"European Manifesto for Minority
Community Media" Petition Campaign

Sign the European Manifesto for Minority Community Media & support your
(local) media!

Surf to www.multicultural.net and add your
name to the hundreds of media professionals and organisations, minority
organisations and activists, politicians and concerned individuals who
already signed.The manifesto supports and underlines the importance of minority
community media and calls for recognition of the role this sector plays
in Europe.

The initiators aim to get as many signatures as possible by 29 April
2004. The campaign will culminate in the presentation of the manifesto
to Pat Cox, the current President of the European Parliament, on that
day, ahead of the upcoming European elections. (Nevertheless, after
April 29th, individuals and organisations will still be able to sign the
manifesto, as lobby activities will be undertaken to the new European
Parliament as well.)

The European Manifesto and the campaign are an initiative of Online/More
Colour in the Media (OL/MCM) and the transnational network of national
platforms of minority community media. The full text is available in
twelve languages on www.multicultural.net.

Some background:

Since 2002, the European network Online/More Colour in the Media and
partner organisations like Cospe, Mira Media, NORDSAM and Indvandrer TV
have been bringing together local minority media and organisations
running national platforms of such media. Over the course of several
workshops, these established a transnational network, which this year
launched the "European Manifesto to support and underline the importance
of minority community media".

With the Manifesto, the signatories ask for political recognition of the
role these media play in providing their audiences with essential
information, providing a platform for dialogue within the minority
communities and between the minority and the majority communities, and
in so doing helping ethnic minority communities to participate as equal
citizens of their country of residence. They are requesting measures to
support minority community media in dealing with the challenges they
face.

Over 700 organisations, media and individuals have already signed the
European Manifesto. We are now sending out a "last call to sign" before
the Manifesto and the signatures are presented to Pat Cox, though we
will keep on collecting signatures after that, too, as lobby activities
will be undertaken to the new European Parliament as well.

Online/More Colour in the Media (OL/MCM)

Postbus 672,

3500 AR Utrecht, The Netherlands

Email: info@olmcm.org

Web: www.multicultural.net
Tel. : +31-(0)30-2399035

Fax. : +31-(0)30-2302975