Category: News

Up-to-date information will be posted on our Editorial page, alongside broader feature writing. UK Parliament debates community media funding …

Community Media Forum Europe

Community TV Trust is now an organisational member of CMFE and is participating in their first conference being held in Cyprus. A plenary session on Day One featured a panel on community media and the Arab Spring with speakers from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya (by Skype from Benghazi), Syria, Jordan. An inspiring discussion with examples of citizen journalism and social media that left one examining what community media might be. Limitless appears to be one answer.

Day Two brought Cyprus itself to the fore, an island still divided into Greek and Turkish halves, though checkpoints are now open. Nonetheless local mainstream media apparently resorts to the rhetoric of division and of ‘them & us’. By contrast one media making project had brought together children from the two sides who jointly made short animation films with the help of translators and facilitators. The illustrations of process were heartening given the normal landscape of division we had had described.

Delegates have reported on projects from countries including Cyprus, South America, USA, Bosnia, France, Austria and UK; in addition to tales of the Arab Spring, stories embraced digital storytelling, animation, television operating outside regulation in Bolivia, DAB+ linking communities in West France, academic research proposing a bi-lingual radio station uniting Cyprus (albeit the issue of juggling two languages had not been resolved) …

CMFE currently has:   *90* members from *23 *European countries: *39* Individual Members and *51* Organizational Members, of which *25* are (National) Federations. Among its affiliate members it counts also individuals and organisations from Africa, Asia and North America.

CTVT 10th ANNIVERSARY

We celebrated our tenth anniversary as an active member of the UK’s community media sector with screenings at Tate Modern, NFT2 and Peckham Space, and representation at conferences in London, Norwich and Tehran. Community TV Trust became a registered charity in summer 2000 since when it has worked with schools, groups and organisations in Southwark and also Cornwall. Recent productions for Southwark Council include MOSQUE: The Story of Islam in Southwark, an educational DVD; a film report on social inclusion; and our current production about the Traveller community and heritage. We shot a number of short films for South London & Maudsley NHS Trust on Stress in young people, completed a first project with South London Gallery.

MOSQUE DVD launched at TATE MODERN

“MOSQUE: The Story of Islam in Southwark” is an educational DVD intended to go into schools and libraries, function as a training tool for council staff and police recruits, receive further local screenings, as well as be offered to the Community Channel. It contains two hours of material on the history of Islam in Southwark, its mosques, its muslim communities, and explores the issues that affect both the Muslims and non-Muslim communities.

The Launch event at Tate Modern was attended by a large gathering of local people of all ethnicities and beliefs. Sections of the DVD were screened and interspersed with discussion. A panel of invited guests – Chief Superintendent Wayne Chance – Southwark Borough Commander, Sadiq Hoque – writer and narrator of the DVD, Zahra Akinpeju – local worshipper and student at Reprezent Youth Radio, took questions from the floor. They were joined initially by Kevin Dykes of Southwark Council, who then gave way to Mr H Yuruten of the Southwark Cyprus Turkish Association.

“London Young Voices”

Young London Voices is designed to encourage young people to demonstrate their creativity and positivity.

London Young Voices is a 3-year scheme running up to August 2012, created by Chris Haydon, director of Community TV Trust. In late July a number of its films produced between January 2009 and May 2010 were screened at the BFI as part of the Flipside Film Festival. The film by St Michael & All Angels Academy was singled out in the review by Lorraine Smith for remotegoat.co.uk:

‘All of the films had a positive message for and about young people; particularly London Young Voices film Choices which tackles the current debate on knife crime, and proves that the younger generations have a lot of inspiration and creativity to inject into the Arts and Society.’

We are about half way through our project and London Young Voices will continue to produce multimedia demonstration of young people’s innate gifts for self expression, inspiration and the good.

Projects in the second phase began in mid September 2009 in four Southwark schools: Harris Academy at Peckham, Goose Green Primary School, St Michael & All Angels Academy, SILS 4 (pupil referral unit).

Work produced by Goose Green Primary School in the pilot phase of London Young Voices in early 2009 is available on YouTube and can be viewed via Southwark.TV and the Goose Green section of that local website. The Year 6 pupils produced three short films – a game show with an ethical heart, a dance film between rival gangs who overcome their differences, and a skateboard drama confronting bullying.

The full London Young Voices project is under the direction of Chris Haydon and is being co-ordinated by CTVT volunteer Julianna Waithe.

Community TV Trust entered into partnership with the new Peckham art space, Peckham Space, and local artist Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre, for collaboration at Peckham Academy and exhibition in June 2010 as the inaugural show of Peckham Space. This new gallery stands in front of the Peckham Library.

London Young Voices encourages young people’s creativity and positivity. The image of young people in the media is generally negative, yet they face significant challenges and difficulties in daily life, not least in the form of gang culture, youth crime and weapons carrying, job prospects and student debt. A few years ago the Children’s Commissioner noted that in excess of 80% of news stories concerning young people in mainstream media were negative. At least nowadays young people can produce their own media in response to this sad state of affairs.

London Young Voices projects during Autumn 2009/Spring 2010 produced a total of thirteen films, making sixteen in all from 2009 -a great start to this 3-year project. If we include the two additional projects produced with Bede Youth Adventure Project the total rises to eighteen.

LONDON YOUNG VOICES

Post production on the films from all four participating schools following our autumn workshops is almost complete and a public screening date is now fixed: Wednesday 16th June at Peckham Space, the new multimedia art space in front of Peckham Library. London Young Voices is a 3-year positive media project running up to August 2012.