Independent Media and International Solidarity

The Ontario Public Interest Research Group (Toronto &York) &
The G20 Alternative Media Centre presents....

Independent Media and International Solidarity
A workshop from community organizer and journalist Stefan Christoff

Thursday June 17
6:30
Room 2212
OISE, 252 Bloor Street West

A workshop for independent and alternative journalists! 

Workshop description: 
As world attention turns to the G8 / G20 summits in Ontario activists will converge on the streets in Toronto, joining people on the streets will be independent journalists with microphones, blogs, videos and note pads documenting the grassroots opposition to the elite summits locked behind police protected fences and a security bill estimated at around $1 billion. Independent journalists have long played a vital role in creating critical alternative perspectives on not only street protest but also on the ideas and inspirations that fuel grassroots movements for social justice globally. Independent publications, to community radio stations, to blogs have become critical sources of information on people's movements globally and major media networks are increasingly fuse with corporate power. As self publishing models on-line have exploded globally it is critical to highlight the key role that the Independent Media Center projects (Indymedia) played globally as one of the first global media networks based on citizens reporting.

Beyond the streets of Toronto independent media also can play a key role in highlighting peoples struggles globally as media technology has played key roles in highlighting realities of struggle within the context of international solidarity work from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Palestine to social media uploaded from the streets of Iran during protests this past year. Today major media is turning to independent media sources to get first hand accounts and grassroots perspectives on people in struggle around the world. Given this reality it is so critical to reflect on the relationship and practice of our movements to media and the ways that we can best utilize independent media as a tool for change locally and globally.

* Stefan Christoff is a Montreal based community organize, journalist and musician. Christoff has organized on social justice issues in Montreal from struggles for migrant justice to the right to housing, internationally Christoff has worked extensively in the Middle East and Asia, participating in multiple international solidarity missions from Lebanon to the Philippines. As a journalist Christoff has reported widely from regular writings at the Hour weekly newspaper in Montreal, to Electronic Intifada, rabble.ca, Dominion on-line and has written at the Daily Star in Beirut, Lebanon. Christoff is a member of Tadamon! Montreal (http://www.tadamon.ca/) and can be found at http://www.twitter.com/spirodon/

Also sponsored by: Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action and Rabble.ca