Media Democracy Day - Lecture and Film

Two local independent media / activism groups will be celebrating Media Democracy Day this year with a public event on Thurs Oct 16 at 7pm. This will take place in room 359 of Fauteux Hall at the University of Ottawa. The event will feature two speakers, Joanne St. Lewis and Greg Macdougall, as well as the showing of a short film entitled ‘The Indypendent’ by Amy Wolf. The themes of the evening are media democracy and media justice, the importance of media activism, and the role of the media in the two current election campaigns. Joanne St. Lewis is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Ottawa. She is the first and only Black woman to be elected to serve as a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. She is co-founder of The Real News Network, and the recipient of the 2008 DreamKEEPERS’ Life Achievement Award from the Canadian Martin Luther King Day Coalition. Greg Macdougall is currently producing the Rabble Rouser, a weekly print edition of Rabble.ca’s online election coverage. He is also involved in the provincial Linchpin newspaper, and part of the local Media Matters activist group. He has previously been part of the following independent media initiatives: Ottawa Indymedia; Ontario Indymedia; Kitchener-Waterloo Blind Spot newspaper; University of Waterloo Imprint student newspaper; Media Watch action group. ‘The Indypendent’ focuses on the NYC Indymedia newspaper of that name. Amy Wolf is a media professional, activist and artist who works with the New York Independent Media Centre (Indymedia) and The Indypendent. An editor of The Indypendent, Arun Gupta, recently made headlines as the initiator of the callout that sparked protests on Sept 25 across America against the Wall Street bailout. This Media Democracy Day event is being organized by Media Matters and the Ottawa Independent Media Centre (Indymedia). Contact:
Greg Macdougall - 613 656-5498
mediamattersottawa@gmail.com Links:
The Real News Network - http://therealnews.com
The Rabble Rouser - http://rabble.ca/about_us/about_us.shtml?x=75411
The Indypendent - http://www.indypendent.org/
Media Matters - http://mediamattersottawa.org
Ottawa Indymedia - http://ottawa.indymedia.org