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The following article is from the latest issue of Videazimut's
newsletter CLIPS.  CLIPS is available in separate English, French
and Spanish editions.  It is published three times a year.

Subscriptions are $10 US per year in countries of the North and $5
US per year in countries of the south.  For a sample copy, please
contact:

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THE SELF-REFLECTING MIRROR

The disappearance of state monopolies in TV, the development of
cable and satellite TV and the explosive expansion of the home
video market have contributed in Europe, like everywhere else, to
television's increasing mediocrity. It is therefore not surprising
that today small village communities require their own television
channels and that so-called local television has become very
fashionable: institutes are cropping up all over, as are
researchers and academic specialists publishing countless studies
on the subject. Likewise, colloquiums and other festivals follow
one another at a steady pace, while national networks, both public
and private, are developing local hookups "to get closer to
viewers."

In fact, this infatuation has led to an enormous amount of
confusion: terms such as community, local and immediacy have been
gradually rendered meaningless and, more often than not, coopted
for commercial and political ends. Aside from their lack of
financial muscle, local television in Europe is now
indistinguishable from conventional network TV and is, for the
most part, more synonymous with conformity and lack of substance
than with democratic alternatives or creativity.

Today in Europe, as in North America, like a remedy to the anxiety
caused by the globalisation of the economy and in the field of
communications, "life as television" is making a glorious
comeback. A recent anecdote illustrates the confusion engendered
today by this self-reflecting mirror. In France, following a
"Local Television Festival", the number two national public
network's newscast ran a very short item in which a couple in
their seventies were interviewed while watching a local TV
programme... in which an eighty-year old was being interviewed.
The couple explains: "We like local television! Now we can see our
seniors on TV, after all they don't get out much anymore!" This
anecdote probably merits a deep analysis both concerning the
journalistic approach adopted and the actual impact of
mediatisation on "local life."

Nevertheless, in this overcast sky there are, happily, a few rays
of sunshine. First, there are the successful community access
networks in Germany. Their thirty open channels show the way to an
authentic electronic democracy where censorship and
self-censorship are unknown. This democracy exists also in The
Netherlands. Amsterdam's Salto, the Open Kanaal, is open to the
many groups desiring a space for free expression where they may
make their own inventive and creative TV programmes. In Belgium,
the "TV du pays de Gent" is waging a struggle for authentic local
community television with courage and humour opening up avenues
for community TV in Walloonia.

On a smaller scale, others have succeeded in inventing new ways of
broadcasting. In France, "Tele Millevaches" produces a monthly one
hour video magazine which is copied onto 100 VHS cassettes and
distributed for exhibition in cafes and other public venues.
"Canal Nord", Amiens' famous "neighbourhood television", has
installed its studios in one of 8,000 neighbourhood apartments all
of which are connected via collective antennas. Regularly "Canal
Nord's" programming allows residents to speak freely of their
problems and to question their representatives and elected
officials. These are just two examples from the "Federation des
videos des pays et des quartiers".

In Europe, access to broadcasting facilities is far from a
universally accepted right, especially when it comes to
alternative or marginalised words and images. However, access to
broadcast facilities or cable is not absolutely necessary for
producing programmes that will be watched. "Despite TV" in England
and "Northern Visions" in Belfast have proven this by showing that
in situations of emergency and necessity image production can be
both meaningful and useful. Many, here as there, seem to have
totally forgotten this!

At a time when the community TV concept is making headway in the
South, one can only hope that new endeavours will draw inspiration
from these "rays of cultural sunshine" or from those in the
faraway Australian skies.

by Olivier Pasquet

Olivier Pasquet is responsible for international relations for the
French organziation La Federation des videos des pays et des
quartiers.