalist or an activist? I don't know now. I thought I was being active on an issue. Silly me! I’m just trying to do my very moral best.
My photography grew from my concern and activism, trying to be more effective in furthering our case. The first twenty years was with free festivals and travellers. And so rearly did I have a problem in my own tribe. They , all of them, recognised that we were trying to help. Good god, that’s is why we won the beanfield trials and onwards. And managed to get some! public symaphy for OUR case. You see, I’m one of us. :-)
You know from the content of these pages, that I know all about the issues involved, but e-mail cirulation with this content, is beginning to poison the atmosphere. I and those like me, don’t deserve it.
Nothing any of you can do about it of course, just wanted folks to know that there is an issue here! Heck, why is this starting to be an increased problem now? Even after the judge threw out the police application from j18, because the police had not made adequate photographic efforts themselves!! That ruling should have made all photo-journalists, on this side of the fence, safer.
I come from a hippy/ traveller/ free festival background. Because I cared greatly about my community, with others, helped to form outfits that provided welfare, help and advice to those who weren't getting any! This is the founding of the Festival Welfare Services and the festivals branch of 'Release'. We felt real progress for some years before the forces of darkness started to gather. Public Order Act etc..... It started splitting families, harassment and hitting us with sticks.
|
Release, FWS and Festival Aid soon found the balance of the work we did, shifted by the distress caused by the police and the rather partial application of the law. Next to my work with the charities, I have been taking photographs since the late 1970's. I felt I could be of use, in trying to gather evidence of the abuses that we said were occurring, but at that time, were unable to demonstrate and were not believed. I say, that by making the police aware there were other eyes about, other than their own, then it frequently moderated their actions. Police and state treated us as if we were just a bunch of crusties! and could therefore behave to us as they pleased. However, many of us stared to bring civil action in the court, and with evidence, won many cases. Police operations against us were much moderated by this deterrent. They became more careful in their dealings. Perhaps saved a few broken heads. |
|
I see many aspects of entertainment and protest today, with rootes in the time I have just mentioned. To me, as a geezer in his late-forties, it all goes round again. For photography though, it has been different.
My community encouraged me in what I was doing then. There are a few who clearly do not now. Use of pictures in the poll-tax riot were perhaps the turning point. I acknowledge the risks and am up to pace with the issues.
But if, in future, guy's like me are prevented by activists, (I’m used to police objection), then, with the advent of miniature 'undercover' cameras.
The only cameras present at a scene will be the oppositions!
Surely we can't mean that?
I was first hit with a stick by a policeman in Windsor Great Park, 1974, when they broke up our festival. Ten years latter, another policeman hit me with his stick in the Beanfield near Stonehenge. With the occasions in between, this is what I'm use to, and expect.
HOWEVER. In recent times, while trying to photograph people getting trampled by a police charge in Trafalgar Sq 'Reclaim the Future', I ended up with a broken ankle resulting from a lump of concrete , thrown be a drunken protester next to me. To be fair, he was aiming at the police.
Drink has played a part in two other aggravations towards me. I lost several teeth at the N30 bash, Nov '99 outside Euston. People falling on top of each other (and me) during one of the charges. A couple of very young "warrior" types, found my distress highly amusing. Community, I thought, bleeding and lying there on the pavement!
With such dangers, why do I/we bother.
I am concerned for community and issues. I learnt my art / craft to help more fully to express OUR case. From this side of the fence.
It is why I am particularly cross with some of the content of e-mail circulating earlier in the year saying
CAMERAS AND PRESS: This is an activist gathering not a press event, so if you are coming as a journalist then you are not welcome. Also please respect the wishes of some people not to be photographed by leaving your camera at home.
30 years photographing at festivals and look were its got to ……
Well, I'm all confused now.
Was it all a waste of time?
Am I journalist or an activist?
I don't know now.
I thought I was being active on an issue.
Silly me!
For more, please check out my site at: direct link to surveillance section >>>>
Mon 07/06/99 19:36
ALLSORTS- UK Earth First! Summer Gathering 1999
EQUIPMENT: Norfolk EF! have a wish list of equipment needed for the
gathering. Please contact them
c/o The Greenhouse, 42-46 Bethel Street, Norwich NR2 1NR
CAMERAS AND PRESS: This is an activist gathering not a press event, so if you are coming as a journalist then you are not welcome. Also please respect the wishes of some people not to be photographed by leaving your camera at home.
FOR OFFERS OF WORKSHOPS OR HELP AND FOR GENERAL ENQUIRIES, CONTACT:
Earth First! Summer Gathering, c/o Cornerstone Resource Centre,
16 Sholebroke Avenue, Chapeltown, Leeds, LS7 3HB, uk
Telephone 0113 262 9365
<http://www.eco-action.org/gathering>http://www.eco-action.org/gathering
+ + + + +
>Hello there,
>have just become aware of the ef gathering.
>If interested, please check out my web-site, to see if you think I may help...Tash.
If you want to run a workshop on Police survailence (sp?) techniques (and countering them) then I’m sure we can provide the space for it. This type of workshop would probably be along the lines of a short presentation by yourself followed by a facilitated discussion and swapping of experiences (don’t worry we can provide the facilitator if you wish).
If you wanted to do this then please get back to us. Let us know if you need any special requirements (equipment and such like).
For the past 2 EF! gatherings (at least) there has been a no cameras policy. This has always been strictly enforced. This year the policy has not been set but it may end up being ‘no cameras’ again. Even if there is not a strict no cameras policy this year anyone seen photographing any group of people or anyone suspected of photographing people without their knowlege and expressed permission will not last long on the site.
Please bear this in mind when planning your workshop (i.e. don’t do a practical workshop and give a group a load of people cameras and have them running about the site trying to film each other :-)
Thanks
+ + + + +
Mon 12/07/99 23:58
ALLSORTS- July 17th - Action against Tarmac
Saturday 31st July. A Direct Action against the Biotechnolgy Industry. Meet 12 noon in Cambridge. For precise meeting point telephone 07808 191 858 or e-mai from Sat July 24th. Bring transport with a full tank of petrol, a road map, flags/costumes/disguises!
No cameras or journalists.
Local contact Notts EF! 0115 9585 666.
+ + + + +
Tue 13/07/99 00:17
ALLSORTS- An Alternative Model Farm occupied and transformed
The ‘Stop the Crop’ National Rally is being organised by the Genetic Engineering Network. Speakers will include Alan Simpson M.P.; George Monbiot, writer and journalist; Lynda Brown, food writer; Jean Saunders from the successful Lushill Farm Campaign. Rally starts at 2.00 p.m.
*Photographs of the occupation are available from photographer: Rob Todd Telephone: 07977 275 563
Video footage on DVC format of the occupation available from Hugh Warwick page:04325 613 406
OXY-GENE - Oxfordshire’s alliance opposed to genetically modified food and
Crops Box ‘W’, 111 Magdalen Rd, Oxford. OX4 1RQ.
>Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 23:54:39 +0100
>Smash Genetic Engineering!
>Saturday 31st July
>A Direct Action against the Biotechnology Industry
>Meet 12 noon in Cambridge
>Bring transport with a full tank of petrol, a road map,
>flags/costumes/disguises!
>No cameras or journalists - actions are for participating not observing!
+ + + + +
Tue 03/08/99 18:16
-ALLSORTS-Genetic campaigners defy court order and face imprisonment.
UPDATE -
After pulling up the crops, the three travelled from the trial site, undetected, to AgrEvo’s head quarters at East Winch Farm, where they held a press conference. AgrEvo initially claimed that the site was not a GM Site, but were eventually obliged to admit that it was when a journalist said that he had visited the site with the activists and had seen the signs put up by AgrEvo around the site claiming that there was an injunction! The police were called by AgrEvo to East Winch Farm but made no arrests.
Contact Kathryn Tulip (press liaison) 07990 516 372 or on site Martin Shaw 07930 529 024
ENDS
Editors Notes:
[1] The open letter to AgrEvo is available on request or on the web at http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/gs/event.htm
[2] The three snowballer’s personal statements explaining their actions are available on request or on the web.
[3] A press briefing about the release and some of the problems of herbicide tolerant oilseed rape is available on request or on the web site. [4] AgrEvo’s injunction is on the web site.
Picture Editor Notes:
Photographs of both the crop pulling and delivery to AgrEvo head quarters are available from Nick Cobbing, respected freelance photographer call 0973 642 103.
DVC footage of the action including uprooting the plants and handing them
over at the company HQ available from Hugh Warwick on 0961 181 576
A Campaign of Nonviolent Civil Responsibility
One World Centre
6 Mount Street
Manchester M2 5NS
<http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/gs>http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/gs
+ + + + +
2) URGENT WITNESS APPEAL from Euston N30
URGENT APPEAL FOR PHOTOS, VIDEO FOOTAGE AND WITNESSES FOLLOWING ATTCK BY POLICE LEAVING ME WITH SHATTERED RIGHT ARM
My name is Danny Penman and I¹m a journalist who¹s been covering the movement since the M11 campaign.
Last week at the Euston riot I was viciously attacked and hospitalised by the police. My right arm was shattered, and is now held together by a steel plate and a dozen bolts. I also had to undergo surgery and will have to undergo at least one more operation.
Do you have any videos or photographs of me being attacked or did you see me attacked by the police? I was wearing bright orange trousers with a black cagoul-style jacket (both sadly from Gap!). I am six foot with short black hair.
The attacks took place between 7:00 and 7:15 PM. The first took place just after police first attacked the crowd. I was in the north east corner of the park, by the bus stops and Euston Square. I was then driven out of the park to the bus stop area and then further westwards. After leaving the park I was attacked twice more. I was eventually rescued by Kate Adie, of all people.
+ + + +
Ben Edwards [lostit@videonetwork.org]
Re: [DIYVID] Video/Photo Activism
Tue 21/12/99 00:33
Two stories (not sure if this is the correct term as they are true) and a few points to consider.
The first involves a photographer who has done a lot of environmental stuff but is also working for the local paper to make ends meet (and get environmental/protest stuff in there). There was recently an office occupation and those organizing it decided it would be a only VERY alternative media event. This meant to them just one bod from the Big Issue and no press releases to anyone (apart from an email to allsorts@gn.apc.org, which is run by RTS), before or after. What then happened is that the local paper found out this was happening and sent one of there hacks and a fairly negative picture appeared in the paper (Bristol’s Evening Post). So basicaly if you have someone on the inside use them and you will get a pucker picture, showing your banner in all its glory. If you do not go down this route don’t grumble if you get bad publicity (they didn’t and they did). Always remember that you can’t control what the media douse but if you can get someone to take some good pictures for them at least you stand a good chance of controlling this part of your image. After this I had a conversation with someone who posed the question, why are they doing the action. Was it to get publicity or so that they could get cred from there pears and have something to tell there mates down the pub.
The second involves a genetix action someware in Oxford where the organizers again decided that it was going to be a totally media free event but publicized the event anyway. This kept the alternative press away and I am not sure about the mainstream, but they probably were there. The police then went, yipee, no cameras so lets arrest everybody and they wont have any evidence (we of course will have our police cameras there). From what I can gather lots of people were arrested at this event.
The point is it is fairly difficult to keep the media away from certain events, the best you can do is ask for them to stay away and the only people who will respect this are the alternative media.
As far as wether video reduces police violence is concerned all I can say is that I was not at ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’ but was at J18(London). Several people were of the opinion that although the police were ‘bang out of order’ they were not as violent as they were during the poll tax demo. One of the big differences between then and now is that there are a lot more (especially video) cameras at demos. In fact the hunt sabs in fund themselves through winning legal cases and video evedence has played a part in this.
Ben
Xanthe Bevis
21/02/00 14:27
Message from Hockley:
The developers (Countryside Residential) have fenced off the whole site and drive piles around the perimeter. Security guards are present. There is a small gate through the security compound - but effectively, the protestors in the camp feel as if they are under "house arrest" and being "starved out". There have been a lot of problems getting food in. However, post can get in.
Please send any food parcels ASAP to:
Beckney Protest Camp, Wood Avenue, Hockley, Essex SS5 5NU
Also may be useful: those tin blankets that keep the heat in (you can get them at camping shops).
If you can get down to the site to show support at any time over the next few weeks - ASAP! - please do. Also make the most of seeing this beautiful area of wildlife rich woodland before it disappears forever under 60 luxury homes.
There have been some problems with the security guards reported, which usually dissipate once a few good natured people with cameras and sandwiches turn up.
+ + + + +
-ALLSORTS- huge mix 4 15th March 00
10) Hacienda trial in Manchester - whats it all about?
Background. weekend of 6.6.99, the hacienda nightclub, shut down and sold to luxury flat developers is squatted by the EF! ok cafe collective who get together a whopping great techno party as a benefit to support 11 people arrested at a manchester reclaim the streets a few weeks earlier.
soon after the start time the same riot cops from the rts try to storm the building but fail to get in. in a strop they sealed off the area closing down two major roads all through the night while the party continues inside. they make sporadic arrests as they harrass and assault the ones who never made it in on time. at 8.00am the following morning the party, crew and equipment come out en masse to glorious sunshine, cheering crowds and bleary eyed journalists who bill it as a riot anyway.
the arrest count is around 15. Court update. most people were charged under sec 5 of the public order act, the catch all 'keep quiet or you're nicked, right that's it in the van now' law (abusive or threatening language or behaviour likely to cause distress or alarm). some with no experience of police or the courts plead guilty early on and were fined. the others took it to trial. at court recently on 6th march nine defendents were offered bind overs on the first day,(a sign of a weak prosecution case) six accepted.
three contested. during the following two days even the magistrate laughed at the difference between the scenes decribed in police notebooks (riot, violence and threatening crowds) and that seen on the defence supplied video ( luvd up clubbers chatting to cops, and cops smashing people to the ground and beating them with truncheons). the magistrate gave them bind overs and fines anyway. the defendants plan to sue the cops. and jack straw plans to extend this use of magistrate non-jury trial. also, had there been no d.i.y. video evidence showing the good nature of the crowd, the brutality of the police and the blatant discrepancies in their statements there is no doubt that this magistrate would have believed the cops and most of the defendants would have got custodial sentences.
+ + + + +
Why Video Activism? http://whisperedmedia.org/
Video Activism deters police violence.
+ + + + +
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 19:19:10 +0000
Subject: Mayday Warning
Posted in the public interest, and to maintain the freedom of the press. A lot of the demonstrators on the streets of London this coming May 1st will have read this. You have been warned.
"It is obviously futile and silly to attack the police on demonstrations. But there is one arm of the establishment that has been far more brutal and insidious than the police in undermining our democratic right to free speech and that is the press.
Aside from the indy media, television cameramen and newspaper photographers have actively worked with the police to identify and eliminate those who have been instrumental in organising our demonstrations. The police "special operations" units which photograph and film demonstrations are far less important to the police than the co-operation of the police. Yet members of the press can be disarmed and neutralised more easily than the police and in a non-violent manner.
There are two options on offer in dealing with the establishment press: disguise (ie balaclavas, crazy wigs, wacky make-up, etc) or
grabbing the cameras and disposing of them in a creative manner (ie chucking them in the Thames).
Hacks and photo-spooks are liars and police informants. They've done more to damage our efforts at creating democratic spaces in civil society and in our streets than the police could ever do. No matter how much we tell them that the majority of us are not terrorists, we're not into killing and maiming and our movement is based on passivist and non-hierarchical methods, they wage their war of words against us.
Let's show 'em what we think and and confiscate their cameras!"
+ + + +
SchNEWS in brief: SchNEWS 265, Friday 7th JULY 2000
All the people charged after last year’s Manchester Reclaim The Streets
have walked free - after video footage showed cops punching people in the face and hitting out with batons, (including a 40 year old woman who happened to be walking past).
There had been no violence until the police decided to move in on people dancing around a van, and they removed the generator with a pair of boltcroppers, saying it was an obstruction. (Rather bizarrely however they failed to move the van that was actually causing the obstruction rather than the generator)
Prague Legal Support
The Prague Legal Support team is compiling video, audio, photos taken during the protests which show any sort of police violence/illegal acts, people being arrested, plain clothes police, announcements from the police, etc. The Legal Group and OPH are starting to gather evidence to be used in lawsuits concerning the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Czech Government on demonstrators/arrested persons related to the protests against the IMF/WB around Sep. 26th.
IF YOU HAVE ANY OF THESE THINGS DOCUMENTED IT IS ESSENTIAL, IF YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED IN PRAGUE, THAT YOU CONTACT US OR SEND US THIS DOCUMENTATION
Below is a form to be filled out and sent to us to contact you on what you have. Or to be sent with your documentation to the address below.
**NOTE if you have any possibly useful footage please MAKE COPIES OF IT
IMMEDIATELY**
Please, do not send us the only copy of your documentation if possible
Contact:
Phone (Prague): (42) 0608/721 677
Email: praguelegalsupport@purpleturtle.com
To Send your photo/video/audio directly: ASEED, PO BOX 920661090, AB,
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS. L8R WILL
+ + + +
Fri 13/10/00 01:39
Hey folks
I am in legal offices in Prague. There is discussion of taking legal action against police and authorities. If you have video of anything brutal done by police etc then it would be good if you could e-mail praguelegalsupport@purpleturtle.com and tell them so that you may be contacted in event of any legal action.. They may then contact you at a future date....It would also be helpful if you could list where your footage may have been taken so that it can be correlated with where people were arrested etc.....
Hope all your tapes are safe and that you are too....
Speak to you soon
Will
_______________________________________________
Prague-video mailing list
Prague-video@lists.indymedia.org
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/prague-video
+ + + +
Mon 18/09/00 16:20
PHOTOGRAPHS AVAILABLE
For pictures of plain clothes snatch squads in action try www.arbib.org/prague. Some of these maybe of use for identifying police officers.
More pictures at Prague Indymedia
(http://prague.indymedia.org).
Keep up the pressure
Prague Legal Support Team.
(www.crosswinds.net/~jailsolidarity)
+ + + +
Wednesday, 18 April 2001
1) V. Important info FOR Prague Prisoners IMPRISONED?
from: praguelegalsupport@purpleturtle.com
PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE ARRESTED IN PRAGUE OVER THE S26 PERIOD.
This page contains infomation for anyone who was imprisoned in relation to the World Bank IMF protests in Prague.
It can also be found at our web site: www.crosswinds.net/~jailsolidarity
IDENTIFYING POLICE
There are many photos on the web of the anti-WB IMF protests. One photographer says he has pictures of police snatch squads in action. These can be found at:http://www.arbib.org/prague. Another source is http://prague.indymedia.org.
If you know of any others please let us know. (jailsolidarity@yahoo.com)
EVIDENCE?
We are looking for video, photos, or audio of police violence/illegal acts, people being arrested, plain clothes police, announcements from the police, etc. If you have any of these things (or more) documented PLEASE PLEASE contact us - they are of incalculable value for use as evidence.
Fill out the form from our website to be sent with anything you have.
Free email addresses helping endangered species every time you write
http://www.purpleturtle.com
+ + + +
Ella Allan
Tue 07/11/00 00:40
Hi,
I found you whilst reading Schnews and then checking out the Protest and
Festivals Guide which led me on to Party Vibe - which is where I happened
upon your quotes which really interested me.
Tonight I have been checking out your website and was blown away. I am
really impressed with the wealth of knowledge which you possess and of
course the visual aspect of it and the amount of time and effort you have
obviously dedicated to this. I have just been scanning through it for the
past hour and I am so excited - unfortunately there are time limits on the
building I am in so I will have to get into it later this week.
I noted that you get a hard time for being a journalist/activist - do people not realise the power that photographs have; how public reaction to Vietnam and the civil rights movement etc etc was transformed because of visual documentation?
I guess not by what you have told me.
Thanks for being you,
Peace and blessings.
Ella
+ + + +
Police officer’s Human Rights threat to press
Press Gazette 8th Dec 2000
John Voos, an Independent photographer, has asked the Association of Chief Police Officers whether a police officer at a London demonstration was within his rights to threaten to sue Voos under the Human Rights Act for taking his photograph while he was controlling demonstrators.
Last week Voos was photographing protesters against animal cruelty at the Smithfield show. He told Press Gazette: "When I got there, there were police in uniform around. One of them started talking to the demonstrators asking them to keep the route clear.
"I went up with a wide-angle lens to photograph them. When the policeman saw me, he got out of the way very quickly and said: ‘If you take my photograph and publish it, you will be infringing my human rights and I will take action on that basis.’ "
Voos replied that he was in a public place and had a right to photograph any person and use the picture as long as the caption was not misleading.
Then the uniformed officer said: "I am also here as an individual and as such, I am not telling you, I am asking you not to take my photograph and if you do, you will be infringing my human rights and I will take action against you."
Voos asked if he objected to him taking photographs or publishing them. "The policeman replied, ‘Both’," he said .
Voos said that if the officer went to talk to the demonstrators, he would be in his pictures. "I will take action against you," repeated the officer.
Voos, who had taken shots, including the officer, before the exchange, went to talk to other photographers. "We had a laugh about it but we also acknowledged this law of human rights is a reality and actually we weren’t sure how far it encompassed what we were doing," he explained.
He gave the officer his business card and said: "If you want to take action, do it." The photograph was not used in the paper.
Later that day he was at a Home Office function at the House of Commons for policemen receiving bravery awards. It was attended by the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Tony Burden, chief constable of South Wales.
Voos, who has been with The Independent since it launched in 1986, put his quandary first to Home Office officials who brought up another issue: "Does an on-duty police officer also have the rights of an individual?"
The photographer then put his questions to Burden. "He gave me a wry grin but took it seriously and said he would check it out and get back to me in writing," said Voos.
"If the law does provide for this, how on earth do you cover demonstrations in the future?" he asked.
If ACPO’s reply backs the officer, Voos believes newspapers will have to look at the legality of the decision.
+ + + +
[mayday-monopoly] Digest Number 109
Message: 4
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 18:31:26 +0100
Subject: Re: Will someone deal with the Press...
Happy Hippy,
You have hit on a good idea, why don't you start such a book?
It could be a sort of photo/idea a page, such as a photo of
teenagers in Nike, with a photo of children in sweatshops
making trainers, superimposed with the annual profits of Nike etc.
Kind regards,
Susan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: [mayday-monopoly]
> > ..Prior to the Mayday event so as the masses don't think
> > we are just a bunch of vandals they can't relate to?
> >
> > Get a PR company-turn things on their head.
>
> Such as highlighting the [current] 'capitalist issues' which are being
> objected to ...
>
> The child slave ship off Africa's coast
> The error of profit before safety on the railways
> The environmental damage of exploding LPG plant
> and many more beside
>
> ... Things which the average person in the street can relate to; most of
> them don't have a clue as to what 'capitalism' is, let alone what an
> 'anti-capitalist movement' is all about.
>
> Perhaps someone should write "An Idiot's Guide to Capitalism" / "The
> Ladybird Book of Capitalism" / "Janet and John Shaft the Working Classes"
>
> Most rhetoric and discussion on capitalism and anti-capitalism is in high
> in, or can't be bothered reading. What's needed is a clear statement of,
> "These are the things we are objecting to ...", which makes sense to the majority of right minded people; the sort of people who will think, "I never knew that ...".
>
+ + + +
[mayday-monopoly] Digest Number 109
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 19:07:43 +0100
Subject: The Times (Tuesday 17th April 2001)
Small bit on front page of the Times
and whole of page four
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-115621,00.html
but it seems not all of the three articles are there.
Despite posting this reference for interest, I think people should not get
wrapped up in the press coverage, and start to think our activities mean any
more just because of the hype.
I am for ignoring the press and certainly not co-operating with them. 'good'
coverage can be worse than bad, as it will over time make our decisions play
to their tune. Our cause will not be won or lose by what people read in the
papers.
On journalists who say they want to help our cause they must be lying to someone, because it is not considered ethical by journalists to be involved in shaping the events they cover. We want participants who participate not as 'independent' observers/spectators.
+ + + +
[mayday-monopoly] Digest Number 109
Message: 20
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 22:14:50 +0100
Subject: Re: The Times (Tuesday 17th April 2001)
>We want participants who participate not
> as 'independent' observers/spectators.
I think we need both. Being on the softer side of fluffy I believe that
being there is important even though I have no intention of violence or
destruction. I appreciate other people's arguments, their views, their
intentions and beliefs, and hope they'll appreciate mine.
I have photographed a number of events and the dissemination of 'the truth', as best it can be shown to people who haven't been there, offsets the images they have seen on TV and in the newspapers; many have been genuinely surprised that what I have shown is entirely different to what they are being told happened
People who start asking, "Why are the media lying to me / distorting the facts / focusing on only one aspect ?", are on their first steps towards breaking free from the indoctrination.
Every little helps, as they say.
+ + + +
[mayday-monopoly] Digest Number 109
Message: 21
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 22:27:39 +0100
Subject: Re: Press
I intend to participate within various autonomous protests on May the 1st of which I strongly believe in. However, seeing the kind of media coverage that the May Day protests has attracted so far, and not just in the tabloids which is to be expected, but also in the broad sheets disgusts me. The kind of reporting shown by Vidal, for example, in the Guardian is of tabloid mentality, unfortunately this seems to be echoed throughout out the entire media. I have been following your mixed reactions to press coverage, and agree with many points about using media as a mean to your own ends, and can sympathise with the distrust that still remains prominent. Yet when all media coverage has pandered to the shock-sell equation, which currently pervades all western mainstream media, it’s understandable.
Currently I’m studying photojournalism and have only basic skills and contacts within this area, yet as I will be attending certain protests anyway, if I can serve any use I would be only too glad to help. If the only photographic coverage would be from the media, apart from personal or underground coverage, it might serve to help the cause to have some coverage of peaceful events, or the police’s "zero tolerance" policy in effect. Well anyway, I intend to support the certain causes anyway, but if I could be of anymore help then all is well, if not It’ll be interesting to hear your views anyway.
Many thanks.
+ + + +
[mayday-monopoly] Digest Number 109
Message: 22
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 17:42:24 EDT
Subject: Re: Globalise resistance and the media.....
I don't have the previous post but we need to be aware that the main BBC crews on site on May 1st have been attending joint training with the cops at Hendon for two weeks already. To get close to the BBC is the same as liaising with the cops.
+ + + +
[mayday-monopoly] Digest Number 110
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 23:57:22 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: Globalise resistance and the media.....
My opinion of the media is that they are stupid and will belive everything
you tell them, i have done several media stunts to prove this, although
nothing i'd like to admit to and nothing that got major headlines. In all
my dealings with the media, i found that they reported whatever i said as
fact, even when sometimes it was about as beliveable as Tony Blair joining
us on mayday.
The situation is slightly different in this case because we are dealing
with issues that are already in the public eye, but I belive that if we do
contact sympathetic jurnolists and explain our point of view there is a
chance that they will be on our side. The jurnolists job is not to take
sides in a story, but too often we are reported as evil anarchists. All
the mass media ever reports is the police side of events, mainly because
thats all they ever hear. If we are going to win a war, we need to win
over the mass media, at least partly. At the moment this is not happening
+ + + +
My care remains, but intend you to know that many of us are getting damaged.
Alan Lodge / Tash: ... tash@gn.apc.org