Free Culture Media

Examples

Reboot FM, Berlin, Germany

See especially Reboot Spark FM of Andrea Goetzke, which has english-language material and interviewees!

Magnus Lawrie:

"Such collaborative, democratic forms are a critical aspect of the envisaged peer-to-peer future. RebootFM is an established cultural radio station op- erating in Berlin, Germany. Since June 2010, 85 participating artists have released over 500 self-produced radio programmes. The station claims nearly 3000 followers on Facebook and Twitter and its programmes are also sourced as content for a number of commercial radio stations. RebootFM’s website states,

”The non-commercial frequency 88.4 MHz, gives different radio groups in Berlin the possibility to produce independent, non-commercial radio, longer and more continuously than was previously the case...new formats and meth- ods will be developed around connecting the variety of the city’s creative production to a wider and more international listener group” (RebootFM 2011)." (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)

LaTele - Catalonia, Spain

Magnus Lawrie:

"In Catalonia, LaTele is a third-sector organisation of ’L’Assemblea per la Communicaci Social’ (ACS). ACS was established in 2003 with ”...the aim of creating television of social movements and to criticize and transform the dominant model of communication”. LaTele, self-described as ”the free television and television community of social movements of Barcelona” (LaTele 2011), broadcasts online and - since April 2011 - on TDT channel 37, to Barcelona and nearby. The emergence of this citizen television and campaign to ’occupy the waves’ is ”...creating channels of horizontal communication, collectively owned and managed by the organisations, groups and individuals involved in social criticism and transformation” (LaTele 2011), from which ’programming intiatives’ emerge. http://latele.cat/

From its position in the third-sector, ACS seeks changes in legislation relating to non-profit media:

”The current system of broadcasting only leaves space for public media controlled by political parties, media and private business controlled by a few business groups. We want to debate this model and participate in defining a new framework that leaves space for collective forms of communication and community, where citizenship is not just passive audience or consumer...” (LaTele 2011)" (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)

Other catalan experiences

• Radio Contrabanda: www.contrabanda.org/
• Radio Bronka: www.radiobronka.info/
• Radio Pica: www.radiopica.net/
• Radio RSK: http://www.radiorsk.info/
• Radio Línea IV: http://radiolinea4.net/

• Al Païs valencià:
  • Pluralia (tv per Internet): www.pluralia.tv/
  • Radio Clara: www.radioklara.org

Spanish State

• La Red de medios comunitarios (REMC), on estan agrupats els mitjans lliures i comunitaris: www.medioscomunitarios.net/

Catalyst Radio

URL= http://www.catalystradio.org

Sy Taffel:

Catalyst Radio is a "UK wide radical radio network that collectively uses a single Internet platform for the streaming of live and pre-recorded radio content presenting points of view generally diverging from those of the more established, and mainstream, media.

Given its political and techno-social foundations, Catalyst is designed to encourage and multiply independent, DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIT (do-it-together) media production, specifically radio, as well as connect and support radical radio makers and media enthusiasts. Moreover, it has been set up to be owned and operated by its community, namely those broadcasting on it, organising it, participating in it, and listening to it." (http://www.catalystradio.org/pages/about-us)

Global level AMARC

www.amarc.org/

Creativos Conecta2

URL = http://creativosconecta2.tv/

Amaia Marcos:

"a recently launched Spanish language project aiming to promote free culture and become an information and education channel for creating free cultural and artistic products. It also aims to increase the use of free culture licensing such as Creative Commons, Copyleft and others. Creativos Conecta2 promotes work by artists using such licenses during their internet TV programs. The program has 2 weekly segments: “Pensamiento Libre” (Free Thinking) with news about Free Culture and “Creador Libre” (Free Creator) showcasing artists using free licenses in their work. There is also a bi-weekly segment “Documentos Libres” (Free Documents) with micro-documentaries on related topics.

Musicians, VJs, film directors, free software and hardware creators, writers and free licensing creatives in general are invited to participate in the project, working together towards strengthening the community and advocating for freedom of expression as a means for social development." (http://creativosconecta2.tv/)

Indymedia

URL = http://indymedia.org

Sy Taffel:

Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. There are currently over one hundred and fifty Independent Media Centers around the world. Each IMC is an autonomous group that has its own mission statement, manages its own finances and makes its own decisions through its own processes. The first Indymedia site and collective was formed in 1999 in Seattle to create an Independent Media Center to cover protests against the World Trade Organization. The Seattle IMC provided coverage of the WTO through both a printed publication called "The Blind Spot" and the first IMC web site. The web site received almost 1.5 million hits during the WTO protests. Since then the network has steadily grown to include collectives on every continent.

Indymedia collectives all adhere to the "principles of unity" (http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/PrinciplesOfUnity) and utilise forms of "open publishing" (http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/static/openpublishing.html), creating a platform for people to directly communicate their news, comments and events with their peers. Indymedia sites also employ copyleft or creative commons licensing for the materials which are published, allowing reuse of journalistic work. Indymedia sites also take security seriously, and do not log IP addresses of users, allowing anonymous posting which affords users a space to communicate around direct actions without fear of police subsequently seizing the server and obtaining an IP address with which to identify and prosecute activists. Numerous essays about Indymedia can be found at (http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection)

Discussion

Status, June 2011, by Magnus Lawrie:

"To the degree that RebootFM and LaTele are institutions emerging from within the existing society, they can be identified as germ forms. Significantly, neither of these organizations eschew state financial support, though in the event only Reboot receives money (whilst ACS and LaTele are wholly self-supporting). In the current climate both are precarious positions to maintain. In the case of rebootFM, threats are in the form of proposed cuts to the job placements which enable many of the stations programmers to participate - a radio programme was devised to discuss this very issue. In the case of LaTele, a 30 second video titled ’we are not afraid of your pistol’ (LaTele 2011), unflinching shows the programme makers’ own situation. This video, of 27th May 2011, is taken on Barcelona’s Placa Catalunya: The camera pans sideways to frame a policeman of the notoriously brutal ’Mossos’; He faces the camera and wears full riot gear; The camera zooms to the man’s waistbelt, where a gun sits ready in his unclipped holster." (http://ditch.org.uk/download/forms_and_modes_free_software_society.pdf)