Media Reclamation Project

Media Matters update, August August 10, 2008

Posted by mediamattersottawa in Challenging Mainstream Media, Media Matters Projects, Media News, Media Reform.
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Media Matters update, August 2008

In this email:
- Next meeting, upcoming plans
- National Conference on Media Reform coverage
- Digital channels giveaway
- Dying newspaper industry
- Ontario police posing as journalists
- Reporters Without Borders: Olympic focus
- Ottawa Cinema Politica

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Our next meeting is Thurs August 14, 6pm
OPIRG-Ottawa, 631 King Edward Ave, 3rd floor

We will be discussing the plans we are working on with Indymedia Ottawa to put on public events for September, October, and November featuring special out-of-town speakers as well as exciting media projects and empowering workshops. Stay tuned for details, or come out to the meeting!

Remember to visit our website at http://mediamattersottawa.org

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The National Conference for Media Reform was held in early June in Minneapolis, bringing together thousands of people involved in media activism. The online coverage featured on the official website has over 20 video and 60 audio files to view or listen to:
http://www.freepress.net/conference

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The digital channel giveway (aka theft)!

See the article:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/30/10708/

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The dying newspaper industry

Another article to check out:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/92284

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Ontario police posing as journalists!

During testimony at Shawn Brant’s trial, it came out that a provincial police officer had posed as a journalist in order to get close to Mohawk activists during the Aboriginal Day of Action in 2007. And it’s not the first time, either:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/95817/

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Reporters Without Borders and the Olympics

If you attended the human rights protest in front of the Chinese embassy the day before the opening of the Olympics, you would’ve seen a sizeable delegation of Reporters Without Borders people from Montreal. The global organization has a campaign to bring attention to the situation in China for the Olympics.
http://www.rsf.org
http://www.rsfcanada.org
http://www.rsfbeijing2008.org/

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Ottawa Cinema Politica is a series of film screenings that has been held the past three years at the University of Ottawa. Here is an update about the current OCP situation:

Dear OCP attendees,
Dear Friday Film and Discussion enthusiasts,

Re: BAD NEWS AND CALL TO ACTION

The purpose of this message is:

(((1))) to give you the bad news that the University of Ottawa, under its new president Allan Rock, HAS KILLED THE WEEKLY FILM AND DISCUSSION EVENT that I have hosted since September 2005, currently known as OCP (Ottawa Cinema Politica); and

(((2))) to ask you to act in order to turn the University’s misguided decision around.

I ASK FOR YOUR HELP.

I addressed a letter to Allan Rock that he received electronically on July 19, 2008. The letter is attached below and summarizes the situation. In the letter, I asked Mr. Rock to answer by July 26, 2008, so that I could inform you accordingly of his decision. I called Mr. Rock’s office four times, leaving voice messages and messages with his assistant, and sent another email (attached below) on July 30th before I received an answer to my July 19th email on August 7th. The answer is attached below and is from the Secretary of the University Pamela Harrod.

The “answer” means that Mr. Rock agrees with the former administration and that the University’s absurd decision of July 14, 2008, holds: See Indy Media report at http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/en/2008/07/8037.shtml .

It’s time for the community (you) to take this in your own hands.

PLEASE CONSIDER DOING ALL THREE (or one?) OF THE FOLLOWING:

(1) Sign the petition to reinstate the Friday film and discussion series at the University of Ottawa by sending your FULL NAME, your POSITION (community member, student in Education, professional engineer, etc.), and a petition COMMENT to me, by replying to this message.

(2) Write a letter to Mr. Allan Rock, President, University of Ottawa, at allan.rock@uottawa.ca, and make your letter public by putting me in cc at dgr@uottawa.ca. Make your position known to Mr. Rock. I will remove your personal information other than your name and post all of these letters.

Alternatively, you can contact Mr. Rock more directly: Tel. 613-562-5809, Fax. 613-562-5103. Make an appointment, etc. In any case, I ask that you make your efforts and any results public.

(3) Join in an active group to lobby to reinstate the Friday film and discussion series at the University of Ottawa by contacting me to express your interest in being part of this group. Members should expect to meet regularly and to participate in various lobbying activities.

The University’s position on this point is absurd. We should win this. If we do not, I will not be able to continue the series, because of my many other and growing time commitments. Other community members are welcome to self-organize an alternative but I will not be able to help as much as I would like.

Let’s beat this thing!

Denis Rancourt
dgr@uottawa.ca
http://www.science.uottawa.ca/~dgr/

PS: Some interesting and entertaining recent posts about University of Ottawa anti-democratic actions are at: http://uofowatch.blogspot.com/