11/2014 N°11 For Free Information and Open Internet Independent journalists, community media and hacktivists take action For Free Information and Open Internet Independent journalists, community media and hacktivists take action The Passerelle Collection The Passerelle Collection, realised in the framework of the Coredem initiative (Communauté des sites ressources pour une Démocratie Mondiale – Community of Sites of Documentary Resources for a Global Democracy), aims at presenting current topics through analyses, proposals and experiences based both on field work and research. Each issue is an attempt to weave together various contributions on a specific issue by civil society organisations, media, trade unions, social movements, citizens, academics, etc. The publication of new issues of Passerelle is often associated to public conferences, "Coredem’s Wednesdays" which pursue a similar objective: creating space for dialogue, sharing and building common ground between the promoters of social change. All issues are available online at: www.coredem.info Coredem, a Collective Initiative Coredem (Community of Sites of Documentary Resources for a Global Democracy) is a space for exchanging knowledge and practices by and for actors of social change. More than 30 activist organisations and networks share information and analysis online by pooling it thanks to the search engine Scrutari. Coredem is open to any organisation, network, social movement or media which consider that the experiences, proposals and analysis they set forth are building blocks for fairer, more sustainable and more responsible societies. Ritimo, the Publisher The organisation Ritimo is in charge of Coredem and of publishing the Passerelle Collection. Ritimo is a network for information and documentation on international solidarity and sustainable development. In 90 locations throughout France, Ritimo opens public information centres on global issues, organises civil society campaigns and develops awareness- raising and training sessions. Ritimo is actively involved in the production and dissemination of plural and critical information, by means of its website: www.ritimo.org E-change platform The e-change platform is a collective project that proposes both tools and guidelines for a citizen use of information and communication technologies. www.plateforme-echange.org Table of contents INTRODUCTION Digital Citizens and the Media: a Major Social and Democratic Issue 8 ERIKA CAMPELO THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATION: A CONCEPT ENCOMPASSING MULTIPLE REALITIES AND ISSUES Communication as a Right 12 LAURA DAUDÉN The New Regulations for the Right to Communication in Latin America 17 TEREZINHA VICENTE Communication: Prisoner of War 23 RITA FREIRE Technological Sovereignty: a Necessity and a Challenge. 29 PATRICE RIEMENS Free Internet and Mesh Networks 33 BENJAMIN CADON Net Neutrality. The Internet as a Commons 41 STÉPHANE COUTURE Advocacy for a Legal Protection of Online Freedom of Expression 46 MARIE DUPONCHELLE AND SIMON DESCARPENTRIES Free Software: the Way Forward for Digital Commons 52 STÉPHANE COUTURE Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before 57 RICHARD STALLMAN 5 Table of contents CITIZEN MOBILISATIONS: MEDIA VOUCHING FOR THE RIGHT TO COMMUNICATION World Forum of Free Media: a Space to Generate New Forms of Collective Activism 63 ERIKA CAMPELO AND RITA FREIRE Networking for Alter-information and Against Repression 66 ANDREA PLÖGER Civil Society’s Fight for a Democratic and Pluralistic Media in Brazil 72 BIA BARBOSA Latin America Wants to Make the News 77 MAGALÍ RICCIARDI YAKIN Journalism in Europe: Two Movements Striving for Freedom and Quality 83 INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF JOURNALISTS Community Radio in Africa in 2014: Overview and Perspectives 89 ALYMANA BATHILY Indigenous Community Media in Latin America 96 SOPHIE GERGAUD "Our Cameras are Weapons, our Reports Bullets" 104 JEAN-BAPTISTE MOUTTET Mobilisation 2.0: Challenges for Collective Action Through the Web 108 LAURA DAUDÉN Nawaat, a Website Reinventing Journalism in the Arab World 114 AGNÈS ROUSSEAUX 6 Table of contents ICTS THAT ARE REVOLUTIONISING THE WAY WE WORK: CREATIVE PROPOSALS AND ALTERNATIVES For an Ecology of Networks 118 MARCO ANTONIO KONOPACKI AND MICHELE TORINELLI Building a Civil Rights Framework for the Internet in Brazil 124 DEBORAH MOREIRA Decentralization and Social Networks 130 HELLEKIN Ditch Your Commercial ISP, Connect to the Non-Profit Internet! 139 MATHIEU LAPPRAND PirateBox or How to Escape the Big Brothers of the Internet 143 MATHIEU LAPPRAND Hacklabs and Hackerspaces: Shared Machine Workshops 146 MAXIGAS Open Data: a Commons? 155 SAMUEL GOËTA IT Work as Commons Work: the Case of Koumbit 160 ANNE GOLDENBERG Technological Sovereignty 165 ALEX HACHÉ WEBSITES 172 7 INTRODUCTION Digital Citizens and the Media: a Major Social and Democratic Issue ERIKA CAMPELO he way we communicate has changed dramatically in recent years with advances in information and communication technology (ICT), especially the Internet. Understanding the technological landscape in T front of us is of utmost importance if we want to identify the power relations currently at play in the information sector. The ways of using ICT are shaking up the mainstream media, both in how infor- mation is produced and in its dissemination: "They are forcing the mainstream media to redefine the way they work, what their position and what their role is."1 Technological breakthroughs in the digital sector and the almost instantaneous availability of information are contributing to the emergence of a new media model for the 21st century. In light of this shift, free media activists are encouraging citizens to empower themselves through distinctive and analytical information that sidetracks and criticises the dominant media ‘system’. They are also developing media that rep- resents a vehicle for popular education (television, newspapers and magazines, radio, websites and video). As building and maintaining democratic societies relies on being able to produce and access information, it’s important to keep assessing the role the media (both new and traditional) plays in our societies. The right to communication is the right of everyone to have access to a means of producing and disseminating information, to have the technical and material resources to be heard and to listen, and to have the knowledge to be autonomous and independent in their relation with the media. The right to communication [1] Ambrosi Alain, Peugeot Valérie and Pimienta Daniel. 2005 Word Matters: multicultural perspectives on information societies, C & F Éditions. 8 INTRODUCTION is therefore more extensive than the right to information and than freedom of expression. It’s a universal right, inseparable from other fundamental rights, and all the more significant in the age of the Internet. Technology has undeniably made it easier for individuals and social groups to produce and disseminate in- formation about their actions and their commitments. It is also easier to access information voiced by people with similar concerns. Yet with this changing technology, there is also the potential for increased media concentration and control, which could be used to consolidate established powers and existing inequalities. Because although the impact of ICTs on social relations is undeniable, and although their potential to enable humanity to progress is evident, these tools are already in the hands of the neoliberal system’s major players, who use them to maximise profits. Like other economic sectors, ICTs are subject to multinationals’ attempts to monopolise them, whether they be content providers (Google, Apple), social networks (Facebook) or online retailers (Amazon, Alibaba, etc.). ICTs are not exempt from the financial logic that reigns everywhere. The information they transmit is at risk of becoming standardised, as has been the case in the mainstream media for some time. They bring with them new technical possibilities in user surveillance and reader/client surveillance. Yet the emergence of cooperative production processes and the creation of new media, free software and free protocols are proof that creativity and innovation can bypass economic interests (to some extent, at least) and that the creative forces of the imagination can also shape the future. Since the 2000s, the Ritimo network has expanded its work on international solidarity to include a commitment to disseminating citizen information to a French-speaking public, through links and tools connecting the information sector with social movements, alternative media and NGOs all over the world. Its role is to enable the voices, analyses and ideas of civil society, minority groups, the socially or economically marginalised and those fighting for change and/or alternatives to reach a wider public and to be taken into account adequately by policymakers and governments. This issue of Passerelle, published by Ritimo, with the support of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation (FPH), seeks to give an overview of the wealth of innovating initiatives going on – both around the right to communication and in the world of IT networks. It brings together journalists, campaigners, academics, communication activists and hacktivists, IT and code lovers from all over the world. The thirty articles compiled in this issue offer new perspectives around the idea of information as a commons, in the fight against economic powers’ attempts to commodify it. There are also concrete examples of open Internet initiatives, run