[New-imc] new imc collective in victoria, bc, canada

[Petros Evdokas]

CC: Luke Woodyard <luke at skorga.org>


Hello Luke,

My name is Petros, I'm one of the volunteers who help out with the work 
of the new-imc from time to time. I'm a founding member of cyprus 
indymedia, and on and off active on a few more of our global work 
groups. (More information about me at the link below my signature.)

I'm very happy that imc victoria has re-organized! Your new site looks 
good, both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

Before the subdomain "victoria.indymendia.org" can be re-pointed to your 
website, our new-imc work group will have to verify that the newly 
re-organized group in Victoria fulfills the imc principles of unity and 
editorial policies. Unti we do that, the tech volunteers who handle the 
Domain Name Server are supposed to hold off with the transfer.

I'd like to help speed up that process, if we can. I have some comments 
to share with you trigerred by a section of your letter to new-imc, 
copied below:

Luke Woodyard wrote:
> 
> Editorial Policy
> It is our opinion here at Victoria IMC that everyone has the right to
> express their views regardless of what they are. As this is not the
> case in the mainstream media we feel the necessity to create a place
> where everyone is free to say what they please. We believe in an open
> dialogue free from censorship, and while this means that some people
> may find the content of this site offensive, we maintain that the
> suppression of ideas is far worse. There can be no open discussion of
> ideas or resolution of conflict if some are denied the ability to
> speak their piece and air their grievances. At the same time we
> recognize that we have a responsibility to our readership; if you have
> a irreconcilable problem with one or more of the articles we have
> posted here, you can contact the administrators by clicking the
> 'Contact' link on the front page. It is not typically our policy to
> remove or edit content but we will review any concerns on a case by
> case basis with the rights of both the publisher and the public in
> mind.


I would like to ask you to re-examine the approach you propose, with a 
mind to expanding the responsibilities of the volunteers who will be 
doing the editing work of the group.

Indymedia is primarily a political organization of free media activists, 
"embedded" if you wish directly into the core of the global liberation 
movement. That means a lot more editorial responsibility and work than 
what the media outlets of the Opponent demand, ie the Corporate and 
State media, not less.

We have a respondibility for upholding some of the primary values of the 
liberation movement, and especially when it comes to "free expression" 
of racism, sexism and homophobia, to take active steps to curtail them. 
Complementary to that is our mission to promote all items for 
publication that are useful expressions of community efforts to 
disempower, replace and/or uproot the two headed monster of the 
Corporate State.

Both of the above mean that we do not and can not treat everything 
published as "free and equal" in the marketplace of ideas. There might 
be othet outlets for that where that editorial approach might 
appropriate, but indymedia has a mission and a set of principles to follow.

Please consider for example the Editorial Policy proposed by the newly 
formed IMC Singapore:
"Posts that qualify for hiding:

     * Blatant political or religious advertising (may also be deleted 
if deemed a Google Bomb)
     * Disinformation/misinformation. This includes attempts to spread 
rumors or impersonate another individual or organisation (may be deleted 
if deemed illegal- e.g. libellous.)
     * Posts without clear relevance to Singapore or social movements.
     * Posts which promote racism, fascism, xenophobia, homophobia, 
sexism - or any other form of discrimination.
     * Cross-postings without localisation to multiple open publishing 
venues, esp. IMCs.
           o If you want to organize internationally, think of your 
audience and make a sincere effort at localisation, including 
translation. Certain movement announcements or calls for solidarity may 
be alright.
     * Trolling: Posts that seem devoid of content or analysis and/or 
designed to disrupt, intimidate or upset others without constructive goal.
     * Flaming: Personal attacks or attacks on groups without attempt at 
dialogue.
     * Postings in the wrong section: e.g. articles that should be 
linked as 'otherpress' posted as original articles, comments or 
discussions posted as new articles.

Deleting

Deleted articles can only be viewed by members of the 
editorial/moderating collective.

Posts that qualify for deletion:

     * Google Bombs: postings with primary purpose to increase the 
amount of traffic to certain sites
     * Other efforts to use IMC newswires for (self-)promotional 
purposes or personal communication (including vendettas)
     * Advertising of products or for-profit services.
     * Defamatory or libellous posts
     * Posts that incite violence, are threats of violence or otherwise 
designed to intimidate disempowered members of the community.
     * Posts author, a family or close community member have requested 
to be hidden
     * Posts which publish identifying information without the 
individual's knowledge or consent.
     * Unreadable/unintelligible posts: images or text-only posts 
without relevance, gobledigook, nonsense/flooding, rants without point, 
personal vendettas.
     * Aggressive Cross-posts: duplicate/repetitive/spam posts and 
cross-posts, especially if posted on multiple unrelated IMCs and other 
open publishing venues (blogs, wikis)."

The above are taken from;
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcSG


The approach to editorial duties as expressed in your letter is 
certainly a product of good intentions, but simply asking readers and 
visitors to contact the admin in case an article is offensive is not a 
pro-active stance. There is no section of community self-organizing 
anywhere in the world that does Movement work that way, except among 
some indymedia groups that have lost their way.

I'd like to encourage you to re-visit your editorial policy with an eye 
to implementing a more active involvement with the medium.


I hope you'll be able to see that both the local setions of the 
progressive and radical wings of the Movement in your area and the 
global community of people active in the Movement would be enriched and 
better served if you move a little more in the directions I explained.

Thanks very much for your initiative, your great work, your patience in 
reading this, and for your willingness to keep working with us. I look 
forward to seeing the subdomain "victoria.indymendia.org" quickly 
reconnected to your group's website.

Thanks,
Petros
http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
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