Against Corporate and State Control

Media and journalism scholars have been addressing critical issues and underlining the importance of free journalism and free information through disseminating research findings and using classroom education as a tool of critical pedagody praxis. This year, we witnessed that they also formed a petition as an outcome of research conference titled Freedom of Information Under Pressure. Control – Crisis – Culture which was held in Vienna. The participants of the conference are not limited with academics and researchers, but also include media practitioners, activists, librarians, lawyers and policy makers.

Even though the conference presenters were mainly from Europe, the scope of the conference and the final petition are beyond Europe. In fact, the main focus of the conference was the challenge of freedom of information, and was related with the recent surveillance revelations and the following control of journalists and whistle-blowers in Europe and beyond.

The conference theme announces that:

We consider Edward Snowden’s revelations as a wake up call. His story is not about one man leaking classified information; rather it is about privacy, civil liberties, power and democracy. But also about the future of the Internet itself, the nature of democratic oversight – and much more.

We condemn the existence of a surveillance-industrial complex, in which the American, British and other European states’ intelligence services conduct mass surveillance of the Internet, social media, mobile and landline telephones, in co-operation with communications corporations such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Skype, Yahoo!, Aol as well as private security firms.

We express our solidarity and support to whistle-blowers, journalists and organisations, including Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian and others, for their efforts towards fostering transparency and public accountability. We denounce their oppression and prosecution that we consider as a major threat to freedom of information.

Here is the petition open to sign. The participants of the Future of News and Participatory Media are invited to sign the petition and inform the people about the petition:

We call for media reforms and a deeper and more sustained public discourse that equip critical, alternative, independent and public service media with adequate resources, help establishing a resource-base for alternative Internet, social media, software and open access projects, and limit the dominance of advertising culture in the media and on the Internet. We also call for legal and safety protections for news journalists, mechanisms that protect users from the commodification of personal data, and put in place effective measures to safeguard free and independent media as well as journalists’ and citizens’ physical safety against violence and harassment.