PANEL DISCUSSION
ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF INFORMATION AND DEMOCRACY
The role played by the Internet in information and the quality of democracy, especially after the leading part they played during the episodes of this past December, were discussed during a Panel Discussion on Alternative Forms of Information and Democracy on Monday, March 16, at the John Cassavetes theater, as a sidebar event of the 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century.
The Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Dimitri Eipides, introduced the discussion. Coordinator was the journalist and director Stelios Kouloglou, and participants were: journalists Paschos Mandravelis and Ilias Kanellis, sociologist and assistant professor in the School of Journalism of the AUT Grigoris Pashalidis, blogger and television presenter Nikolas Bardakis as well as the director Fabio Wuytack, whose film Persona Non Grata was screened at the 11th TDF.
In his greeting, Dimitri Eipides noted that: “this discussion, the first of this year’s edition, is on issues that are particularly important and current for us Greeks following December’s events”. He then gave the floor to coordinator Stelios Kouloglou, calling him “a solid value in the field of alternative information, a good friend and a stalwart supporter of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival ever since the beginning”.
Kouloglou said: “The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is a window which opens every year for documentary film makers”. He added that the Panel Discussion was being broadcast live through www.tvxs.gr, as will the Panel Discussion on the Social Role of Documentary Festivals (Tuesday, 17/3, John Cassavetes theatre, 11:00 – 13:00), as well as the Closing Ceremony of the 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Saturday, 21/3, Olympion Cinema, 20:30). He also made a particular reference to Fabio Wuytack, stressing that “his documentary, Persona Non Grata, contributes to highlighting the problems that conventional media either can’t or won’t feature”.
Paschos Madravelis focused on the “interpretation blanks” that were left by the December events. “Conventional and alternative media, in my opinion, are not two worlds hostile to each other, but two worlds that are related. I see that even in the alternative media there is a lot of interpretation and little information, just as in the conventional news. Alternative media, which are new, imitate the media that already exists. I hope that the alternative media will eventually get over their structural defects, so that they can provide a more rounded form of information to people, and learn to respect the meaning of every word”, he said and added: “December shook up Greek society, but it has not yet been interpreted. If this doesn’t happen, all this rage will have been for nothing and such events will happen again”. He also focused on “the criminalization of speech”, which according to him is happening in Greece, even in the alternative information media: “the journalist doesn’t engage in physical violence, at least on a primary level, but he is being sued for what he says and is accused for his opinions. If we start criminalizing speech, everyone will have to keep quiet”.
Ilias Kanellis expressed the opinion that alternative information via blogs should not be dealt with as a journalistic product, when its goal is ideological guidance. “There’s supposed to be a separation between the information coming from those in power and alternative means of information. Websites that purport to be first and foremost alternative, such athens.indymedia.org, and the similar though ideologically opposite indy, are exercising ideological intervention. There are three characteristics of alternative information: a lack of business capital, the lack of a hierarchy, since a management team decides in common, and the users can upload their comments, and thirdly, the community, that is, the larger field of action and thought”. He continued: “What makes the fact that citizens resort to these websites interesting is not their way of operating, but their ideology, their solid ideological control. They didn’t attain alternative status because they gave a podium to those excluded by the powers of the information industry, but because they created a closed ideological space. These types of websites present information that lacks crosschecking and verification. Propagandistic use of information predominates. Their role is their ideological intervention. Because in the strategies of violence that were deified in the specific websites – in the name of resistance to state violence – the meaning of freedom or democracy was notably absent, I personally use them as sources of information but I remain their ideological enemy, in the name of the democracy and freedom that have been handed down to us and that we must pass down to the next generation”.
Fabio Wuytack, director of the documentary Persona Non Grata, which describes what his humanist, revolutionary father suffered because of the Venezuelan government in the ‘60s, referred to the dire image of the large televisions networks in Latin America. “In Europe, there is the illusion of a free space for various points of view. The perverse condition of refusal and non-inclusion of information is gaining ground more and more. But there is much worse. In Latin America there is a monopoly on information. There, the large networks have a clear mission to preserve power in the hands of those who already have it. When an attempt was made to overthrow Hugo Chavez and impose military dictatorship in Venezuela, the first thing the military did was stop every broadcast on the state network. The large private networks were showing series and kept quiet on the events, and only a small local channel, Vive TV, broadcast the incredible events that were taking place. We must have a multitude of voices and the presentation of events from many points of view”.
Blogger Nikolas Bardakis stressed that: “With the help of technology, which is now accessible to all, we are given the possibility to show what we see with our own eyes. Anyone can start a blog for free, and he can say and shout out his opinion”. Mr. Bardakis had previously described in detail the decisive role played by the alternative information media on the December events in Athens as well as the rest of Greece: “ through the Twitter, which all of us bloggers were using to communicate with each other, information reached tons of people immediately. The conventional media didn’t once give out information on where and when the protest marches would be taking place, so that those wishing to take part could participate, nor which universities were still open. This information was only found on websites, such as athens.indymedia.org”. Referring to whether it is right for Greek bloggers to remain anonymous or not, Nikolas Bardakis said: “Anonymity is perhaps the magic of blogging. I am clearly for keeping this right, even if we have seen journalists use a blog as a ‘showcase’ to give their opinions on issues in which they themselves are involved. The issue of anonymity is sensitive, both from a legal as well as from an ethical viewpoint”.
Finally, Grigoris Paschalidis approached the subject from a different angle, focusing on the association of the documentary with alternative sources of information: “The new century we live in began in 1989, with the rebirth of the documentary, when the critical social events could be recorded with this new tool, the portable camera. The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is a part of this rebirth. Until the beginning of the ‘90s, critics viewed the documentary as a realistic fraud, as a trap, which was ideologically guided and had to be deconstructed”, he said and continued: “the contemporary political documentary is a vital, crucial institution which is the answer to a public sphere which is lacking. Every important moment in the history of culture of the opposition is characterized by the presence of three elements: the anti-establishment stance, the arrival of a new technology and the existence of a new information dissemination network. This is also happening today.”
In closing, Mr. Paschalidis noted that a specialty in alternative information will be included in the Journalism program of the AUT from the new academic year.
