Press Freedom Conference & Alternative News Media Exposition

PRESS FREEDOM CONFERENCE &
ALTERNATIVE NEWS MEDIA EXPOSITION
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
APRIL 27-29 2001
SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY

THE EXPOSITION HALL WILL BE OPEN SATURDAY FROM 10-5:00 & SUNDAY FROM 10:00-4:00 WITH OVER 100 ALTERNATIVE NEWS MEDIA EXHIBITERS

Registration on Line at http://www.projectcensored.org/intro.htm or call 707-664-2500
Full Conference Registration $50, Student/low-income $25
Daily Admittance: $10.00 or $7.00 student/low-income

Friday April 27^th
Cesar Chavez Student Union, San Francisco State University

CONFERENCE RECEPTION AND REGISTRATION
7:00 to 10:00 PM
- Robin Andersen: Fordham University, Host/MC
- Charles Klotzer: Editor-publisher emeritus, St Louis Journalism Review, Speaker
Music by Larry Shaw
Poetry by: Keith Antar Mason: Artistic director: The Hittite Empire
Reception and Celebration for Project Censored and Media Alliance's 25^th Anniversaries
Music, Cake, Food, and No-host Beer and Wine
Open to all Registered Conference participants, SFSU & SSU volunteers
$15 at the door for public

Saturday April 28^th

San Francisco State University Gymnasium Complex

7:30-10:00 AM Exhibitor Set-up in SFSU Gym Complex
Exposition Hall opens to the public at 10:00 AM
$10.00 Daily Admission $7.00 Student/low-income

KEYNOTES, PANELS AND WORKSHOPS:

10:00-11:15 AM, Gym 118
PANEL: Media Activism in the Fight Against Domestic Militarization and the Prison
Industrial Complex
- Facilitated by Michelle Foy of California Prison Focus and the California Prison Moratorium Project.
- Rose Braz, director of Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex.
- Jose Palafox: PhD student in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, immigrant rights activist and co-producer of the film "New World Border".
- Ed Mead, Former political prisoner and co-founder of Prison Legal News

10:00 to 11:15 AM, Women's gym
PANEL: The Decline of the Media in the New World Order
Chair: Louis Hiken, National Lawyer's Guild Committee on Democratic Communications,
How to build a political movement when corporations own the means of communications
- Sara Flounders, Founder and co-director of the International Action Center, Opposition to US Corporate Wars: Need to create a movement that does not rely on the corporate media.
- Peter Sussman, Author/Journalist: Co-author with prison writer Dannie Martin of' "Committing Journalism." True Crime:The Censors and the Sensationalists

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10:00- 11:15, Gym 123
Working Groups - Indymedia
IMC Organizer Working Group: plan facilitation and prepare for the IMC Welcome session

10:15 to 11:30, Gym 114
FILM: Storm from the Mountain: The Zapatistas Take Mexico City
An Indymedia Production by Big Noise Films, The Chiapas Media Project and Paper Tiger TV for Free speech TV

10:30-11:3, Gym 116
WORKSHOP: Independent Press Association: Information

10:30-11:45, Chavez Student Union, Rosa Parks Room
WORKSHOP: Psychiatric Drug Corporations. Human Rights and the Media
- David Oaks, Director: Support Coalition International
- Sally Zinman, Director: California Network of Mental Health Clients

10:30-11:45, Exhibit Hall East
WORKSHOP: Labor Media and Technology
Chair: Steve Zeltzer, Labor Video Project
- Wes Brain of SEIU Local 503 and a labor video producer
- Carl Bryant, Producer, Letter Carriers TV214

11:30-12:45, Gym 118
PANEL: Indymedia: Since Seattle, Where are we headed?
- Sheri Herndon, Seattle IMC Moderator, How the IMC got started: video clip from "Showdown in Seattle" Inside the Seattle IMC
- Luz: Chiapas IMC. Video clip of the recent Zapatista march to Mexico City
- Lynea Diaz-Hagan, New York IMC : video clips, "Not My President" Anti-inaugural Bush Protests.
- Shane Korytko, Canada/Argentina IMC', Video clip of protests in Quebec City
- Rachel Rinaldo, Coordinator of "Indymedia Newsreal

11:30-12:45, Women's Gym
PANEL: Is There Room For Progressives on Commercial Radio?
Chair: Peter Werbe, Detroit Michigan
- Louie Free, Youngstown, Ohio
- Pat Thurston, KSRO Santa Rosa, California
- Francisco Aruca, President of Radio Progreso, Inc
-Media Manipulation and the Politics of Fear:  The Miami Experience

11:30-12:45, Gym 146
WORKSHOP: Micro-Radio Movement
- Sarah Olsen and Richard Edmondson: San Francisco Liberation Radio
- Maria Gilardin, TUC radio
- Greg Ruggerio, Seven Stories Press
- John Malkin, Free Radio Santa Cruz
- Alan Korn, National Lawyers Guild, & Center for Democratic Communications

11:30 to 11:50, Gym 114
FILM: Put the Public Back Into Public Broadcasting: If We Don't Do It, Who Will?
15 min.
- Citizens from Independent Public Broadcasting

11:45 to 12:45, Chavez Union: Rosa Parks Room
KEYNOTE: Karl Grossman Weapons in Space A Media Black Out
12:00 to 1:00, Gym 114
FILM: KPFA On The Air (by California Newsreel)

12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM, Exhibit Hall East
An Epic Prose Poem, Carl Jensen: Censored America
Percussionist Dr. Gorden Spear

12:00 to 1:15, Gym 116
Workshop: IPA information
Independent Press Association

1:00 to 2:00 PM Saturday, Gym 118
KEYNOTE: Len Horowitz, Author/Activist
Medicine, Media and Mind control: Publishing Under Globalization

1:00-2:10 PM, Women's Gym
PANEL: Aristide Elected, Bush Selected
Haiti & Florida: Media, Elections, Disinformation
Moderator: Karen Talbot, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom
- Pierre Labossiere: Co-founder of the Bay Area Haitian-American Council(BAHACO
- Laura Flynn, Activist
- Norman Solomon, Author and Columnist
- Marie Harrison, SF Bayview, a progressive African-American newspaper

1:00 - 2:15, Gym 146
PANEL: War and Peace—What the News Media Don't Report
- Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics, Chair Peace and Justice Studies Program University of San Francisco
- Justin Raimondo, Editorial Director: Antiwar.com, columnist/peace activist
- Paul W. Lovinger, Founder and Secretary of War and Law League (WALL), writer/journalist
- Phyllis Olin, Attorney, President of the Board-Western States Legal Foundation

1:00 - 2:15, Chavez Student Union, Rosa Park Room
WORKSHOP: Raising Our Voices: A WORKSHOP on Street Journalism (Media Alliance)
- Terry Messman; editor, Street Spirit, East Bay
- Chance Martin; editor, Street Sheet, San Francisco
- Lisa Gray-Garcia; editor, Poor Magazine, San Francisco

1:15 - 2:15, Exhibit Hall East
KEYNOTE: Steve Wilson and Jane Akre: Fired Fox TV Reporters:
Update on Fox TV Law suit and BGh in Our Milk

1:15 - 2:15, Gym 114
FILM: Labor Video Project: Behind the Charade

1:30am - 2:45pm, Gym 123
IMC Welcome Session: meet, discuss goals for WORKSHOPs, forums and organizing

1:30 - 2:30, Gym 116
PANEL: Alternative Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in Higher Education
- Mickey Huff: History Professor, Diablo Valley College
- Obed Vasquez: Sociology Professor: Diablo Valley College
- Vida Pavesich: Philosophy Professor ,Diablo Valley College

2:15 - 3:30, Women"s Gym
KEYNOTE: Michael Parenti Methods of Media Manipulation



2:15 - 3:50, Gym 118
PANEL: Seeking REAL Alternatives: Arab journalists and the US Media
Moderator: Barbara Nimri Aziz, WBAI Radio, New York,
- Nicole Sawaya, Station KALW, San Francisco
- Hussein Ibish, Communications Director, ADC, Washington
- Lorraine Ali, General Editor, Newsweek, New York
- Nermin Al-Mufty (columnist, Baghdad)
- Etel Adnan (essayist and Poet --Lebanon, France, US)

2:30pm - 4:45pm, Gym 123 and Gym114
IMC Forum and break out working sessions

2:30 - 3:45, Gym 146
PANEL: Media Democracy "Direct Actions:" Roundtable on Collaboration
How can independent media organizations work together, overcome obstacles to collaboration, strengthen each other, and increase our cumulative impact?
Co-facilators: Aliza Dichter, MediaChannel; Eric Galatas, Free Speech TV
- David Barsamian, Alternative Radio
- Helen De Michiel, National Alliance of Media Arts and Culture
- Duane Elgin, Campaign for Positive Future and Bay Voice
- Dee Dee Halleck, Deep Dish TV
- Peggy Law, National Radio Project
- Judith LeBlanc, Changing America
- Jeremy Smith, Independent Press Association

2:30 - 4:00, Chavez Student Union, Rosa Parks Room
WORKSHOP: Building Local Alternative News Organizations
- Liane Clorfene-Castin: Chicago Media Watch
- Larry Bensky, host "Sunday Salon," KPFA, lecturer, Mass Communications, CSU Hayward
- Laurie Litman: Connections Newspaper
- Charles Klotzer: Editor-publisher emeritus, St Louis Journalism Review
- Representative: North Bay Media Coalition

2:30 - 4:00, Exhibit Hall East
WORKSHOP: Undisclosed Public Health Hazard: Cell Phones and Microwave Antenna Pollution
Film: Public Exposure: DNA Democracy and the "Wireless Revolution"
- Mary Beth Brangan, and Jim Heddle. Producers, Ecological Options Network
- Libby Kelley: Council on Wireless Technology Impact
- Doug Loranger: SF Neighborhood Antenna Free Union

3:45 -5:00, Women's Gym
PANEL: Amnesty International: Human Rights and the Progressive Media
- Cosette Thompson: Western Regional Director
- Hilary Naylor, former AI Board member, Oakland.
- Erin Callahan, Communications Director, Washington DC
- Tracy Ulltveit-Moe, Researcher (Guatemala, Panama), AI International Secretariat, London

4:00 - 5:00 PM, Gym 118
KEYNOTE: Norman Solomon, Author/Columnist Fighting the Media Oligarchy, Creating Media Democracy

4:00 - 5:00, Gym 146
PANEL: The Media's Role in the AID$ Lie
- ACTUP San Francisco
- Michael Bellafantaine
- Tate Swindell
- David Pasquarelli

4:00 - 5:00, Exhibit Hall East
Speaker: Teter Park, Author & former Journalist, Congressional Quarterly, Washington Post, Meta-censorship: Repressing News from the Unconscious

4:00 - 5:00, Gym 116
WORKSHOP: Activist Outreach: Using a Digital Projector to Engage and Inform. Example: How TV poisons children's minds and undermines schooling.
Miles Everett, Alliance for Democracy

Project Censored Awards Ceremony
Saturday 7:00-10:00 PM
San Francisco State University, McKenna Theater

(Conf. Particpants Free - Gen Public $15 at the door)

- Nicole Sawaya, Station KALW, San Francisco MC
- Welcome: Peter Phillips, Director Project Censored
- KEYNOTE: Amy Goodman, Building Media Freedom
-Expressive Art: Keith Antar Mason: Artistic director: The Hittite Empire
-In My Living condition 2001: The Wars Fought on the Landscape of Black Male Bodies in
-America

Award Presenters:
- Michael Parenti: Author,
- Normon Solomon: Author/columnist
- Robin Andersen: Professor Communication Studies: Fordham University
- Julianne Cartwright Traylor: Chair: Amnesty International USA
- Carl Jensen: Founder of Project Censored
- Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, President DC Production

SUNDAY, APRIL 29th
San Francisco State University Gymnasium Complex

Exposition Hall open to the public 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
$10.00 Daily Admission, $7.00 Student/low-income

KEYNOTES, PANELS & WORKSHOPS:

9:00 - 11:00 AM, Gym 118 Sunday (conference registrants only)
Round table discussion/Activist planning session
Topic: Building a Movement:International Dimensions of Building a Media Democracy Movement
Facilitators: Robert Hackett: Professor Communication Studies: Simon Fraiser University
- Dorothy Kidd: Professor Communications Studies, University San Francisco
- David Barsamian: Alternative Radio
- Tim Russo: Chiapas IMC
- Maxine Ruvinsky: Professor of Journalism, University of the Caiboo, Kamloops B.C.
- Mercedes Romero: Photojournalist from Chiapas/Mexico City

10:00 - 11:15, Gym 146
* KEYNOTE: John Vasconcellos, California State Senator, Silicon Valley: A New Political Vision for Harnessing the Progressive Community

* KEYNOTE: Helen Grieco Director of Campaign for Positive Media and President of California National Organization for Women.
Topic: The Politics of Media: Creating a Citizen's Movement Using Viewer Feedback


10:00 - 11:15, Women's Gym
PANEL: Propaganda Wars
- John Stauber, PR watch
- Michele Gale-Sinex, Writer and Activist
- Nancy Snow, Author, Propaganda, Inc., Associate Director, UCLA Center for Communications & Community
- David Miller, Stirling Media Research Institute, University of Stirling, Scotland

10:00 - 11:15, Gym 123
IMC Forum/Meeting: discuss general IMC topics, organize that day's WORKSHOPs & forums

10:00 - 11:15 Exhibition Hall East
WORKSHOP: Fund Raising for Media Activists
- Rona Fernandez and Jeremy Smith, Independent Press Association

10:30 - 11:45, Gym 114
WORKSHOP: Starting and Sustaining Alternative Newspapers in Local Communities
- Laurie Litman, and Bruce Giudici, Connections: Stockton's Alternative News Publication

10:30 - 12:45, Gym 116
WORKSHOP: Video Activism: Multimedia presentation,
Participatory discussion explores the use of video as a tool in current progressive struggles and a hands-on training by Whispered Media and the Headwaters Action Video Collective.

11:15 - 12:30, Gym 118
PANEL: Spirituality, Progressive Media and Social Change
- Kenn Burrows, Institute for Holistic Healing Studies, San Francisco State University
- JoAnna Macy, Eco-philosopher, Activist and author; World as Self, World as Lover
- Wes Nisker: Radio commentator, Author and Editor of Inquiring Mind, "Buddhist Journal"
- Rabbi Michael Lerner: Author, Spirit Matters: Global Healing and Wisdom of the Soul and Editor, Tikkun Magazine

11:30 - 12:45, Women's Gym
PANEL: Global Economics: Changing the Rules of the Game
Moderator: Carol Brouillet, Who’s Counting Project
- Kevin Danaher, Director , Global Exchange
-Maria Gilardin, TUC Radio
-Marianne Manilov, Board of Director's Ruckus Society, International Forum on Globlizations Associate

11:30 - 12:45, Gym 123
IMC Forum and/or break out working sessions

11:30 - 12: 45, Exhibit Hall East
WORKSHOP: Democratic Media Legal Project: Legal Challenge to the Telcommunications Act
- -Peter Franck, Coordinating Attorney, Democratic Media Legal Project
- Henry Kroll, Director, Democratic Media Legal Project

11:30 - 12:40, Gym 146
PANEL: Constructing the Machinery to Deliver the Message to the Citizens
- Stuart Shaw: Chair
- Brian Murphy, Niagara University, "Creating Social Justice Communicators"
- Geoff Dividian, Owner and Editor of the Putnam Pit, "Producing and Delivering Your own Newspaper"
-Phillip Babich, National Radio Project "Producing and Delivering Your Own Radio Show"
- Brian Scott, Director Berkeley Community Media, "Producing and Delivering Your Own Television Show"

11:45 - 12:45, Gym 114
FILM: KPFA On The Air (by California Newsreel)

12:45 - 1:45, Gym 118
KEYNOTE: Samuel Epstein, M.D., Author: The Politics of Cancer, Revisited, Cancer Prevention Coalition and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago
Topic: Losing the Winnable War Against Cancer-A Paradigm Failed and What to Do About It

12:50 - 2:30, Exhibit Hall East
PANEL: The Pacifica Campaign: Turn off the Water, Turn Up the Heat
Dan Coughlan, fired news director, Pacifica Network News
Carol Spooner, Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
John Sheridan, coordinator of picketing Epstein, Becker and Green
Robbie Osman, fired (and reinstated) programmer, KPFA

1:00 - 2:00, Gym 114
FILM: Is the Press Really Free? (Project Censored)

1:00 - 2:25, Women’s Gym
PANEL: Fighting Big Media Concentration with Indy Media Cooperation: Building Infrastructure for Collaboration
- Aliza Dichter, MediaChannel, facilitator
- Rona Fernandez, Independent Press Association
- Eric Galatas, Free Speech TV
- Dan Merkle, Seattle IMC
- Peter Phillips, Project Censored
- Lisa Souza, Media Alliance

1:00 - 2:15, Gym 116
WORKSHOP: Alternative Libraries and Infoshops.
Sponsored by: Independent Press Association
- Sheila Bishop, member of the volunteer collective of the Civic Media Center, FL
- Charles Willett, co-founder of the CMC and editor of the review journal Counterpoise
- Eric Hannan & Julia Laffen, SFSU Holistic Health Learning Center

1:00 - 2:15, Gym 146
PANEL: Korea and Media Misinformation
- Karen Talbot, Writer/activist
- Rev. Kiyul Chung; Korean Truth Commission
- Brian Willson, Peace Activist

1:30pm - 2:15pm, Gym 123
IMC Working Session/Informal Meetings

2:15 - 3:15, Gym 114
FILM: Questioning AIDS in South Africa, Sponsored by Act Up San Francisco

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2:15 - 3:30, Gym 118
PANEL: The Biggest Lie: False Reporting and Disinformation on the 50-Year Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
Moderator: Dennis Bernstein, Flashpoints KPFA
- Elias Rashmawi, The National Right to Return Committee: Regional Spokeperson for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination league
- Eyad Kishawi, a Palestinian activist, the censorship of campaign for divestment from Israel
- Noura Erakat: Palestinian Journalism Student and activist at U.C. Berkeley on the demonization of Palestinian children in the US press and it's impact on the struggle for liberation.
-Allison Weir: bay-area journalist/media activist, Just back from Palestine
-Hatem Bazian:Lecturer in Near-East Studies, University of California, Berkeley
-Barbara Lubin, a Jewish American activist who frequently travels to Palestine and Israel to deliver material aid and build political support for justice.

2:15 - 3:45, Gym 116
FILM: Who’s Counting? (92 min.) (Who’s Counting Project)

2:30pm - 3:45pm, Gym 123
IMC Wrap-Up Meeting: Discuss weekend's progress, working group report back,
future IMC activities

2:30 - 4:00 Women's Gym
PANEL: Environment, Technology and Health, What Corporate Media Doesn't Report
Moderator: Sunny Lewis, Founder, Editor-in-chief, Environment News Service
- Bill Pease, Ph.D.: creator Scorecard, founder LocusPocus
- Ted Smith, J.D.: founder, executive director Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
- Samuel Epstein, M.D.: Emeritus Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition
- Gar Smith: Editor, Earth Island Journal
- Joseph Mitchel, M.D.: author "Social-Ecological Aspects of Health

2:45 - 3:45, Exhibition Hall East
Meet the Activists "From the Station of our Listeners"
The listeners in listener-sponsored Pacifica radio
- Adrienne Lauby, Chair. North Bay for KPFA Listener Group
- Lee Loe, Editor, "Pacifica Notebook" Houston (KPFT) activist
- Curt Grey, Coalition for a democratic Pacifica, Berkeley
- Alice Chan, KPFA Local Area Board
- Heidi Chesney, National Pacifica Listeners Union organizer

• Joseph Wanzala, Writer and radio activist
  

2:45 - 3:45, Gym 146
Roundtable Discussion: Building a Progressive Television Service on Commercial Channels
Facilitator: David Lionel, Lionel Television Productions

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