In the build-up to the G8 Summit in Japan this year, there has been a flurry of organizing of media groups. Local citizens' (shimin)media and alternative media groups have gotten into gear. The prime ministers' meeting in Hokkaido will be held at Lake Toya, in national park seclusion. Most alternative/counter-events are projected to take place in the provincial capital, Sapporo.
Will there be an IMC in Sapporo? There will surely be a media center (perhaps even several) to support alternative and activist media, but if it will fly a (((i))) flag or not is too early to say.
The media center working group has chosen "IMC Sapporo" as their English working title, and set up a preliminary blog and e-mail address under that name, but their relationship to the IMC network, and the existing IMCjp remains to be spelled out. They had initially intended to use the name "Independent Media Center" in a generic sense. The planned Japanese name is "G8市民メディアセンター札幌" (roughly translatable as G8 Citizens Media Center Sapporo).
IMCjp, established in 2002 to cover anti-war protests, maintains only a website with a small and far-flung group of volunteers. Working with local groups providing physical centers would be beneficial to all involved (along the lines of the IMC Germany model, where a number of local collectives share a website). However, Sapporo organizers are hesitant and say they want to learn more about Indymedia and then consider the pros and cons in their the local situation (where they need to negotiate with a wide range of groups and institutions for cooperation, funding and space).
Few Japanese media activists know anything about IMCs, less yet the network. This is mostly due to language and cultural barriers and is true for most of non-English speaking Asia. Misperceptions of Indymedia include:
- an international organization like Amnesty with a more or less fixed membership and local branches
- a movement without any governance structures or membership requirements
- a generic term for non-profit media
In fact the international network of IMCs, though it is loose, has some membership criteria, a governance structure and shares a logo.
Understandably, clarifying their relationship with Indymedia is low on the list of priorities for Sapporo media center working group.The working group consists of a few volunteers from a number of local community groups, and media/culture NPOs. They are busy negotiating for spaces with the local government, and fundraising. The Sapporo working group will support citizens', activist and alternative media in their coverage of the events around the summit. The eventual hope is to lay the groundwork for a permanent citizens media center in Sapporo.
The Sapporo Center group will focus on providing the space (and perhaps some media facilities 'in the fields'), but is not planning to maintain any online presence beyond a multi-lingual blog with logistic information. The G8 Media Network, a group of established Japanese alternative media organizations/networks, including Labornetjp, IMCjp, AMARCjapan WG and ourplanet-TV will provide content and channels, and help coordinate production groups. The G8 Media Network is planning to set up an easy way to share content across the G8MediaNetwork platforms and IMCjp. IMCjp is considering a complete site overhaul, but resources are limited and time is short.
Together with local groups organizing around the G8, the Sapporo working group also targets local mainstream media, confronting journalists who are trying to stir up irrational fears on one hand and on the other working with sympathetic journalists to promote citizens media perspectives.
All in all the center working group is a bit daunted by the high expectations on them, but speakers at a recent symposium reassured them that activists from abroad would not only come expecting services but also contributing and sharing their experience, with long-term benefits beyond the summit.
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Re: IMC Sapporo? Don't bring out the toast yet...
Hmmm... They seem to have chose the name "IMC Sapporo" at random, knowing little about IMCs/the Indymedia network. But now that they've done it, rather than changing their name, I think the best idea would be for them to work with us and consider themselves as IMCjp Sapporo, that way they don't have to go through the membership procedures at this busy time or miss out on the benefits of being part of Indymedia. That way IMCjp becomes more a network than a single site, like Germany or UK, where a number of local and thematic collectives work independently but share a common site and logo, meeting once a year or so...
単純にいいますと「G8市民メディアセンター札幌準備会」がG8サミットをめぐる動き(主に市民系のファーラム、デモ、祭りなど)を報道する世界各地から集まってくる市民メディアのため、メディアセンター(ネットカフェのようなもの)を設立しようとしています。G8市民メディアセンターの英語の暫定名としては「IMC Sapporo 」を使っていますが、まだインディメディアネットワークに入るかどうかは決まっていません。問題は、インディメディアのことはあまりよくしらないことだそうです。そもそもインディメディア=IMCの国際ネットワーク ということが知らず、たまたまIMCの名前にしてしまったようです。だたし、インディメディアネットワークに入らないままimcという名前を使うと(特に海外からくる)人を混乱させてしまい、信頼性を落としてしまうことから考えると英語名を変更するか、インディメディアネットワークに入るか、どちらにしたほうがいいと思いますね。
こちらのIMCjpにとって、お互いに連帯し、札幌のグループをIMCjpの一部として意識するのは一番望ましいのではないかと個人的に考えています。そうするとIMCjpはIMCドイツのように「1つのバーチュアル・センター」ではなく、全国ネットワークになります。役割分担もこちらのMLのメンバーがサイト管理、札幌のグループが「物理的なセンターの管理」になると思います。さらに、G8MediaNetwork(IMCjpもそのメンバーの一つ)が報道を担当する〜ということになります。すっきり〜かな〜
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