Protests in Genoa, Italy against the G8 conference between the heads of state of the eight wealthiest nations of the world have been met by intense police violence. Friday afternoon a protestor was shot in the head, killing him, and then run over by police. After continuing demonstrations, resulting in more clashes with police, the studios of Radio Gap and the Italy IMC were raided by police around midnight Sunday, Genoa time. According to Global Indymedia, police fired tear gas around the IMC as they broke into the center. A police batton then charged inside the IMC. Ten people were reported beaten by police, with three taken away by ambulence. While in the IMC police confiscated various media recordings, including comptuer disks, minidiscs and videotapes.
This sort of attack is just the icing on the cake of unprecedented police violence against mostly peaceful protestors and independent journalists in the West. An attack on an Indymedia Center should not be viewed any differently than an attack on the BBC or CNN, and is even more awful because an IMC doesn’t have the significant capital and legal resources to defend itself with that a CNN does. And yet, this is sickeningly consistent with the fact that the Italian prime minister is himself the nation’s largest media mogul, akin to a Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner. This sad event is just one example of what is bound to happen more with the increasing consolidation of media conglomerates and their increasingly cozy relationship with government and legislators.
Updated news about this and other events in Genoa can be found at Global Indymedia and Italy IMC. The Belgium IMC and the UK IMC have also been very prompt with posting clear English accounts of events.
On tomorrow’s edition of Radio Free Conscience, I will be discussing the events in Genoa and play audio from the raid and other reports. The program airs 10:00 AM Sunday (tomorrow) morning on community radio WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, IL. I’ll post this audio as soon as possible.
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