User:Jezhotwells/bristol indymedia

Bristol Indymedia, also known as Bristol Independent Media Collective or BIMC, like the wider Indymedia network, provides a mix of news and articles that often tend towards a left-wing, progressive or anarchistic perspective. Bristol Indymedia volunteers have also produced films and run regular film nights at the Cube Microplex.

About BIMC
Bristol Indymedia welcomes "participation and contributions from everyone who feels they have something constructive to add", adding "With just 3 media monoliths (BBC, Granada who own HTV West, and Daily Mail & Trust who own the Evening Post, Venue, Metro and the Western Daily Press) dominating the 'free speech' in Bristol, how can democracy flourish? Some people join Bristol Indymedia as part of a commitment to media democracy and democratic media". Bristol Indymedia volunteers have talked about the problems of balancing their roles as moderators with the open publishing ethos of the site, "Being an open publishing system it is ripe for abuse - and it happens a lot but we try and keep on top of it."

Opinions vary; a few users of Bristol Indymedia believed the project was not living up to its ideas and used the site to say so, "Bristol Indymedia deletes some posts and hides others." However other indicators point to a successful media project: Local Magazine Venue called the project, "Potentially the most radical local media development in 100 years." . The site's Google ranking when searching for the term 'Bristol' alone lists Bristol Indymedia frequently in the top 10, often overtaking other more mainstream local media outlets such as BBC Bristol. Other commentators regard Bristol Indymedia as having promise but not being quite ready yet, remarking that the site, "...is also used by a lot of people with eccentric and fringe beliefs, but sometimes picks up some really interesting developments."

A History of BIMC and Related Events
In August 2001, as an offshoot of the tech2 festival at the Cube Cinema Microplex and other venues around Bristol, a group of DIY media types, community activists and other interested people met upstairs at the Hatchet pub, Bristol, and began to set out a role for a possible Indymedia website for Bristol. By September 2001, the site was up and running.

During and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq Bristol Indymedia "gave an open forum to anti-war voices", stated the World Association for Christian Communication, further commenting "Local media have also come under scrutiny. It is interesting to note that the site is frequently visited by the local mainstream media as well as other institutions such as the police and council; indeed the police have been known to post articles on the site. It is arguably inevitable that local media would come under such scrutiny given its one-way consumption method. As such lively debate frequently explodes on the accuracy, impartiality and quality of the mainstream media."

As part of an outreach plan, Bristol Indymedia organised a 'Community Media Day' on 14 June 2003. The collective felt the event was a success and so planned another for the next year. In 12 June 2004 Bristol Indymedia a second 'Community Media Day' was also held at the Cube Cinema, which brought together local media outlets such as The Spark, Bristle as well as national groups such as Undercurrents and Talkiokie. Both events were intended to be both a platform for debate on independent media as well as a skill sharing opportunity.

Server Seizure
On 27 June 2005 the Bristol Indymedia server was taken off line by the police due to a vandal using it to boast of his activities and inciting others to do likewise. The seizure of the server was carried out under a search warrant (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, ss.8 and 15). The police also arrested a Bristol Indymedia volunteer for the common law offence of "incitement to criminal damage." The raid removed a computer that also hosted a number of other sites including Euskalinfo (a Basque news service) and Wildfire, the blog of a prominent Bristol peace activist Jo Wilding. Following the seizure the Bristol Indymedia collective released a statement saying, "We are outraged at the actions of the police. They have completely disabled the entire Bristol Indymedia news service...This situation has serious implications for anyone providing a news service on the Internet."

On 26 October 2005 the police returned the seized equipment. By January 2006 the police had not charged the arrested volunteer with the offence they were arrested for and had decided that no further action is to be taken. During the server seizure many local groups and individuals responded warmly to Bristol Indymedia's plight with solidarity and donations. On 24 September 2007 representatives of Bristol Indymedia met with British Transport Police to discuss the seizure and arrest further. At the meeting the police confirmed that they have not found anything on the computers seized that would have led to the vandal. On May 2008, in a news statement on the website, the Bristol Indymedia Collective announced that the police had agreed to pay £190 in compensation for a damage done to a computer during the raid as a 'ex-gracia' payment.

Bristol Indymedia Ongoing
Bristol based activists, using the name 'digital antifa', used the site to announce on 14 April 2006 that the UK based Neo-Nazi group November 9 Society had been taken out. Following this, on 15 May 2006 the then leader of the Neo Nazi group, Kevin Quinn posted on the site that he had been looking for the BIMC collective to, "Last night I visited Bristol to thank the people from Indimedia for closing my website down...I went in the two pubs you normally hold it [the BIMC meetings] but I did not see anyone that appeared to be holding any meeting of any importance at all. I will most definitely be coming again." The BIMC collective took this as a threat an issued a statement in response, "It is a common misconception that Indymedia writes the stories posted onto its newswire...Indymedia is not responsible for shutting down the N9S website...However given the nature of Quinn's 'politics' this 'visit' appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate a news site that carried stories he did not like...We will be meeting as normal.." Reports from the indymedia volunteers to attended the meeting say there was no sign of Quinn or N9S, though sporadic messages attributed to the group in question were still posted on the site for some time after.

In December 2006 the Bristol Indymedia Collective published an article on the site entitled 'Future Directions'. This article suggested a number of future directions that the site could progress in. These included BIMC Wiki Public Pages, a printed version of the site, an expanded calendar, adding blogs to the site and changing the site's name and focus to the wider 'West Country IMC'. At a public meeting to discuss these ideas a number of days later, the collective decided to enact the adding of a blogging system to the site that would allow people to create an ad-free blog and syndicate the posts directly to the Bristol Indymedia site.

In February 2008 Bristol Indymedia launched a new version of the site. Under the headline 'Bristol Indymedia's Radical Revamp' the sites administrators declared, "Today we unveil a fully upgraded website. The new site, which encourages readers to post their own local news stories, offers expanded facilities for posting news from all regions of the South West, an improved calendar, better facilities to upload images, video and audio content, a cleaner site design, easier access to the information and more scope for the site to expand." The pace of progress in 2008 continued with the launch of the web-based recycling system 'Indycycle' in May and a printed quarterly newsletter containing stories published to the site, Hard Copy.

Media comment
In 2008, the BBC Bristol website listed Bristol Indymedia amongst Other local news providers and referred to it as "Another source of alternative news in the city" in 2005. Bristol City Council list BIMC forums as a Useful recycling and rubbish website.

The Bristol communications consultancy Montage Communications' PR Bristol blog has cited how Bristol Indymedia breaks local news stories using the example of the story about Bristol City Council's spending of £20,000 on a DVD explaining recycling which was covered by the Bristol Evening Post after first being revealed on the Indymedia site. Columnist and activist George Monbiot has cited Bristol Indymedia in an article on the peace activists who who protested at USAF Fairford against the Iraq War and were discharged after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Other Indymedia Centres
Bristol Indymedia is just one of many Independent Media Centres. They started with a vision for a global, open network of DIY journalists and alternative media activists. It was and remains closely associated with the anti-globalization movement, which criticizes neoliberalism, NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. The overall network is decentralized to the extent that the local IMC's operate independently once they are authenticated into the IMC network.