Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 09:30:15 -0700 From: Dorothy Kidd <kiddd-AT-gamma.usfca.edu> Subject: AUT: [IMC-News] IMC PRESS RELEASE: RESPONSE TO POLICE RAID ON GENOA >From: imc-news-admin-AT-lists.indymedia.org >X-Sender: evan-AT-turtle.indymedia.org >To: imc-news-AT-indymedia.org >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Reply-To: imc-news-AT-lists.indymedia.org >Subject: [IMC-News] IMC PRESS RELEASE: RESPONSE TO POLICE RAID ON GENOA >SOCIAL FORUM > AND IMC ITALIA OFFICES >Sender: imc-news-admin-AT-lists.indymedia.org >X-BeenThere: imc-news-AT-lists.indymedia.org >X-Mailman-Version: 2.0 >Precedence: bulk >List-Help: <mailto:imc-news-request-AT-lists.indymedia.org?subject=help> >List-Post: <mailto:imc-news-AT-lists.indymedia.org> >List-Subscribe: <http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-news>, > <mailto:imc-news-request-AT-lists.indymedia.org?subject=subscribe> >List-Id: IMC News <imc-news.lists.indymedia.org> >List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-news>, > <mailto:imc-news-request-AT-lists.indymedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >List-Archive: <http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-news/> >Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 22:06:53 -0400 (EDT) > > >------------ please distribute widely -------------- > >Independent Media Center >Ad hoc Genoa Solidarity Committee >www.indymedia.org > >RESPONSE TO POLICE RAID ON GENOA >SOCIAL FORUM AND IMC ITALIA OFFICES > >23 JUNE 2001 > >CONTACT: >Han Soete, IMC-belgium member >han-AT-skynet.be >+ 32 476 533 188 > >Doug Morris, IMC-chicago member >eredgreen-AT-yahoo.com >(847) 657-0182 > >Sheri Herndon, IMC-seattle member >sheri-AT-speakeasy.org >206.261.0184 > >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE > >The Independent Media Center Network (IMC) (http://www.indymedia.org) >demands that independent journalism and journalists be protected from state >repression. We also demand this incident of grave repression be given the >full investigation and scrutiny that it deserves. Reports indicate that >black clad provocateurs were working in conjunction with Italian Military >Police in a vicious attack on peaceful organizers. > >MIDNIGHT RAID IN GENOA > >On early Sunday morning, Italian Police stormed the IMC press office armed >with tear gas and batons. Italian military police and unknown provocateurs >simultaneously raided the school building across the street that has hosted >various groups participating in the Genoa Social Forum (GSF) >(http://www.genoa-g8.org/). > >Persons in the IMC at the time of the raid were forced to stand against the >wall with their hands up while police searched equipment and personal >effects. Reports vary on the number of injuries sustained by IMC staff. >IMC-Italia reports that one IMC reporter from the UK is hospitalized with >serious injuries from the attacks. Materials reportedly seized during the >raid include audio mini disks, video tapes and computer hard drives. Other >reports allege that telecommunications equipment was damaged and/or >destroyed during the raid. In the same building, the police also raided the >Radio Gap radio station and forced it off the air for a short time. > >The neighboring school building hosting GSF organizers was where the worst >violence occurred. Eyewitnesses claim that around 50 black clad provocateurs >first entered the street in front of the school overturning dumpsters and >creating chaos. They then removed their black sweatshirts and entered the >school and began beating those inside indiscriminately; "most of the most >savage beatings were again not done by uniformed police but by characters >dressed in jeans and bandanas and helmets with 'police' written on their >T-shirts...." Hundreds of Italian police sealed off the street and a >helicopter flew low overhead as if on a military operation. Press in >attendance was kept back at a distance. > >Many individuals were awoken from their sleep and lined up along walls, >hands over heads. The ensuing brutal assault lasted over 45 minutes... >Horrible screams from the building could be heard on the streets below. >Afterwards, the floors and walls were covered in blood. Twenty wounded were >carried out, many on stretchers, and three were unconscious (according to >BBC reporter Bill Hayton who was present during the raid). The injured were >taken to ambulances that arrived with the police; reports today indicate >over 50 injured. Police claimed to have authority to enter and search the >building for weapons under Article 41 (an anti-terrorist act). Later an >Italian MP, Luisa Morgantini, arrived and told the police they had no such >authority since the schools resided on state-owned property, it was at this >point the Police and provocateurs left the building. > >The Genoa Social Forum held a press conference Sunday morning concerning the >details of the raid. (see >http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6282). Volunteer lawyers >for activists report that computers were destroyed and that police stole >information during the raid that related to their organizational work, >including the transcripts of testimonies. Materials were also confiscated >from the IMC offices that might have provided legal documentation of police >abuses in the preceding days. One lawyer stated, "The police blitz is >contrary to a state based upon rights and brings in a climate of terror." > >Throughout the day Sunday , the IMC newswire contained reports of continued >police beatings of activists in Genoa, both in the streets and in the >jails... Reports indicate that many injured demonstrators are fearful to >seek treatment in hospitals since the police have been removing people with >unexplained wounds and taking them to jail. At present over 500 hundred >people are missing and unaccounted for. > >A full investigation is called for, concerning the use of violent >provocateurs by police. Reports all weekend in Genoa have asserted that much >of the property destruction and violent provocations were carried out by >individuals apparently working in conjunction with police and dressed like >black clad anarchists. Similar reports have surfaced in past demonstrations >in Prague, Quebec and elsewhere. This disturbing claim and the subsequent >violence and closing of the GSF and IMC demand full attention. > > > >--------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION >----------------------------------------------- > >IMC BACKGROUND: A FREE PRESS NETWORK > >The IMCs, or Indymedia, are a network of independent media organizations and >hundreds of individual journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate >coverage. > >Indymedia is a democratic media outlet with the mission to create radical, >accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. The first IMC was initiated in >Seattle, in the fall of 1999, during the demonstrations against the World >Trade Organization. The center was created to ensure that diverse voices >could be heard with a clarity and focus beyond the usual chatter of the >commercial media soundbite. > >The Indymedia website is an unusual phenomenon in cyberspace: visited by >literally millions, the network has led to the creation of over fifty >collaborative sites in cities all over the world. > >For people in dozens of countries, indymedia.org is news: news that they can >rely on, news that does not have the bias of information/entertainment >corporations who have a stake in maintaining the status quo. The open >publishing software of the web site enables anyone with a basic computer and >modem to post immediately on the news wire, without an intervening editor. >Indymedia has created a model for collaborative work that makes a real >difference. The IMC organizes collaborations between various types of media >(print, photo, video, radio and internet) and between diverse organizations >and individuals. The IMCs are non-hierarchical in nature. The >decisionmaking is by consensus and all participants, including those who can >freely post on the newswire from home, are themselves empowered. > >The growing global justice movement, which is against corporate control of >globalization and for a more democratic and inclusive process of setting the >world's priorities and allocation of resources, has depended on, and >benefitted from, the IMCs to provide breaking and unfiltered coverage of >diverse views, conferences, and demonstrations. > > >HISTORY OF STATE SUPPRESSION OF IMC AND THE FUTURE > >The recent raid on the Indymedia Center in Genoa is the latest in a series >of intimidations and threats to this movement of independent media centers. > >As the Indymedia movement has grown, it has been subject to increasing >repression. From the first days in Seattle, when the IMC received a tear gas >attack, there have been indications that authorities identified the IMC >movement as a target to intimidate and silence. > >At the IMC in LA during the August 2000 Democratic National Convention, a >police raid closed down the satellite van that was scheduled to uplink live >IMC television to a national grassroots community television network. In >Prague, the Czech police raided the IMC offices, harassing and intimidating >journalists and others. During the days preceding the Bush inauguration, DC >police sent spy/provocateur agents to IMC-DC meetings. > >More recently, during the FTAA protests, the FBI visited the Seattle IMC >with a request for all computer logs and a gag-order injunction demanding >that no news of the request be made public on the net. The IMC in Quebec >also suffered police harassment and an attack in which tear gas was fired >into the center. Less than a month later, shortly after the Cincinnati >uprising over police brutality last spring, police served an order on a >coordinator at the Ohio Valley IMC, also requesting records and tape logs >and to appear before a Grand Jury. > >The IMC gained a victory for the independent press community when these >injunctions were withdrawn by the FBI after The Electronic Frontier >Foundation, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Electronic Privacy >Information Center intervened to support the IMCs. > >The IMC global network will continue to fight hard to protect the rights of >independent journalists around the world and to ensure that the voices of >our many diverse communities are accurately and respectfully covered and >made available to the rest of the world. As stated in Article 19 of the >Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to the >freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold >opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information >and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." > >CONTINUING IMC COVERAGE > >For ongoing coverage of the Genoa protests, stay tuned to IMC-Italia >http://italia.indymedia.org, and global IMC, http://www.indymedia..org. > >Eyewitness accounts of the IMC and GSF raids. >http://sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102064 >http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=8871 > >An IMC NEWS BLAST will be released Tuesday for summary, news and updates on >the protests in Genoa. Here's the link to the first one: >http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-news/2001-July/000228.html. > >Also see: >Indymedia radio broadcasts: http://radio.indymedia.org/ >Indymedia print summaries (in distributable newsletter/flier format): >http://print.indymedia.org >IMC sites are providing detailed coverage include (see global website Left >column for links): France, UK, Belgium, Barcelona, Switzerland, Germany, >Austria, IMC-Sweden, Brasil, Argentina, Chicago, and New York City. > > > >_______________________________________________ >imc-news mailing list >imc-news-AT-lists.indymedia.org >http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-news > Dorothy Kidd Department of Media Studies University of San Francisco 2130 Fulton St. San Francisco, CA 94117-1080 TEL 415-422-5061 FAX 415-422-5680 E-MAIL kiddd-AT-usfca.edu --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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