9:30 Welcome Address:
Ravi S Vasudevan, Sarai-CSDS
Introductory Remarks:
Geert Lovink & Shuddhabrata Sengupta

9:45 Morning Plenary:
The Media Circus in the Build-up to the War on Iraq
Danny Muller, Voices in the Wilderness/Iraq Peace Team, Chicago

10:30 Tea Break

11:00 Morning Session:
Reporting from Situations of Crisis

Presenters:
Dangers and Challenges of Reporting from Kashmir
Muzamil Jaleel, Indian Express, Srinagar
Despatches from a Civil War: Covering Sri-Lankan Conflicts from the Inside
Manoranjan Selliah, Independent Journalist & Human Rights Activist, Colombo
Reporting Crisis or Part of the Crisis? : Rastra Chetna and the Media: Coverage of the North East
A. Bimol Akoijam, Visiting Fellow, CSDS, Delhi

Discussant: Abir Bazaz, Independent Filmmaker, Delhi/Srinagar

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Afternoon Plenary:
Media Representations and Memorialisations of the Kargil Conflict
Subarno Chatterji, Delhi University

3:30 Afternoon Session:
Remembering Balkan Conflicts

Presenters:
The Development of Independent Media during the Balkan Crisis: The Case of Radio B92
Adrienne van Heteren, Press Now, Glasnost Defense Foundation, Moscow
Bitter Medicine
Katarina Zivanovic, REX, Belgrade
Translating War and Violence
Kathy Young, Western Washington University

Discussant: Geert Lovink

5:00 Tea Break

5:30 Film Screening:

Before the Rain [Fiction, 1995, 113 min]
Directed by: Milcho Manchevski
Starring: Katrin Cartlidge,Rade Serbedzija,Gregoire Colin,Labina Mitevska
Cinematography: Darius Khondji and Manuel Terán

Shot in Macedonia and London, Before the Rain is a haunting study of war and its tragic consequences, especially when the fighting occurs between neighbours.

Introductory presentation: ‘Taking Sides’
Costas Constantinou, University of Keele

9:45 Morning Plenary:
Bearing Inconvenient Witness:
Crisis of Ethics in the Writing of Crisis
Ranjit Hoskote, Assistant Editor, The Hindu, Mumbai

10:30 Tea Break

11:00 Morning Session:
Gujarat: One Year After

Presenters:
Gujarat and the Media: One Year After
Siddharth Varadarajan, Deputy Chief Editor, National Bureau, Times of India, Delhi
Use, Misuse and Abuse of the Media: The Gujarat Example
Darshan Desai, Special Correspondent, Outlook, Ahmedabad
The Gujarat Violence Shared Footage Project
Gurpal Singh, Independent Filmmaker, Mumbai
The Legal Response to Gujarat: Moving between the Universal and the Particular
Arvind Narrain, Alternative Legal Forum, Bangalore

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Afternoon Session:
Crises of Everyday Life

Panel I <2:30 - 3:15>
Presenters:
Dispatches from South Africa: Where are the Women in South Africa's Media?
Crystal Orderson, Young Africa Television, Johannesburg
Connecting 'Local' Voices
Marni Cordell, www.smallvoices.org, Melbourne

Panel II <3:30 - 4:15>
Presenters:
Playing with the Media/Hiding from the Media: Media Tactics of the European No Border Network
Paul Keller, Waag, Amsterdam, No Border Network
Improvisations after the Collapse: Media Reprtage of Economic Crisis in Argentina
Marilina Winik, Argentina Indymedia Centre, Buenos Aires

4:15 Tea Break

Panel III <4:45 - 5:30>
Presenters:
Identifying Crisis in North East India: A Perspective on HIV/AIDS from Manipur
Chitra Ahanthem, The Imphal Free Press, Imphal
The Media in India & Sexuality Minorities
Dipika Nath, PRISM, Delhi

6.00 Film Screening:

Paradise on a River of Hell [Documentary, 2002, 30 min]
Directed by: Meenu Gaur and Abir Bazaz
Produced by the Public Sevice Broadcasting Trust,
The screening will be introduced by the filmmakers

The violence Kashmir witnessed in the 1990s shattered human dignity and changed everyday life beyond recognition. Years of insurgency and counter-insurgency not only interrupted the continuity of Kashmiri lives but forced Kashmiris into roles in which they no longer recognise themselves. Not attempting to situate the 1990s in this or that event, person, space or time, the film’s mappings of personal and collective memories bears witness to Kashmir’s historical solitude

9:45 Morning Plenary:
Crisis/Media: Weapons of Mass Distraction?
Arundhati Roy, Writer, Delhi

10:30 Tea Break

11:00 Morning Session 1:
The Encounter: Truth as a Casualty

Presenters:
An Encounter with the Official Secrets Act: Notes from a Journalist’s Professional Life
Syed Iftikhar Gilani, Kashmir Times, Delhi
The Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Reporting Terrorism in the English Language Media
Anjali Mody, The Hindu, Delhi
Trial by Media: The Need for Forensic Examination of Electronic Evidence
Arun Mehta, Telecommunications Engineer and Media Activist

Discussant: Vijay Kumar Nagraj, Amnesty International, Delhi

12:30 Morning Session 2A: [Sarai Interface Zone, Basement CSDS New Building]
Freedom of Expression in the Hindi Public Domain
Hindi Jankshetra mein Abhivyakti ki Azadi

Presenter:
Na Likhne Ka Karan: The Odds Against Writing/ Writing Against Odds
Rajendra Yadav, Editor: Hans, Delhi

Discussant: Ravikant, Sarai-CSDS,
Abhay Kumar Dube, Fellow, CSDS
[This panel will be in Hindi]

Morning Session 2B: [Seminar Room]
Round Table: What Next for Global Independent Media

Participants:
Katarina Zivanovic, REX, Belgrade
Adrienne van Heteren, Press Now, Glasnost Defense Foundation, Moscow
Marni Cordell, www.smallvoices.org, Melbourne
Marilina Winik, Argentina Indymedia Centre, Buenos Aires
Sanjay Bhangar, Indymedia Mumbai

Discussants: Geert Lovink, Rachel Magnusson

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Afternoon Session 1:
Confrontations in Cyberspace

Presenters:
Challenging the Far Right in Cyberspace
Harsh Kapur, South Asian Citizens’ Web, http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex
Emergence of AMAN: the Autonomus Media Network
Aditya Nagam, Fellow, CSDS, www.amanjunction.org

Discussant: Asha Varadharajan, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

3:45 Tea Break

4:15 Afternoon Session 2:
Stories of Earth and Water: Reporting Ecological Crises

Presenters:
Is the Environment a Media Issue whose Time has passed?
Darryl D'Monte, President, International Federation of Environmental Journalists
Putting Politics Back into the Picture: Witnessing Environmental Crises in the Media
Sanjay Kak, Independent Filmmaker, Delhi
Beyond Reportage: Influencing Engagements and Strategies
Ravi Agarwal, Toxics Link and Srishti, Delhi
What the Media Doesn’t Drink: Water in the Mainstream Media
Pradip Saha, Managing Editor, Down to Earth, Delhi

6: 15 Tea Break

6:30 Film Screening:

Words on Water [Documentary, 2002, 85 min]
Director : Sanjay Kak
Edited by : Sameera Jain and Reena Mohan Photography: Ranjan Palit and Sanjay Kak
Location Sound : Samina Mishra
Music : Rahul Ram, Amit Kilam, Asheem Chakravarty

Shot and edited over a period of three years, Words on Water is a film about sustained non-violent resistance by the activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan against the building of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. In a world where the use of violence has become the arbiter of political debate, this film reflects on the joyous defiance, which empowers the people as they struggle for their rights, and yet saves them from the ultimate humiliation of violence.