about nigel parry
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| Above: Nigel Parry |
Since the mid-1990s, Nigel Parry has pioneered a variety of independent media/citizen journalist reporting projects including the first war blog from the occupied Palestinian territories (early 1996), the first alternative news website published from within a warzone (September 1996).
Other independent media projects have included the award-winning Electronic Intifada (est. 2001), Electronic Iraq (est. 2003) and Electronic Lebanon (est. 2006) websites; and projects relating to police abuses of power in the United States, including the RNC '08 Report—a citizen's archive relating to excessive policing and repression of protest at the 2008 Republican National Convention, used widely by journalists, legal teams, and court solidarity organizations in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
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| Above: Lights show the location of Electronic Iraq reporters in the Al-Fanar hotel in Baghdad during "Shock & Awe." In 2003, Nigel Parry, together with a team from the Electronic Intifada and Voices in the Wilderness, launched the Electronic Iraq (eIraq) project to offer a humanitarian perspective during the then-looming conflict, as the U.S. government made clear its determination to go to war against Iraq. It was the alternative news moonshot. Before, during, and after the US "Shock & Awe" bombing campaign, unembedded eIraq writers from Voices in the Wilderness' Iraq Peace Team reported on what they saw and heard via available Internet and a dedicated satellite modem connection. In one month, one million visitors got a never before seen glimpse of war and its aftermath through the eyes of peace activists based at ground zero. Both the Library of Congress and the British Library requested permission to archive the sites in their permanent digital collections. In 2003, the site was awarded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's "Voices of Peace" Award. |
Promoting positive images of vilified and targeted communities is also an important component of what I do, and pro-bono work for Arab arts organizations, pro-Palestinian groups, activist legal support groups, and artist communities under threat is ongoing.
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| Above: Nigel Parry coordinating a press conference about police brutality and the targeting of journalists at the G-20 in Pittsburgh, PA, in September 2009. (Photo: Juliana Stricklen) |
Independent media has become increasingly important in the post-9/11 period and in an era of consolidation of media power in the hands of a few corporations. Working with independent journalists and nonprofit organizations to produce professional independent media is of paramount importance. Defending independent journalists against state targeting has also become a key component of what I do.
I work as a freelance web designer for a variety of nonprofit organizations through my business nigelparry.net. My independent reporting is not funded by any organization, therefore there is always a tension between time spent reporting and time spent earning money to pay bills. This is why things in the independent media can move so slowly, and seeing the gap between what you know needs to be done and what can realistically be done can be very frustrating.
Please support my ongoing work. Every donation—even $10—is greatly appreciated and enables me to devote more time and resources building a strong independent media. More information about selected current projects and my history of working in this field appears below.
SELECTED CURRENT PROJECTS
With the situation in the Gaza Strip inexorably heading towards a massive humanitarian catastrophe, I have committed to producing a series on Gaza for Rustbelt Radio, Pittsburgh Indymedia's 5-year-old show radio broadcast on FM in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and New Mexico, and available worldwide on the Internet. The first program was aired on January 18th, 2010.
With felony cases against activists ongoing, I continue to maintain the RNC '08 Report, "an outstanding example of how the efforts of ordinary citizens can play a crucial role in defending the First Amendment freedoms to publicly associate and petition the government for redress of grievances."—Bruce Nestor, President of the National Lawyers Guild-Minnesota and former NLG national president.
I am assisting Mizna, the singular journal of Arab American literature and arts in the United States, with website updates during a staff transition period.
I am involved in ongoing work supporting various Indymedia chapters and other independent media organizations, which has included work on the Terrorizing Dissent and Democracy 101 documentaries relating to policing of protest and stifling dissent in the United States.
Tilsner Artists' Cooperative, St. Paul, MN
ABOUT NIGEL PARRY'S INDEPENDENT MEDIA WORK
Nigel Parry full bio
Why the RNC '08 Report deserves your support (January 2010)
G-20 Policing Press Conference at the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh (September 2009)
Building a “citizen’s archive” of the RNC (October 2008)
The War Report: Filling the Mainstream Media Void (February 2006)
Live from Palestine: The Diaries Project (December 2003)
War is our Common Enemy (November 2003)
American Web Users Seek Out Alternative and Foreign Perspectives on the News (April 2003)
The most powerful weapons (July 2001)
The electronic Intifada (October 2000)
The Scottish guru of the West Bank (October 2000)
The daily drudge of occupation (December 1999)
The new webmasters of the West Bank (June 1998)
A Personal Diary of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (April 1998)
Creating the /war/ website (June 1997)
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