Scoop, Indymedia-Allies in Anarchist Propaganda?

Two media outlets have been most sympathetic to those arrested in the October 15th anti terror raids-aka the "Urewera 17"

They are Indymedia and Scoop.

Indymedia is easy to understand. It is run by anarchists and two of its three main editors were among those arrested. At least four other arrestees were also associated with the same anarchist circles.

The Scoop newsite is supposedly independent and does publish press releases from almost anyone. However it is favourite site of the socialist and anarchist left and gives those groups a bridge to the more mainstream media.

Wellington anarchist and Indymedia activist Danyl Strype certainly regards Scoop as sympathetic. From a comment on this post by Indymedia editor Asher Goldman-discussing media and the "Aotearoa 17";

The question then was does Indymedia count as media? Does Scoop, whose coverage of the Oct 15 arrests and the aftermath has been sympathetic, count as media? Does the Listener journalist, who is an old friend of the some of the arrestees, count as media?

In February 2006 Indymedia activists did a bit of a Who's Who, introducing themselves to each other ang iving a bit of personal background.

I try to identify those who give aliases or incomplete names and add some comments.

Apologies to any i get wrong. No doubt you will inform me.

The list gives a lot of insight into New Zealand's radical media and its connections.

Those listed were;

smush - Wellington
tena koutou, i'm smush (SmushS) from te-whanganui-a-tara. involved with w((i))ndy since the start of this (2005) year. i'm also doing heaps (too much?) of other stuff including Peace Action Wellington and Radical Youth.

This is the unamed Swiss national and Save Happy Valley campaigner who was arrested in the October 15th anti terror raids.

Brian Van Dam - Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland)
Kia Ora,
NAME: Brian van Dam REGION: Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) BLURB: I usually go under the acronym Billabong Bob - or BB for short (long story as to why the name). I am a part-time mathematics PhD? student at Auckland University, and full-time activist!

My involvement in A-IMC has been through friends in Auckland who kickstarted me into being involved thru their enthusiasm. Since then, have been active in the Auckland group, and on the website A-IMC Editorial and Features Lists. Look forward to the day when IMC's are a mainstay of peoples `news and views' diet.

Cheers, Brian.

Van Dam was for several years in the '90s a leading member of the Auckland University neo-Maoist organisation, Radical Society. RADSOC supported Peru's Shining Path guerillas as well as Maoist insurgents in the Philippines and Nepal.

pip - Wellington
hi all,

i am not sure if my original introduction got through. i never got it so will post again.

i'm pip and i'm in wellington completing my masters at victoria university. i also work part time at an electronic publishing centre.

i have been on the list since the beginning of the year and have been probably pretty inactive. i have made a new season resolution to take more notice and be more involved.

i guess i am involved because i believe in the expression of multiple experience and the impossibility of the single point of view.

have fun pip

This is possibly Pip Wilde, allegedly an activist with Peace Action Wellington and the Save Happy Valley Campaign.

Alastair Thompson - Wellington
Hi All,

Alastair Thompson here, editor of Scoop Media, www.scoop.co.nz an independent news website here in Wellington. I am a journalist (obviously) and have been involved with Indymedia mainly as a poster of stories since its inception in Seattle in 1999. With regards to A-IMC I tend to take a back seat role occasionally lifting items and images off the site for scoop.co.nz.

Kind regards and greeting to all
Alastair
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Editor
Scoop Media
Wellington

A clear connection between Indymedia and the "independent" news website Scoop.

kieran - Wellington
Kia ora thanks first to rovin and brian for proposing this, I was thinking the other day it would be interesting to know who is on board.

im kieran from wellington, and am have been involved on this imc loop for about 12-14months there abouts(maybe more, whose counting) . I am also involved with the windymedia paper in town here, and have participated from the start last november. I struggle like fuck with the techie stuff but am not discouraged cos theres heaps of other avenues to contribute to(hence my enthusiasim with the paper).

cool
kieran

This is Kieran Monaghan a leading wellington punk musician who uses the name "Mr Sterile". Monaghan recently performed at a fundraising event for the Mexiacan Zapatista revolutionaries.

Chloe - Auckland
Kia ora
My name's Chloe and I'm based in Auckland. I have been involved on and off in activism and Auckland IMC stuff for a couple of years now. I am also horrendously busy so I dip in and out as time permits. I try and get to all the actions I can and upload digi photos (and video on occasion). I am interested in working with others collaboratively on media projects. I am also on the features list but apart from helping to organise a GE feature I haven't done much yet......but I really do HOPE to when I get some time and I would like to contribute more. In terms of my day job(s), I work at the Grey Lynn Library and as a research assistant on a media and human rights project at Auckland Uni.

Cheers
chloe

This is Chloe Heffernan

Clare - Poneke (Wellington)
hello,

I'm part of the w((i))ndy collective, and have been involved in indymedia in aotearoa for a few years now! mostly i help edit the site and write features, but i'm also involved in some video projects.

Idendity unClare.

Miles Thompson - New York
Hello all,

I'm Miles Thompson. Sometimes when I'm online I call myself 'utunga'.

I'm currently domiciled in New Yawk city but feel very attached to my roots back home in Aotearoa and so have been (a little bit) involved with AIM since, I guess, near its inception. I am also involved with the NYC IMC.

In my day job I work as a web developer, so my contributions have been are are likely to continue to be in the technical area of setting up the website etc. I'm also the brother of Alastair Thompson (who gave his introduction here) of scoop.co.nz fame.

After witnessing some of the events of September 11 up close, I found myself involved with a group called unanswered questions. We are working to demand a fuller inquiry, as well as bringing to light some of the harder questions that people don't seem to want to ask : http://www.unansweredquestions.org

I've also found myself hellishly busy in this stupid job I have right now, but hope to again be able to put some time into the AIM project come November. I will be returning to NZ in November too, so it would be great to meet up with people then !!

Miles

Scoop again. Connections to New York Indymedia.

Dan - Otautahi (Christchurch)
Hi I'm Dan from Otautahi(Christchurch), I haven't posted much (if at all) to this list because I barely get time to read my e-mails let allow reply to them,

I'm a libertarian socialist (anarchist) who has been involved in activist stuff for a number of years. Don't know bugger all about tech stuff, so my involvement in indymedia so far has been in the last few months helping Otautahi get a print publication up and running and writing articles for it,

I'm also a full-time wage-slave who works as a community support worker with people with intellectual disabilities,

I'm interested in how we can get indymedia out there more into the wider community so it doesn't just become a tool for the (small) 'activist' community in Aotearoa,

Dan

Identity unknown

Isaac Kearse - Haumoana (in Hawkes Bay)
Hi everyone,

My name is Isaac Kearse, living in sleepy Haumoana, Hawkes Bay.

In my previous life in Auckland I was working as a Unix Operations Analyst for a TNC, and finishing a Law/Finance degree. I barely escaped this fate at the start of the year with my sanity intact.

I have been on the general list for quite a few months, and joined features recently, I'm probably going to delve into tech soon also. Special interests include media analysis/reform, corporate abolition, and democracy. I think a gathering is a great idea, maybe we could tie it in with an upcoming event over summer?

Jeff Evan - Te Tai Tokerau

Greetings from the forever visiting me. I do not mean anything by giving my first greeting in the Reo other than to show exactly where I am coming from and exactly what I believe to be important. There are many other things, but from where I am sitting, and where you are sitting (most of you) this is Aotearoa, and it will always be-it is an honour for me to be here, not a right.

I live here permanently and have been following in wellington with the W((i))ndy crew since our inception. I was involved in similar "dissent" overseas, but that was over 8 years ago. I am shifting up to Te Tai Tokerau in a matter of days, and hope to link as much of the far north as I can to this mission. Safe travels to you all on this long road of emancipation and redemption, especially to every marginalised member of the voices we all represent. Thank you everyone, always, for contributing.

JEvan

Ken - Wellington
Hi - I'm Ken from Wellington.

My involvement in independent media started with collaborating on a paper called Rumble for a couple of years from late 1999. I got interested in Indymedia at the November 2001 Convergence Against Capitalism and am a founder member of the Wellington IMC collective (Windymedia) which was set up soon after the Convergence, at the end of 2001. I'm not very good at computer stuff, but I've learned to use Pagemaker and help put together our publication W((i))ndy. I'm also in the Anti-'Bypass' Action group and an anarcho-punk band called Dead Vicious. To support my activist/musical/writing activities I work part-time as a doctor.

This is Ken Simpson. Several of the "Urewera 17" were involved in a film profect Kotahi Ao. A Ken Simpson is listed as a researcher for the project.

Katie - Auckland
Hey all

I live in Auckland but right now I´m in Spain doing a bit of an OE thingo, I will be back in NZ in Jan, and hopefully will get a bit more in touch with imc things then, I haven´t been paying a whole lot of attention recently...

I´m starting uni next year, and I want to be a journalist, preferably one who tells the truth instead of regurgitating propaganda, hence my involvement here.

Katie

Possibly Wellington activist Kerry Tankard.

Strypey - Aotearoa
Kia ora koutou,

Ko Danyl Strype toku ingoa, No Otautahi ahau.

I have been involved in AIM pretty much since the start. I helped to get us through the New-IMC process to become an official member of the IMC network and I have done local organising in Otautahi (Christchurch) and Waikato (Hamilton).

I got arrested helping the Sydney IMC crew prepare for and cover the WTO meeting (for more info see ). Through much of 2003/ 2004 I was a roving Indymedia networker using my tech skills to help people use free software, get online and use the site and facilitating communication and co-operation between the AIM core groups in the major cities and media activists in other centres. I attended the Aotearoa Indymedia convergences in Poneke in November 2002 and December 2005.

In 2006 I am settling in Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) and starting a Science degree through Massey University.

This is Danyl Strype, a long time anarchist activist, involved in the Save Happy Valley Campaign alongside at least 5 of the "Urewera 17".

Andrew McNaughton - Overseas
Hi everyone

I've been hanging around the background of AIM since early days, I did a fair bit of prodding as part of getting the ball rolling, but I've mostly been lurking since, just throwing the odd suggestion in.

I'm a co-founder of Scoop.co.nz, and the guy who built most of the software for that site. I've got a lot of technical web skills to offer if something pops up that looks like it's got my name on it.

I'm currently in Edinburgh, and about to head through to Sydney. I'll look the CAT people up when I get there, and maybe I can play a useful role in AIM's relationship with them.

Andrew McNaughton

Another Indymedia Scoop link. CAT is an anarchist media collective.

Geraldene Peters - Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland)
Inspired by student and political activism in California '99 + a month in Cuba - (never mind the pianos, the revolution needs digicams, lots of stock, and a couple of G4s) back in Tamaki Makaurau I got called in to video the No-to-APEC conference - not digi,VHS - somewhere now, I think, in Leonie Pihama's archives. That led in 2000 to organising, with the s11aotearoaNZ collective, a series of Global Activism screenings at the UofA? - pretty successful by all accounts - we got numbers, and a range of people. "Showdown in Seattle" was the lynchpin screening. After helping organise, and videoing anti-WEF demos in Auckland one thing led to another with a group of us wanting to set up Aotearoa Indymedia. By early 2001 we hooked into a network of people from around the country wanting to do something similar and Aotearoa Indymedia came together. Also helped set up "Global Peace and Justice Auckland" (http://gpja.pl.net).

Have just finished a PhD? titled "Oppositional Voices: Radial Left Documentary in Aotearoa" and have worked on broadcast and activist documentaries in various capacities over the years. I write,teach and do a bit of lecturing as well. Documentary's my passion alongside media activism that can't exist without the 'just do it' ethos and social justice concerns of different activist networks in Aotearoa. Collectivate!

Says it all. I profiled Peters here.

Teanau Tuiono- Poneke(Wellington)
Kia Ora,
NAME: Teanau Tuiono
REGION: Poneke (Wellington)
BLURB: I come from the Northern Tribes of Aotearoa in particular Ngai Takoto and Ngapuhi, im also from the island of Atiu in the Cook Islands

What can I say? Im tired of being forced-fed corporate bullshit masquerading as "News" on tv and in the papers. (Ngapuhi aren't known for being subtle). Id been at an international activist gathering and went to a really shitHot indymedia meeting which had a large number of people from many different countries, so yeah I got hooked to the idea there. I really want to get into doing stuff for indigenous peoples ( yeah this mainly because im an indigenous person ) . As for activism my political influences have been many, I was one of the founding members of the urban Maori organisation, Te Kawau Maro. This organisation attacked the neo-liberal Government policies, advocated direct action against land sales and unjust land settlements through occupations and other strategies and disseminated information to Maori communities about what is now known as the 'fiscal envelope. thats me in a nutshell

noho ora mai, Teanau.

Teanau Tuiono is one of new zealand's leading Zapatista supporters and an associate of several of the "Urewera 17".

Bobo - Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland)
Hello.

I like jumping around the place, online, offline, off walls and between my ears..

Working on heaps of projects that are related to Indymedia:

1. recyclopedia - a http://www.wikipedia.org style encyclopedia focusing on building a grassroots commons ( http://www.recyclopedia.info not started yet...)
2. enzyme - an open publishing public sphere, similar to Indymedia, except its not only based on news, but also other forms of communication/discourse/dialouge ( http://www.enzyme.org.nz )
3. ecco - an activist resource and community center in Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) ( http://ecco.enzyme.org.nz )
4. 'rhizome' (unknown name) - that uses Twiki for a free project incubator space/networking area for Aotearoa (and maybe international) and link/information database.. blah blah
5. enzyme journal - printed version of Enzyme website.
6. my own stuff...

I'm very busy. (-: But once they get going, I'll give them over to who ever uses them and be free of cyberspace to get back to voluntary simplicity.

Simon Oosterman, Auckland based anarcho-communist and National Distribution Union publicity officer.

Chris Michael - Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland)
Kia Ora all, I'm in the South Eastern part of Auckland (at time of writing), I'm a student at Auckland University studying geography, environment, film, media and politics papers under an Arts Degree, hopefully ending with a Film major or Double major with film and geography, depending on what keeps my interest.

My main action zones are environmental issues, waste and exploitation particularly, Urban Sprawl is one of my deep interests (how to stop it, how to prevent it), hoping to assemble a documentry on Urban Sprawl in the East of Manukau (my home town) shortly.

I'm sort of an aspiring photojournalist, although lacking video equipment anymore due to some technical issues with it, I can usually be seen wandering with my digital or still cameras. I run a small hosting company as what was meant to be a funding pool for my techie needs, but now it just hosts my blog and some small community interest sites. I post on the Aotearoa IMC and in IRC under different usernames, best not documented though. I'm keen to get involved in anything which gets people off their computers and on to the streets to force the changes which are so obviously needed in our world. thats me for now.

Chris Michael.

omar - Takapuna
im omar from takapuna and am studying at auckland university. im involved in a number of different youth and student organisations. my main focus is Aotearoa Radical Youth.

Omar Hamed. involved in the Save Happy Valley Campaign and one of the "Urewera 17" arrestees>

Clearly Scoop is not entirely independent and has a close association with both Indymedia and some of the "Urewera 17"

Should Scoop be treated as an objective souce of information on the arrested activists?

Can an organisation with clear ties to anarchist extremists be trusted by the public and the MSM?