[Nettime-bold] Press release on the attack at IMC Genoa

[DeeDee Halleck <dhalleck@weber.ucsd.edu>]

------------ please distribute widely --------------


Independent Media Center
Ad hoc Genoa Solidarity Committee
www.indymedia.org

RESPONSE TO POLICE RAID ON GENOA
SOCIAL FORUM AND IMC ITALIA OFFICES

23 JUNE 2001

CONTACT:
Han Soete, IMC-belgium member
han@skynet.be
+ 32 476 533 188

Doug Morris, IMC-chicago member
eredgreen@yahoo.com
(847) 657-0182

Sheri Herndon, IMC-seattle member
sheri@speakeasy.org
206.261.0184

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Independent Media Center Network (IMC) (http://www.indymedia.org)
demands that independent journalism and
journalists be protected from state repression. We also demand this
incident of grave repression be given the full
investigation and scrutiny that it deserves. Reports indicate that black
clad provocateurs were working in conjunction
with Italian Military Police in a vicious attack on peaceful organizers.

MIDNIGHT RAID IN GENOA

On early Sunday morning, Italian Police stormed the IMC press office
armed with tear gas and batons. Italian military
police and unknown provocateurs simultaneously raided the school
building across the street that has hosted
various groups participating in the Genoa Social Forum (GSF)
(http://www.genoa-g8.org/).

Persons in the IMC at the time of the raid were forced to stand against
the wall with their hands up while police
searched equipment and personal effects. Reports vary on the number of
injuries sustained by IMC staff. IMC-Italia
reports that one IMC reporter from the UK is hospitalized with serious
injuries from the attacks. Materials reportedly
seized during the raid include audio mini disks, video tapes and
computer hard drives. Other reports allege that
telecommunications equipment was damaged and/or destroyed during the
raid. In the same building, the police also
raided the Radio Gap radio station and forced it off the air for a short
time.

The neighboring school building hosting GSF organizers was where the
worst violence occurred. Eyewitnesses
claim that around 50 black clad provocateurs  first entered the street
in front of the school overturning dumpsters and
creating chaos. They then removed their black sweatshirts and entered
the school and began beating those inside
indiscriminately; "most of the most savage beatings were again not done
by uniformed police but by characters
dressed in jeans and bandanas and helmets with 'police' written on their
T-shirts...." Hundreds of Italian police
sealed off the street and a helicopter flew low overhead as if on a
military operation. Press in attendance was kept
back at a distance.

Many individuals were awoken from their sleep and  lined up along walls,
hands over heads.  The ensuing brutal
assault lasted over 45 minutes. Horrible screams from the building could
be heard on the streets below.  Afterwards,
the floors and walls were covered in blood.  Twenty wounded were carried
out, many on stretchers, and three were
unconscious (according to BBC reporter Bill Hayton who was present
during the raid). The injured were taken to
ambulances that arrived with the police; reports today indicate over 50
injured. Police claimed to have authority to
enter and search the building for weapons under Article 41 (an
anti-terrorist act). Later an Italian MP, Luisa Morgantini,
arrived and told the police they had no such authority since the schools
resided on state-owned property, it was at this
point the Police and provocateurs left the building.

The Genoa Social Forum held a press conference Sunday morning concerning
the details of the raid. (see
http://italy.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6282). Volunteer
lawyers for activists report that computers were
destroyed and that police stole information during the raid that related
to their organizational work, including the
transcripts of testimonies.  Materials were also confiscated from the
IMC offices that might have provided legal
documentation of police abuses in the preceding days. One lawyer stated,
"The police blitz is contrary to a state
based upon rights and brings in a climate of terror."

Throughout the day Sunday , the IMC newswire contained reports of
continued police beatings of activists in Genoa,
both in the streets and in the jails. Reports indicate that many injured
demonstrators are fearful to seek  treatment in
hospitals since the police have been removing people with unexplained
wounds and taking them to jail. At present
over 500 hundred people are missing and unaccounted for.

A full investigation is called for, concerning the use of violent
provocateurs by police. Reports all weekend in Genoa
have asserted that much of the property destruction and violent
provocations were carried out  by individuals
apparently working in conjunction with police and dressed like black
clad anarchists.  Similar reports have surfaced
in past demonstrations in Prague, Quebec and elsewhere.  This disturbing
claim and the subsequent violence and
closing of the GSF and IMC demand full attention.



--------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
-----------------------------------------------

IMC BACKGROUND: A FREE PRESS NETWORK

The IMCs, or Indymedia, are a network of independent media organizations
and hundreds of individual journalists
offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage.

Indymedia is a democratic media outlet with the mission to create
radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.
The first IMC was initiated in Seattle, in the fall of 1999, during the
demonstrations against the World Trade
Organization. The center was created to ensure that diverse voices could
be heard with a clarity and focus beyond the
usual chatter of the commercial media soundbite.

The Indymedia website is an unusual phenomenon in cyberspace: visited by
literally millions, the network has led to
the creation of over fifty collaborative sites in cities all over the
world.

For people in dozens of countries, indymedia.org is news: news that they
can rely on, news that does not have the
bias of information/entertainment corporations who have a stake in
maintaining the status quo.  The open publishing
software of the web site enables anyone with a basic computer and modem
to post immediately on the news wire,
without an intervening editor. Indymedia has created a model for
collaborative work that makes a real difference.  The
IMC organizes collaborations between various types of media (print,
photo, video, radio and internet) and between
diverse organizations and individuals.  The IMCs are non-hierarchical in
nature.  The decisionmaking is by
consensus and all participants, including those who can freely post on
the newswire from home, are themselves
empowered.

The growing global justice movement, which is against corporate control
of globalization and for a more democratic
and inclusive process of setting the world's priorities and allocation
of resources, has depended on, and benefitted
from, the IMCs to provide breaking and unfiltered coverage of diverse
views, conferences, and demonstrations.


HISTORY OF STATE SUPPRESSION OF IMC AND THE FUTURE

The recent raid on the Indymedia Center in Genoa is the latest in a
series of intimidations and threats to this
movement of independent media centers.

As the Indymedia movement has grown, it has been subject to increasing
repression. From the first days in Seattle,
when the IMC received a tear gas attack, there have been indications
that authorities identified the IMC movement as
a target to intimidate and silence.

At the IMC in LA during the August 2000 Democratic National Convention,
a police raid closed down the satellite van
that was scheduled to uplink live IMC television to a national
grassroots community television network.  In Prague, the
Czech police raided the IMC offices, harassing and intimidating
journalists and others.  During the days preceding
the Bush inauguration, DC police sent spy/provocateur agents to IMC-DC
meetings.

More recently, during the FTAA protests, the FBI visited the Seattle IMC
with a request for all computer logs and a
gag-order injunction demanding that no news of the request be made
public on the net.  The IMC in Quebec also
suffered police harassment and an attack in which tear gas was fired
into the center. Less than a month later, shortly
after the Cincinnati uprising over police brutality last spring, police
served an order on a coordinator at the Ohio Valley
IMC, also requesting records and tape logs and to appear before a Grand
Jury.

The IMC gained a victory for the independent press community when these
injunctions were withdrawn by the FBI
after The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Constitutional
Rights, and the Electronic Privacy Information
Center intervened to support the IMCs.

The IMC global network will continue to fight hard to protect the rights
of independent journalists around the world and
to ensure that the voices of our many diverse communities are accurately
and respectfully covered and made
available to the rest of the world.  As stated in Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone
has the right to the freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers."

CONTINUING IMC COVERAGE

For ongoing coverage of the Genoa protests, stay tuned to IMC-Italia
http://italia.indymedia.org, and global IMC, http://www.indymedia..org.

Eyewitness accounts of the IMC and GSF raids.
http://sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=102064
http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=8871

An IMC NEWS BLAST will be released Tuesday for summary, news and updates
on the protests in Genoa.  Here's
the link to the first one:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-news/2001-July/000228.html.

Also see:
Indymedia radio broadcasts: http://radio.indymedia.org/
Indymedia print summaries (in distributable newsletter/flier format):
http://print.indymedia.org
IMC sites are providing detailed coverage include (see global website
Left column for links): France, UK, Belgium,
Barcelona, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, IMC-Sweden, Brasil, Argentina,
Chicago, and New York City.


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