[IndyMedia Bombay] Mission Statement

[PUKAR Secretariat]

This is a tentative mission statement for your review and revision. Please
add/ delete as you see fit and respond before Friday afternoon (IST!). So we
can send it off as a final note:

INDY MEDIA BOMBAY:

As we watch the political situation in our country deteriorate, a lot of us
want a voice - a chance to make a difference - our hope is that Indymedia
here gives concerned people a common platform to interact with eachother and
serves as a catalyst to transform that into real action. Also, a platform
which takes the "freedom of press" away from the few who actually happen to
own the press, to the people - a place where everyone is the media, and
everyone is part of the process of "news reporting" and shaping public
opinion.

Perhaps one of the biggest problems facing our country today is that the
majority of people don’t have a voice, have no way of being heard. While we
fully understand that the internet isn't something the majority has access
to, we will endeavour to give the "silent majority", the powerless and the
down-trodden a voice as far as possible by not restricting the concept of a
"free and independent media outlet" only to the internet.

Indy media Bombay is a forum for students, mediapersons, activists,
academics and other citizens who feel the need for an independent space to
express their ideas, report news, encourage debate and stimulate public
discussion. A space that their own professional structures are unable to
provide.

The tendency of some narrow local, national and global forces to monopolize
public discourse makes it difficult for an open expression of ideas and
political action within the mainstream media and other such public
institutions. Especially those concerned with environmentalism, gender
issues, sexuality, ethnic violence, secularism, freedom of expression,
hunger and deprivation.

Indymedia Bombay hopes to bring in these issues within public attention
through information exchange as well as action. It acknowledges that even
within mainstream structures there are individuals and groups who sympathize
and are willing to act on these issues, provided they can find a space to
operate from. This, in turn, can also shape the way mainstream public
discourse operates and perhaps even radicalize itself.

We also believe that we must be as open and creative as possible in the
articulation of our political vision and use the forum to innovate and
experiment in terms of form as well as content.



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PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action & Research)
P.O. Box 5627
Dadar, Mumbai 400014, India
E-Mail <pukarsecretariat@vsnl.net>
Phone +91 (022) 2077779, +91 98200.45529, +91 98204.04010
Web Site http://www.pukar.org.in