[New-imc] IMC Slovakia

[Michal Cudrnak]

hello to everyone,

i've tried to post the form at newimc three times, but don't know if 
there are any results and instead of waiting i decided to post it 
here. to add something that's missing, i could introduce myself (eg. 
what's my incentive), "the contact name", so you'll know whom you 
will be writing to.
i've been observing, checking etc indymedia for some time, 
impressed by the growth, enthusiasm, internal complexities etc... 
there have been some hints pointing to the posibility (need?) to 
start IMC here in Slovakia, as the mediascape is quite backward in 
my view. but blaming is easy... instead, what about standing up 
and acting. so, after experiencing Indymedia Debate at 
Next5Minutes in Amsterdam last September, the decision to start 
was near. now, the time has come! (whoo, what boosting rhetorics:)
the rest is the form, i'll be glad to hear comments from anyone.

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IMC Name:
Indymedia Slovensko 

City:
Bratislava

Country:
Slovakia

Contact name:
Michal Cudrnák
cudrnak at nm.psg.sk

Technical contact:
Daniel Hromada
hromi at kyberia.sk

supporting_groups: 
Burundi Studio (media lab)
League of Human Rights Advocates (monitoring and reporting
on the human rights situation in Slovakia)
Kyberia.sk (digital community)
Slobodná Alternatíva - Free Alternative (forming activist group)
Slobodná Volba - FFree Choice (NGO attempting to legalize 
marihuana for medical purposes and pushing against police 
repression of innocent users)

critical_dates:
12. march - first meeting
14. march - meeting with people from Hysteria (server for non-
commercial purposes, hosting kyberia.sk for example)

resources:
People, a server with solid webspace and bandwith, some initial 
support (soon to be broadened), starting media lab with (yet to be 
obtained) hardware. To put it shortly, not to waste words in this 
kind of distanced communication medium (form) - we're ready! 
What else could you wish for :) Well, it ain't that perfect, but what 
is? 
Concerning resources we could share - our commitment and 
enthusiasm, video and radio skills, others will come up from the 
process as we learn and realize what else could spread from us to 
the network.

outreach:
It all started on a discussion board on kyberia.sk. As a matter of 
luck, we've met there as people interested in starting slovak secion 
of Indymedia. So there's the core of our group - people who've done 
some Indymedia screenings before, others with campus radio 
background, web journalism... Not all of us can be labeled this way 
- belonging to some group or specific media practice - but everyone 
has some skills to provide. 
As mentioned before, we've already got a server confirmed to host 
the website, so you don't need to care about another local indy 
"exhausting" main indymedia server. 
Concerning groups "outside" - initial contact has been made with 
League of Human Rights Advocates, which you recommend as a 
potential partner for Indymedia in Slovakia. As Mr. Igboanusi, LHRA 
is "ready and willing to be part of the Slovak section of
indymedia and or with the already existing indymedia anywhere in 
the world." If all goes well this could evolve into a interesting 
collaboration - LHRA's local volunteer monitors in Roma 
communities writing themselves the news and publishing them on 
indymedia website.
Other mentioned groups and its members are also users of 
kyberia.sk digital community, so the contact and the will to 
cooperate is not a problem. 


introductory_statement: 
Make your own media! That's the message we want to spread and 
put into practice. Not the only one, of course - there are other 
reasons for us to start Indymedia in Slovakia, like ballancing the 
distorted image of "anti-globalization movement", which got a pretty 
narrow and low publicity in slovak mainstream media. But on the 
other side, our interest stays connected to local events and issues. 
There are and will be many, since Slovakia is only beginning to 
come to grips with what is happening as we enter the "western 
world" - many people are unaware of the other (darker) side of 
westernization. Anyway - we're not about to inform them about 
"real state of things", the aim is to point to certain problems we 
perceive and tell "this is how we see it". Also, there is a humble 
but strong hope that we could help to be a "meeting point" of 
separate activities and groups which operate here in the fields of 
activism, human rights, labour etc. Many of them are diffused and 
not connected, in the sense that they've all got their own websites 
which don't cooperate, so in the end you've got some internet 
resources, but "dissapearing" since not many people are willing to 
surf all of them to get an alternetive to corporate media. Actually 
there's one website (changenet.sk) which kinda does it, but only in 
the sphere of NGO's and that can be somehow limiting (but there's 
collaboration with them underway:)
Internet is the medium of choice, because many other are under 
control of state bureaucracy (almost as anywhere else in the world 
where tight laws prevent diversity in radio or tv stations). We think 
that millions watching the same TV news everyday at 19.00 is a 
perverse but sadly true image of a media landscape, which got so 
much controlled that people gave up their imagination and do not 
even think of alternatives. Feeding people with the same 
information equals to channeling the same reality. We think that 
there are many other options to be explored. Indymedia will be our 
experiment as to how. 

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that's all for now

Michal