Prague Independent Media Center - S26 - Call To Action

The Independent Media Center of Prague calls you, journalists, media activists, and rabble-rousers of the world to join us in creating democratic, grassroots and political coverage of the S26 protests in Prague and around the world. We need you to bring your video cameras, mini
disc recorders, laptop, photographic cameras to Prague to help work in the open, democratic, multi-lingual, and non-sectarian media center. If you can't make it to Prague, then cover the solidarity actions in your community and post the articles to the prague.indymedia.org website.

The first indymedia center was created in Seattle as a new outlet for critical coverage of globalization. The code and methods used in the Seattle IMC were based on the coverage that J18 activists in London used to bring a new from of news to the world. Since N30 in Seattle dozens of IMC's have been created from Los Angles to the Congo, from Italy to Mexico City. Using the internet and other communications technologies we are able to reach a wide
audience and break through the corporate media blockade. As this is being written the IMC activists in Melbourne are covering the shutting down of the World Economic Forum.

You can learn more about who's involved with the Independent Media Centers, how they're formed and run by going to http://process.indymedia.org/.

Grassroots media organizations including Undercurrents (London, UK), Engage Tactical Media (Holland), net_institute (Bologna, Italy), Radio Helsinki (Graz, Austria), Cafe9 (Prague, Czech Republic) and the Independent Media Centers in the UK, Belgium, France, Israel, Poland and
Italy and many others are putting together an Independent Media Center to serve a number of purposes:

* coordinate coverage among teams of independent video, still camera, print and audio journalists coming from around the world

* document direct actions, discussion of economic alternatives to globalization, and progressive analysis by under-represented voices

* produce audio, print, and video documents for distribution * distribute productions via website based streaming and indexed archives, satellite uplinks (possibly), tape distribution and 'rip n' read' text digests

* deliver content to global mainstream media via web push, computer faxing and e-mail strengthen and link existing networks of alternative media and community organizations to maximize the impact of the content produced

* emphasize results to date of international conferences and civil society dialogues, including workers' trade agreements, the Kyoto Climate, Rio Earth & Beijing Womens' Summits, International Encuentros hosted by the Zapatistas, etc.

Leading up to and during the S26 IMF/World Bank events, this site will be used by media activists to post breaking news stories. All you have to do is go to the site, retrieve reports, photos, audio and video, and pass it on. You can also send out your reports to the world about S26 actions happening in your community through this site using simple online forms.
Here are some suggestions for maximizing the impact of this work:

* Check the Media Center site (above) daily for new posts, then forward reports to your e-mail list and websites.

* Get audio from the media center site to your local community and micro-radio stations

* Post audio and video links from the site on your website, and urge others to do the same

* Convince your local cable access center to downlink incoming satellite video, and organize a local screening

* Have a potluck and show friends photos, audio or video, and share news of the actions in Prague

* Convince your local community papers to visit the media center site and run stories on actions that address community issues

* Print out the pdf's that are posted the site and distribute them in your community.

* Talk to your friends and family about the actions in Prague, forward this letter and urge them to help spread the word as well.


What you can do to help:

* Come to Prague and work with the IMC to cover the actions and issues. This includes creating content and coverage for people in your home country and language.

* Coverage S26 Solidarity actions in your local community and post them to the http://prague.indymedia.org website.

If you're coming to Prague we need you to bring equipment. The Prague IMC has a very tight budget, so all of our equipment needs to be brought to the center for the duration of the convergence (manifestation.)

Here's a list of what we need:

* Computers, we need lots of computers... We need them for: video, audio, and photo editing, writing stories

* Routers/Hubs and other network equipment

* Your own video cameras, audio equipment, digital or standard photo cameras. The IMC doesn't have any.

* Power strips, Printers, and other general computer equipment

* Video Tapes, and Rolls of Film

Here's what we have:

* An office on Legerova, which is right between Namesti Miru and the Congress Center in Prague.

* A high speed network connection, phone line, and power. We might be able to get a few computers in Prague, but for this to happen we need you to bring your computers.

* A separate smallish space for IMC'ers to sleep during the actions!

* A website, prague.indymedia.org which supports all sorts of streaming media, and easy posting of articles. We are working to extend it so it supports multiple languages.

* A connection with Cafe9, a network of 'net artists who want to work with us on streaming media projects during the convergence.

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