FW: [IMC-bristol] some answers to your recent postings

[kyra@rnetmail.co.uk]

Ghada, i tried to send the following mail off-list to you, but it bounced from yr account as i'm an unknown sender, so am sending it to you via the list. 

Apologies to rest of list for clogging yr inboxes - please ignore/delete etc.
Kyra

------ Original Message: ------
From: kyra@rnetmail.co.uk
To: Ghada2000@aol.com
Sent: 4/29/2003 00:00
Subject: [IMC-bristol] some answers to your recent postings

hi Ghada
I'm glad that Crash came across as being civil, but sorry if others (including i suppose me) haven't seemed as much so.  I think because of the tone of some of your previous posts perhaps you were mistaken for a bit of a crank ('i'll sort you out' 'youre all pro-war elitists' etc.) but, as you've now clarified that you're not armed and dangerous after all(;.)), i'd like to try and clarify things, so that we're clear what's at issue here and not talking at cross purposes indefinitely.  Although I apologise for the fact that what follows is so lengthy, I wanted to make sure I got all these points across to you and I hope that the time and thought that went into this response is evident and leads to a better understanding between us.

Firstly, apologies that no one got back to you for ages after you first offered to volunteer.
we don't mean to be an inaccessible group but we do need to work on efficiency, for sure, and i appreciate that we could be more active in welcoming people who contact us via the list.  its often a bit slapdash cos there's not many active volunteers with the time to make sure we tie up all the loose ends that an open communications project like this inevitably generates, and we don't have a central base/office, or assigned roles or anything so jobs do slip through the net.

>From this, you can see that we really do need more volunteers, and if you're not totally confused and put off by now, then your help would really be welcome.

As you can see from the site (current and archived) there have been lots of postings from people taking part in anti-war action in Bristol.  I myself have taken part in, and posted on the site about, Bristol actions and Fairford and Wellford peace camps and fully intend to continue to take anti-war action and to use the site to talk about it.  

I and other IMC volunteers have been out at the vigils and other anti-war actions, we've acted as independent legal observers, we;ve used video to monitor police (mis)behaviour, we've encouraged others to use the site to present their version of events by handing out leaflets, stickers etc. and through talking to people of all ages and backgrounds, we've waited outside Bridewell to ensure the release of those arrested, we've attended courts in Bristol and Gloucester to support those being tried for anti-war actions... About all this and more we have posted articles on the site and they are still there for all to see.  

Quite apart from posting anti-war material to the site ourselves as individuals, there are of course many, many postings from people at the Fairford and Wellford peacecamps, from Jo Wilding of her experiences in Iraq, from the Stop-the-War-Coalition and lots of individuals from all over the South West of England who want to express their horror of this war and to promote anti-war action, ranging from written articles, pictures, video clips, links to other sites for more information etc. etc.  The site can only reflect the views of the people who post to it, and in this case it reflects a great deal of anti-war sentiment.

Please stop suggesting that Bristol IMC volunteers are ignorant of or dismissive of the wrongs of this war (and/or war in general): it is extremely frustrating when we are committing so much of our time to publicising the ongoing anti-war campaign and indeed in taking anti-war action ourselves.

As Bristol IMC volunteers, we reject all systems of domination and discrimination - this is a central aspect of IMC policy and naturally includes oppression by war or other means.  Hopefully I have now made our position on this clear to you.

Where you seem to find particular fault with Bristol IMC is in the aim to keep the focus of the Bristol Indymedia website on grassroots actions and discussions that have a direct connection to Bristol and/or the South West of England, (including the evaluation of national or international situations as they relate to Bristol and/or the South West).  This is not cos Bristol IMC volunteers are 'obsessed with Bristol' (a rather patronising assumption), we all take time to try to better and broaden our understanding of the international socio-political picture.  The focus on Bristol is because this particular website is part of a network of websites each with its own particular geographic focus.  

As you may know from the list, Bristol IMC is currently supporting the establishment of IraqIMC, and this will hopefully be a longterm project through which we will be able to provide some measure of support people in Iraq to commuicate with each other and across the world about what is happening in their country.  If you would like to help with this, that would be great.  

Now, at the risk of being patronising myself, if, once IraqIMC is up and running, the site were to be overrun with postings about Bristol, making it difficult for anyone looking at the site to find news about Iraq, there would no doubt be a problem, and surely you would permit that IraqIMC would have the right to 'hide' (nothing is ever deleted from an IMC site) the non-Iraq-related postings? Well, thats the logic anyway.  I regularly look at the UK and international IMCs to get unadulterated news of whats happening there from people who are there themselves. 

So, the focus of each IMC on a geographical area is not about being insular but about being able to function as part of, and have access to, an international network of postings from informed eyewitnesses in whatever place that IMC has set up - as you yourself say Bristol IMC is "also a part of a wider movement" and thats how all the IMCs work.  

I'm going to pass lightly over the "IT project first and foremost" bit - maybe different people see it differently but for me its simple enough: an IMC is, for me, first and foremost about reclaiming the media from corporate interests, about promoting grassroots action and events in wherever that IMC is situated and offering an independent open forum for use by everyone who wants to use it to find their own voice and tell their own news the way they see it. 

We are trying to update our guidelines at the moment, in an effort to make the purpose of the site clearer, particularly the guidelines around Bristol-focused content.  Its still at draft stage but one of the points made in the editorial policy will be something along the lines of:

"Post will be hidden if they are:
Non-Bristol/South West: posts which have no clear relation to these geographical areas.  Whilst the Bristol Indymedia collective acknowledges that national/world events have an impact upon the people of Bristol/the South West of England, the purpose of Bristol IMC is to share local news.  We aim to raise awareness of the role of UK IMC as an open forum for national news, and the role of other IMCs, as relevant, as open fora for international news.  NB: This does not include articles which analyse the impact or potential impact that national/world events have upon Bristol/the South West of England - postings which articulate such connections are welcome.
For example: 
- a posting about the situation in Iraq would be hidden
- a posting from someone from Bristol relating their experiences in Iraq would not be hidden
- a posting discussing how the amount spent by the UK on bombing Iraq could have funded x amount of hospital care for people in Bristol would not be hidden
The second and third examples make clear the link between local and global concerns."

So, as another example, if you posted an article along the lines of "I, as someone in Bristol, am distressed about the war in Iraq because..." then that posting would of course be welcome because you're making the connection between the global issue and your own life as someone living locally.

I apologise once again if some of the replies you got from me or other volunteers were a bit hasty, and hope that this more full response both makes up for that and answers your concerns about the project.  As you'll quickly find if you do decide to volunteer yourself, we do get abuse coming at us from all sides and are occasionally snappy or flippant by way of reflex response - (which is not very professional but then, we're all equal as media amateurs using the site and usually those baiting us aren't intending to be constructive either - i accept we seem to've been wrong about this in your case).  

For future ref, 'snapping' is particularly likely when people presume to tell us we're ignorant, war-mongering, anti-humanitarian elitists because, as individuals and as a group, we spend much of our time working to educate ourselves and others, take anti-war action, highlight humanitarian issues and fight elitism.  (Similarly, it looks from your perseverance on the issue, that you're not a crank after all, just voicing genuine if unfounded concerns, so it looks like we each got the other all wrong.)

Finally, if you go and click on the 'administration' on the site (left-hand column, third link down after 'search' section) you will see all the hidden articles; a look through some of these usually convinces most people why there is an element of 'hiding' articles going on.

yours, in hope of this bringing us to some shared understanding

kyra