Author: Leonid Ilijc Brezhnev Date: Subject: [Cerchio] WSF - Protest letter by indymedia Brasil
>=ABOPEN LETTER TO WORLD SOCIAL FORUM ORGANIZERS AND THE ALTERNATIVE >MEDIA COMMUNITY=BB
>
> Sao Paulo, November 30 2002
>
> We are greatly amazed by a message we received by the organizers of
>the the third World Social Forum outlining the criteria for press
>accreditation and access to the press room during the upcoming event.
>
> The message states that alternative media organizations will receive
>a different accreditation than that granted to financial and corporate
>media. This differential accreditation will not allow alternative
>media organizations to access the press room which has all the needed
>resources to cover the event, such as access to the internet and an
>infrastructure for audio and video coverage.
>
> The message sent by the WSF organizers states the following: " We
>will provide an alternative accreditation to communication
>professionals who are not journalists or that do not have the proper
>documentation (i.e. journalism students, professionals working for
>newsletters and communityt media outlets, independent documentary
>makers and professioanal freelance photographers). This alternative
>accreditation will grant access to panel discussions and press
>conferences but will not grant access the press support infrastrcture
>(press room). Access to this room will only be granted to people who
>present concrete projects for covering the WSF 2003."
>
> We think it is nonsenssical for the World Social Forum to subsidize
>a corporate press with vast resources, and at the same time prevent
>the an alternative press with known scarce resources to access and use
>the press room. This decision is an absurdity that contradicts the
>values supposedly upheld by the World Social Forum. If the press room
>is to small or without enough equipment to support everybody, the only
>reasonable course of action is to also subsidize alternative and
>community media. This is especially fitting because alternative and
>community media struggle for media democracy and against the virtual
>monopoly of the 4 or 5 companies that undermine democracy in this
>country =BB
