Media Democracy Day Vancouver

For Immediate Release
September 28, 2007

Media Democracy Day 2007 in action at the Vancouver Habour Centre

Media Democracy Day is an annual event that has been held in Vancouver, Toronto and other cities since 2001. There will be a Media Democracy Fair 4:30pm – 7pm Friday
October 26th at the Concourse in SFU Vancouver (Harbour Centre) 515 West Hastings Street.

Come to the FREE Media Democracy Fair and meet representatives from your favorite local independent media outlets. Bring your friends and family to the Media Democracy Fair and stay for the discussions.

This year MDD presents a Special Screening "A Little Bit of So Much Truth" in room 1600 at 4:30pm (515 West Hastings Street)“When the people of Oaxaca decided they'd had enough of bad government, they didn't take their story to the media...They TOOK the media.” More about this exciting film here: http://www.corrugate.org/un_poquito_de_tanta_verdad/un_poquito_de_tanta_verdad

MDD 2007 will open up a talk by Saskia Sassen, renowned author of The Global City: New Frontiers/Strategic Sites at 7:00 pm. At least 285 people are expected to attend this talk. Limited free tickets are available for the public on a first come first serve basis.

This year’s sponsors and supporters are the SFU School of Communication, SFU Faculty of Applied Sciences, The Federation of Post-Secondary Educators (FPSE), Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG), BC Government Employees Union, BC & Yukon Territory – Building Construction Trades, Council, BC Teachers’ Federation, Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union Local 2000, Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union Western, Region BC Federation of Labour, BC Association for Media Education (BCAME), The Tyee, CITIZENShift, Straight Goods, and Xtra West.

Media Democracy Day is based on three themes: education, protest, and change. It aims to promote understanding of how the media shape our world and our democracy, protests against a media system based on commercialization and exclusiveness. It calls for media reforms that respond to public interests, promote diversity, and ensure community representation and accountability.

The issue of Media Democracy is really heating up in Canada, check out the website
http://democraticmedia.ca to get latest updates. More information about the Vancouver 2007 Media Democracy Day including tablers, visit: http://mediademocracyday.org/2007+Events.

For further background information on Media Democracy Day, visit http://www.mediademocracyday.org.

If you are interested in volunteering, sponsoring or setting up a FREE table at the MDD, please contact MDD coordinators Stephen Anderson at [email protected] or Faiza Zia Khan at [email protected] or call 604-837-5730 (The MDD Coordinators are also available for media inquiries).

SEE THE POSTER: http://democraticmedia.ca/image/media-democracy-day-2007