This report of our experiences as an international press group during the 2007 G8 protests is intended to inspire more people to do press work in the future, to try to counter the spin of the press industry of corporate capitalism to utilise the press. Just like summits, streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces, the press is a site of struggle. When blockading, our aim is to disrupt the summit, in the same way, we can understand press work as disrupting the story-telling of the powerful about how the world functions. Those with power constantly construct discourses to legitimise their power and their actions. One way they do this is to use the press. One way (of many others) we can challenge this is by doing so too. But of course the press is not a neutral arbiter in this struggle over meaning. Our intention was to embrace this discursive struggle to battle out the story through the press, rather than let it simply report the story of the battle on its own terms. Of course ‘the’ press is not a homogeneous entity and represents differentiated interests despite perhaps some common tendencies, at least within the corporate realm. This is why Indymedia and other activist press projects remain a core element of our movements. Our starting point was a recognition that we had to understand the interests press outlets have and how they function. These we aimed to challenge. Not simply to ‘bring the press on our side’ and influence them to report more ‘favourably’ about us, but to engage with, and enable others to engage with the challenge of productively using the press for our political aims. In this spirit we offer the below as a contribution to the ongoing debates about mediation, representation and press work that take place within our movements.

The existence of an international press group for the G8 protests in Germany has already been announced. In the following lines we would like to explain how we will function.

The aim of the Media G8way International Press Group is not to represent the movements or speak on behalf of anyone, but to act as a support structure to facilitate contact between non-German media outlets and groups and individuals involved with the G8 protests who would like to provide information about their actions and motivations to the international press.

In the last days we have built up distribution lists with press contacts in many countries. We still need many more contacts from many more countries. So, if you have a list of press contacts in your country or you would like to receive our press releases, please let us know.

The lists will be used mainly for distributing press releases translated into English and from there into various other languages. We will base our work on the press releases distributed by the Campinski Press Group and the Gipfelsoli Info Group.

We need lots more help with translating press releases from English into other languages. Please get in touch if you could do translation work during the Summit events. Please note that you do not need to be in Germany to do this work. All you need is to be on our list so as to receive the English versions. In turn, you will be able to send your translations to our email address so that we can spread it to our press contacts.

In addition to this, we will be building up a pool of people willing to give interviews to the international press (print media, radio, television) in languages other than German. If you are planning on being in Germany and would be prepared to give an interview at some point during the protest events, please write to us with your contact details (email/phone).

Contact: +49 015774630348 (Jo Smith)

g8-press-int@nadir.org