Press release:

MEDIACHANNEL.ORG LAUNCHES NEW CENTER IN EUOPE
Appeals to Media Activists To Join and Promote Media & Democracy Movement


Having just returned from the Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Journalists, I learned how seriously media professionals and union officials in at least 27 countries consider the erosion of quality journalism and the intensification of media consolidation.

A media and democracy citizens movement is needed to ally with the unions and all concerned organizations. Mediachannel always aspired to become a global “platform” for media debate and mbilization

Mediachannel.org is committed to building a presence in Europe with a new base in Geneva, Switzerland under the coordination of radio correspondent and activist Mark Stenzler.  In collaboration with our New York office Mark is circulating the appeal below to people concerned with the threats to media freedom in Europe.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact: Mark@mediachannel.org
Please circulate this appeal to all organizations and individuals who might be interested in working with our non-for profit global media and democracy network

We support this initiative and appeal to our many friends, readers and affiliates in Europe to help us build a European Center.

We have no funding for this project yet and welcome suggestions and institutions we might approach for support.

Media professionals are informed about the trends.  Media consumers and citizen groups are not doing all they could.

We have a lot of work to do,

PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS APPEAL IF YOU CAN HELP!


MEDIACHANNEL.ORG CENTER/EUROPE
c/o Mark Stenzler
Rue Gustave-Moynier 1
1202 Geneva, Switzerland
Mark@mediachannel.org

BRING THE MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT TO EUROPE

Dear friends,

I am writing to invite you to join us in a new not-for profit media initiative aligned with an emerging global media and democracy movement and to announce the development of the Media Channel Center/Europe based in Geneva with a multi-national approach and strategy.

My name is Mark Stenzler, a US/Swiss citizen who has lived and worked in Switzerland for some 20+ years.  I have been a radio correspondent, executive at various technology companies, and particle physics researcher. I am very worried about what is happening to the global media system and I want to do something about. The impressive Media Channel, the world’s largest online media issues network with 1300 affiliates worldwide has asked me to coordinate activity here in Europe that can have an impact in getting us talking about the threats we are facing and what we can do  about them. (http:/www./mediachannel.org),

There is a spectre haunting Europe once again. It is the spectre of media monoplies in the American mould which are already undermining our political culture in some countries and threatening to transform it in others. We are not immune from the corporate pressures gathering steam across the Atlantic that are targeting our media traditions and cultural environment.

The era of the dominance of public service broadcasting is ending with quality news in jeopardy, and investigative journalism at risk. Both globalization and privatization have opened our markets up to more trivialization, tabloidization, non-stop sports and celebrity fare. What media scholars call a ‘dumbing down process” is evident and the coming convergence of the internet and television does not promise a braver media world. More choices do not mean more voices. Twenty-four hour news channels with their constant repetition and recycling of  headlines and quick sound bites often appear to cover more while actually delivering less.

For years a free media was seen as a guarantor of democracy and as the alternative to authoritarian state-run systems that substituted propaganda for news, and official ideology for culture. Today, as the media system increasingly dances to the music of markets and the bottom line, there has been a disturbing rise in jingoism, demagoguery and an erosion of real democratic debate.

This is why the media and democracy movement is coming to Europe. We need a movement that will resist these trends and inform the public about the need to defend media that matters and oppose the “Berlusconi-ization of  our continent. What has happened to Italian media is echoing elsewhere. The growth of the Murdoch approach, cutbacks in documentaries, the spread of smaller and smaller format tabloid newspapers and threats to the BBC by the BBC top management to “add more fun” and curb so-called “worthy programming” are having a serious effect on the European and global media landscapes

Media problems tend to start out as a set of complaints but then quickly become important issues. That is exactly what is happening now. We need to respond with a pan-European approach that is committed to not only “media without borders”, but also to public education on media issues and proposals to preserve what is working and encourage innovation and freedom.

Rather than spell out my ideas for programs we might do including our own website and forums, I sharing this call to action with interested friends in many countries to who would be interested in forming an organizing group with me so that we can create an acceptable process for translating what I see as a need into a practical agenda

I look forward to your participation in this most important endeavor. If you resonate with the issue, please share your ideas, contact details and some indication of your skills and no more than three suggestions. I think we can “grow” this idea into a significant force of concerned citizens with a network of supportive organizations.

I hope to hear from you, sooner rather than later

Signed

Mark

MISSION

Our mission is to promote media freedom, responsibility, accountability and transparency. We want citizens to treat media as an issue, not just a complaint.  We want to encourage media outlets to create more points of access for citizens and support initiatives for social change and social responsibility by governments and business. The media must serve the public, not just its owners and entrenched bureaucracies.

Mediachannel.org/Europe will have four interrelated goals. First, to create a platform for interested media-oriented and pro-democracy organizations on the Continent to find out about each other's work,  and learn from each other's experience. We do not seek to compete with existing organizations in any way.

Second, to offer diverse perspectives from and about the media in the form of media criticism and education, digested media news, original reports, reprinted and aggregated articles and available resources.

Third, to encourage media activism through forums, petititions, e-mail campaigns to encourage the public to speak up. And finally to support media freedom campaigns and media employees and others working for media reform.
 
We will begin by reaching out to \existing organizations and offering support and additional visibility for their work. We will seek to link our proposed website with others already involved in aspects of this work. We will also reach out to diverse communities in Europe who want to be more accurately represented in the media.

We will form an advisory group and invite like-mined people to join us.

Share your ideas and contacts with us.

Write Mark@mediachannel.org and Dissector@Mediachannel.org