Epistoli Athens kai Patras Indymedia pros "Cyprus Indymedia".

From: Athens IMC & Patras IMC editorial teams, imc-athens-editorial@lists.indymedia.org
Subject: [Imc-europe] Concerning cyprus.indymedia.org

Hello,

We are writing this email to express our concerns about the existence and the character of cyprus.indymedia.org.

Its been more than a year that some political activists from cyprus have attended the assembly of the editorial team of Athens IMC and informed us about the situation in cyprus.indymedia.

Furthermore, in Athens IMC we are receiving many mails from people living in cyprus, people who are involved in the movements, complaining about the situation in Cyprus IMC.

Cyprus.indymedia.org seems to be violating and not respecting some of the fundamental principles of unity of the Indymedia Network.

Let's start :

cyprus.indymedia is using blogspot as host. You can verify that the domain http://cyprus.indymedia.org redirects in http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com.

This is obvious even from the theme and look of cyprus.indymedia. This also means that cyprus.indymedia uses no open source. It uses Google as host, and blogspot as platform.

Cyprus.indymedia violates the Indymedia principle of open publishing. You can easily verify this by browsing on the site.

In fact there is no open publishing since there is no open democratic assembly of activists and political people who contribute in cyprus IMC. Cyprus IMC is controlled by small private group of people.

There is no open character in Cyprus IMC, no open publishing, is not a media of the movements against capitalism and injustice. It's just another blog, controlled by a private small group which uses Cyprus IMC to express their opinion.

So we are getting to the content of Cyprus IMC - blog. Since the content of Cyprus IMC is written in greek, we who are participating in the Athens IMC and Patras IMC (greek is our native language) can understand it and convey it to you.

Obviously, the content of Cyprus IMC is violating too the principles of Indymedia Network.

Often, there are posts in Cyprus IMC that target people of the movement in cyprus. The administrators of Cyprus IMC blog refer to people with their names,surnames, even nicknames, with photos of them, accompanied with slanderous ratings . Actually the second link below contains even information on the private life of a female comrade, deeply violating her privacy.

Some examples :
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_04.html

http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_20.html

Even if the Indymedia IMC network globally fights against injustice, exploitation, racism and nationalism the content of Cyprus IMC seems to refute it.

In contrary Cyprus IMC blog, tends to make constitutional propaganda and reproduce stereotypes of hate and nationalism. In example, concerning the matter of greek-speaking and turkish-speaking residents of Cyprus Island, Cyprus IMC blog identifies with preservatives ideologies and nationalists points of view.

Some examples:
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

Cyprus IMC is attacking anti-fascist anti-nationalist actions against ELAM (greek nationalists group in cyprus). It supports and idenfities with the nationalists about deportation of immigrants. It is positioning against left and anti-authoritarian initiatives which stand against oppose to nationalism and fascism. Cyprus IMC aggrees with categorizing the people who are forced to migrate and leave their counrty in "legals" and "illegals".

Example :
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_27.html

From our part, as political activists we participate in the movement in Greece against capitalism and state, against injustice, exploitation. We participate in Athens IMC and Patras IMC because we believe in the principles of Indymedia Network and we believe that the people can use information on their long way to social liberation.

In the case of Cyprus IMC, having in mind that it has been violating major principles of Indymedia Network for many years now, principles related to open publishing, open source, open assembly editorial team, content against capitalism, racism, nationalism, having in mind suggestions and complains from people in cyprus we request that :

- The domain cyprus.indymedia.org redirects no more in the blog
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com

- Current administrators of Cyprus IMC blog have no further authorization in the part on Indymedia Network called cyprus.indymedia.org in Global IMC or elsewhere.

- Cyprus.indymedia.org is removed from the Indymedia IMC's lists all around the world.

For further explanations, informations or anything else on the case of Cyprus IMC we are at your disposal.

Editorial Teams of Athens IMC and Patras IMC

http://cyprus.indymedia.org/