The latest IMF protests are taking place in Prague, and the new "democratic" is proving itself to be only slightly less repressive than the old Communist one. Click HERE for the latest.
The greatest power of the Internet was always its decentralized structure and (relatively) easy access to information and information technology. The old adage "freedom of the press belongs to those who own the presses" is less true in an electronic age where everyone, in effect, owns their own printing press.
And while not everyone has access to these powerful new technologies (there are still many unresolved issues regarding information rich/information poor areas), their potential was demonstrated recently during the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle last October. Independent media groups from the U.S. and several other nations reported on the demonstrations with a depth and clarity sorely lacking in the mainstream media. Their reports exposed the shallow lies and half-truths regularly seen on the Evening News (like this video of a demonstrator run over by a police motorcycle -- where was Dan Rather's report on that?!).
In honor of this new wave of reporting, we give the Ter-ROO-fic award to www.indymedia.org. Indymedia is a brilliant cooperative effort between independent and non-governmental journalists from around the world. Go to their site for an archive of reports on Seattle, and for coverage on this week's demonstrations against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington, D.C. (And for more information on these protests, check out the A-16 [April 16th] Organization home page at www.a16.org.)
Regardless of where you stand on these issues, you owe it to yourself to see what independent voices are saying about these important current events. Check out their reports, and compare the coverage of the same events to what you see on Disney-owned ABC News, for example. I think you will find it very enlightening.
Happy viewing!
Live World Bank and IMF Protest Coverage (56k streaming mp3)
(Live MP3 streams require winamp to listen in.)
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