FSM/FMML: CALL FOR ACTIVITIES

The World Forum of Free Media (WFFM) will be present in the World Social Forum (www.wsf2018.org) in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) from March 13 to 17, 2018. The WFFM was born in 2009 as part of the World Social Forums thanks to the coming together of activists seeking to guarantee freedom of expression and the struggle for other forms of communication. After almost ten years, we have organized many activities around the world, including five editions of the Forum at the framework of the WSF, supported by the initiative of the actors like journalists, associations, bloggers, producers of information, NGOs, representatives of social movements, developers of free technologies, etc.

This year, we will be together again, fostering debates and roundtables and contributing to a collaborative coverage of the Word Social Forum in Salvador. You and your organization are, then, invited to be part of this mouvement. If you are going to propose activities in Salvador, related to communication and free media issues, we invite you to difuse them under the banner of the WFFM. Below, you can check some of these workshops, already confirmed by the WSF. Besides workshops and round-tables, the WFFM will support organizing a collaborative live coverage of the WSF to community radios, WSFTV and different websites.

If you want to participate in the collaborative coverage or articulate your workshop with other ones about communication, diffusing it under the banner of the WFFM, please contact us by e-mail until March 4rd: info@fmml.net

For press and free media accreditation: https://pt.surveymonkey.com/r/wsf2018press

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Free media related activities – supported by the WFFM (so far)

a) Launch of WFFM publication “Free Media: challenges, goals and alternatives” : This activity will present a round-table on media alternative and its struggles in a context of growing oppressions, violence and censorship arotund the world. Debate with the authors of the publication from different countries (France, Canada, Brazil). Proposed by: WFFM
b) Future and challenges of the FMML: A workshop to advance the debate about the future of the WFFM, focusing on the challenges involved in building a broad-based ‘free media’ movement. It will involve: clarifying the different priorities and fronts of struggle for the movement; considering how to develop a clearer ‘identity’ that can mobilize new groups to join the WFFM; clarifying the WFFM’s political position in relation to other social justice struggles/struggles against colonialism; reflecting on the different discourses and political positions within the WFFM. Proposed by: WFFM
c) Freedom to inform about multinationals: faced with the trials and pressures of all kinds on the part of multinationals who want to prevent the investigation work concerning them, this workshop will provide testimonials to show how civil societies, and more specifically the media, organize themselves to preserve their freedom of expression and information. Proposed by: Ritimo (France)
d) Workshop on Palestine : Topics will include an introduction to (anti)colonial media from Turtle Island to Palestine and provide an overview of media makers against Apartheid. We will also present a workshop on Radio Free Palestine as a model for cross-border solidarity broadcasting. Proposed by: Laith Marouf and Gretchen King
e) Roundtable on media concentration and democracy: This panel seeks to understand possibilities of research and action for the democratization of communication, including the effects of media concentration on the inhibition of plurality and cultural diversity, as well as its regional and local media developments. In addition, it intends to address issues highlighted in the search for legal guarantees for the affirmation of democratic communication as a human right, as well as to present possibilities for social organizations to deal with the possibilities that arise in the present scenario, such as the sustainability of community broadcasting , the complementarity with other multiplatform environments of multimedia convergence and digital activism in marginalized territories. Proposed by: group of professor Adilson Cabral (UFF)
f) Community TV from Brazil (TV Kirimurê) to Canada (CUTV & CMAC) and other social movement experiences: Activity on exchanging experiences, challenges and networking community TV around the globe. Proposed by: Ciranda, WSFTV, Laith Marouf, Gretchen King and Adilson Cabral
g) Convergence Activity “Communication in defense of the public university. The public university in defense of communication” : The importance of public media for the promotion of diversity and plurality and the role of universities in the construction of the public communication system. Proposed by: Conselho Curador da EBC
h) Roundtable about Community Radios in Africa and Machrek: Contribution of NGOs from Senegal, Niger, Mali, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. Proposed by: E-Joussour
i) II International Ciberfeminist Meeting: decolonizing the Internet: The purpose of the meeting is to create a Network of Cyberfeminists to discuss ways to advocate for feminist activism on the Internet, focusing on privacy and digital security. The idea is to discuss and sensitize feminist leaders and women’s groups that use the Internet on the need for safe spaces, self-defense and critical uses of this communication tool, discussing the possibilities for an inclusive, feminist and antiracist Internet.
j) Launch of the report “Right to Communication – Brazil 2017”: the document raises the main cases of violation of the right to communicate in the country in the last year, such as changes in broadcasting legislation to favor media conglomerates; the privatization of telecommunications services; the dismantling of public communication; and the manipulation of the hegemonic media in the political process in Brazil. Proposed by: Intervozes
l) 2018 Elections and the threaths to freedom of expression: the round table intendes to raise reflections on the role of the mass media, the public media, the alternative media and the Internet in the electoral political debate that will take place in Brazil next October. Topics such as media manipulation, fakenews, diversity and plurality will be under discussion. Proposed by: FNDC (National Forum for Media Democratization)
m) Table of Convergence: Communication, Internet of Things and World of Work. Proposed by: Ciranda, E-changer and Sindycom (Switzerland).