Fifth Estate Coming Together...

“Globalisation now also means the globalisation of the mass media and the communications-information companies. These big companies are preoccupied with growth, which means that they have to develop relations with the other estates in society, so they no longer claim to act as a fourth estate with a civic objective and a commitment to denouncing human rights abuses” says Ignacio Ramonet in his 2003 article “Set the Media Free”

"And even when they do constitute a fourth estate, that estate is just an adjunct to the existing political and economic estates and operates as a supplementary, media power to crush people".

The answer to the questions of "How do we react to all of this? How can we defend ourselves?" is simple, says Ramonet: "We have to create a new estate, a fifth estate, that will let us pit a civic force against this new coalition of rulers. A fifth estate to denounce the hyperpower of the media conglomerates which are complicit in, and diffusers of, neo-liberal globalization".

Le Monde diplomatique editor-in-chief Ramonet had suggested the setting up Media Watch Global (L'Observatoire international des médias) as a practical measure and the first steps towards this were taken at the Fourth World Social Forum.

At the International Independent Media Forum that will gather in Istanbul this weekend, we will have the opportunity to learn what has been realized in this field after three years. Is a "Fifth Estate" truly coming together, are the conditions of to pit against the neo-liberal globalization attack both at global and local level turning into a reality?

From Europe to Middle East, Eurasia to Latin America

The Forum that will be launched with Ramonet's speech is to provide the opportunity of free debate for tens of people who do not suffice with "interpreting the world", who are in an effort for the world to change, for the style of carrying out journalism and reporting to be transformed and for potentials of criticism to be returned to communication education.

Quite different conduits from the world and Turkey who share similar concerns, "media activists" who work in very different areas and at different levels are acceding to IPS Communication Foundation's appeal and will attempt to give an answer based on their own experiences to the question that shines over the forum: "Another communication is possible" but how?

Journalists, academics, students and activists from every region in Turkey, from Rome, Tiflis, Paris, Zonguldak, Athens, Izmir, Nicosia, Istanbul, Berlin, Uskup, Gaze, Samsun, Bogota, Ankara, New York, Venice, Caracas, London, Eskisehir, Mugla, Manavgat, Mersin, Diyarbakir, Yerivan, Belgrade, Baku, Jerusalem and Beirut will come together on November 4-5 at the Istanbul Bilgi University Dolapdere campus for this goal.

In the panels and group debates there will be some who are known to everyone as well as others whose names have been heard by no one yet but all with experiences and opinions that are as valuable as the others.

The list is long. The curious can visit the forum site on forum.bianet.org get more detailed information but if you want an idea, the legends of independent and alternative media Ramonet and DeeDee Halleck as well as legendary publications such as Il Manifesto and Tageszeitung will be there alongside communication students Gokce Susam and Selma Arslantas, the multi-partnership Birgun and the Express.

Communication faculty deans Ozden Cankaya and Sevda Alankus will sharing the same forum platform with Mehmet Can Toprak and Erol Onderoglu who have never had communication education. One of the oldest and most knowledgeable personalities of journalism in Turkey, Hifzi Topuz , one of the youngest assistants Mutlucan Sahan, journalists from Yerevan and Baku, Gaze and Tel Aviv, North and South Cyprus, Athens and Konya will be there.

The International Independent Media Forum is open to everyone: For those who are in every moment of the communication process to hear each other and to learn from each other. That, in effect, is the meaning of the event being a forum.

As for the organizing IPS Communication Foundation workers, this will be the crown of the "Establishing a Countrywide Network for Monitoring and Covering for Media Freedom and Independent Journalism-BİA²" project that has been continuing for three years. This is a big organization. If we can succeed this, we can rightly host the Olympics too.

Can the media transform from within, how can it be another kind?

Pandora's Box will open with "New Global Mainstream Media Environment Limits and Challenges". From those who look at the role of the mass media as an "instrument of war" from the inside, we will hear: Is there a possibility for this instrument of war of the rich on the poor, of men on women, of the unjust on the rightful to be transformed internally?

Humanity is so lucky that it is not confined to only a single alternative in communication. Bringing together small efforts and means, opening windows and doors to people to exchange and make sense out of their experiences, the independent media will show how another communication is possible.

The second session of day one will bring together experiences that are each an adventure on their own from spokesmen of Acik Radio, AMARC ; Bianet , Birgun, Deepdish TV, Al Jazeera, Evrensel , Il Manifesto , Inter Press Service , OurMedia , Tageszeitung , TeleSur , Express, Ulkede Ozgur Gundem , Ozgur Radyo andKAOS_GL who will be debating "Independent Media Environment and Prospects for non-Mainstream" which may well bring about new opportunities of solidarity between continents and regions.

The second day will allow us to witness two lifelines of Turkish news reporting: Local reporters and the reporters of the future, and the opportunities offered for another communication by the experiences and criticisms of communication students. We have many rightful reasons to expect sparks of truth to come out of the encounter between the Academy and local reporters, students and teachers.

Peace and social gender

And a new field of news reporting experience both for Turkey and the world: Debates on news reporting based on peace and social gender will allow us to take into consideration the possibilities and successes of a media that operates outside of the language, shape and context that has the lasting marks of male domination, sexism, racism, nationalism and homophobia.

Photograph exhibitions, stands, student work and film screenings will be accompanied by the opportunity to listen to two Lebanese performers, Umayma El-Halil and Hani Siblini who will voice the inspiration of the people of Beirut who have braced Israeli attacks. The Sema from Istanbul will follow as the forum comes to an end not only with Turkish and Arabic songs, but songs and melodies of all of the languages of our region. The forum will produce two appeals: Action and Monitoring appeal for mass media, action and monitoring appeal for Another Media.

The days of November 4 and 5 will give an unique opportunity to those who want the world to change to witness, once again, that they are not alone, nor helpless and definitely not unsuccessful.

The world cannot change in two days of course. But two days is not a short time for those who want to change it to learn of the thousand and one ways they can equip themselves with information about the world. (EK/ II/YE)