Among the many speeches and discussions at the 2nd People`s Summit of the Americas today, an international group of media activists met for a forum on alternative media and the right to communicate.

Tuesday, 17 April—Today in Quebec City, “the dreamers of who can suggest an alternate reality” met in multiple locations for forums on several issues affected by the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement. The Second People’s Summit of the Americas (Deuxieme Sommet des Peuples des Ameriques, to the French-speaking Quebecers), a six-day conference running from April 16 to April 21, converged for its second day of panel discussions. Forums included topics such as “Agriculture Forum” to “Forum on the State’s Role in the Redistribution of Wealth: Various Strategies to Fight Poverty.” Both speakers and attendees came from many of the thirty-four countries the FTAA would cover, as well as from Western Europe.

On a narrow, hilly street more European than North American, the Communications Forum was being held. A culturally diverse but mostly white crowd, most of whom were over thirty, listened respectfully to the four-person, international panel of speakers. The topic was “Communication as A Human Right: the link between communications, democracy, globalization & the FTAA.” Each speaker concurred: the corporate media as it typically exists in the developed world is built around a concept of information as commodity, not of information distributed as a service to the people it affects or access granted as a human right. (As one speaker said, “The freedom abd right to expression is not one of the basic needs of this market anymore…”) The result of a system, all seemed to agree, is a loss of quality, a bottleneck that only lets small amounts of relevant information be heard, and disenfranchisement for the people who listen. Their opinions stood in opposition to the FTAA proponents’ promises of more choices and democratized information. Irma Avila Pietrasanta, a Mexican woman from Comunicacion Comunitaria AC, Red Mexicana de Accion Frente al Libre Comercio, and Alianza Social Contential, stated, “Society is sold… to us as open brains. It doesn’t matter what they have to do to keep us in front of our television sets….”

Beyond that basic concept, each speaker had several more points to make. There was a minor division between the speakers. Some espoused hopes of reforming the current laws to create a political climate more friendly to independent media. Others put more emphasis on going around the system, creating organizations that simply ignored the mainstream media and gave people alternative options for news and culture. In the question and answer period, the classism inherent in access to media for both listeners and producers was touched upon. Elizabeth Robinson of KCSB-FM, a part of AMARC (World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters) and Marc Raboy of the Universite of Montreal, spoke of the need for diversity within the content of alternative media. The need for equality access issues to become issues of public policy, a long-range goal for alternative media outlets. The need for change on a broader level was emphasized: in Robinson's speech, she spoke of Michael Powell’s statement that equal access is a misunderstanding of the American capitalist system.

Pietrasanta spoke about the global economy’s effect on activism and media: not one of the ten men now considered the most powerful in the world is a politician. Instead, they are now heads of communications corporations. Typically, the methods of democratic change are voting and protesting, but both the moderator, a German activist named Bernd Bornholst, and Pietrasanta voiced the opinion that voting and demonstrations affect politicians most directly, not company owners. Both mentioned the need to adapt to the present system of power to continue being effective in opposing it, and Pietrasanta spoke of the FTAA’s role in furthering this power structure’s development.

Robinson, the only American on the panel, answered a Haitian delegate’s question regarding attracting viewers “dominated by the strength of images on television,” the members of a society where corporate status symbols are revered. Robinson stated that the independent outlets need to stop thinking in terms of what will attract the most viewers and is “cost-effective,” to avoid the commercialization of life that she feels is far too excessive.

But the need for balance between the commercial and the independent was an issue raised as well. One audience member questioned the meaning of “alternative” and the relationship between marketing and alternative projects, stating that “alternative projects are sometimes considered to be contaminated by marketing.” Mireille Gagne from Canadian Conference for the Arts stated that she believes a balance must be struck between finance, mass appeal, and political goals, and that alternative simply means the issues and stories the mainstream media will not cover.

The Forum, while informative, was short on conclusions and methods for further action.

Forums on a wide range of topics will be covered at the People’s Summit gatherings in the following days, culminating in a march on Saturday, April 21.