Tactical Media Room was founded in late February 2022 after the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Her main focus is on the question of how to support tactical media and independent journalists, newsrooms and civic initiatives from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

In TMR's first public programme, we’ll dive into the current (dis)information landscape. How to find objectivity and support in the complex geopolitical warfare against humanity currently happening in Europe? We will explore the impact on public consciousness, public relations with the state, and access to trustworthy information in times of war.

Language: English spoken

Tickets: 5 euros (including 1 drink)

All revenue will be donated to support tactical media in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. 

Location: Waag, Makersguilde Room, donderdag 28 april 2022, 20:00-22:00

Programme made by: Caspar van Gemund, Kristina Petrasova

Programme

Program - moderated by Kris Petrasova

20:00 Introduction: Technical Media Room by Marleen Stikker. Why, Who, What?

20:15 Presentation: Mirror Kitchen Lviv – Amsterdam by Roel Wouters: soup for a good cause.

20:20 Talk: How to act?! A brief guide through the (dis)information landscape with Viktoria Dovgal, Alexander Gubsky and Ilya Shcharbitski

21:20 Presentation: University of New Europe by Ellen Rutten

21:30 Talk: Boris Noordebos: Misinformation in context: Netherlands

21:50 Presentation: The new national drop-off platform inzamelplekkenoekraine.nl by Michael Del Pino

22:00 Share your initiative, get connected, have a drink together.

Speakers:

Viktoria Dovgal is Ukrainian and was forced to leave her home country with her daughter because of the war. Viktoria worked as a senior analyst in the natural gas and electricity department in the Ukrainian office of ArgusMedia. Founded in 1970, Argus Media is an independent media organization that produces analysis of international energy with headquarters in London.

Alexander Gubsky is the publisher of The Moscow Times since 2021, one of the media resources that had to relocate from Russia after the war started. Alexander is one of the creators of the concept and editorial team of Vedomosti, a media project created in Russia in 1999 jointly by The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Derk Sauer's Independent Media. Alexander left Vedomosti in 2020 after businessmen close to the Kremlin gained control of the publication. During his work at VTimes the resource was marked with "foreign agent" status by the Russian Ministry of Justice.

Ilya Shcharbitski is a civil activist and the spokesperson of the Belarusian opposition movement in The Netherlands. He commits to bringing knowledge of Belarus to the Dutch audience and supporting human rights issues in Belarus. People in Belarus went through a violently repressed protest against Lukashenko in 2020 and are now forced into an armed conflict with Ukraine. Ilya will address how Russian propaganda and disinformation influences the Belarusian society in post-protest environment.

Boris Noordebos is Associate Professor of Literary & Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam and affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA). His research interests are diverse, and revolve around the multifaceted question of how (popular) culture imagines and confronts ‘the past’. In 2021 Boris started his research project CONSPIRATORIAL MEMORY: Cultures of Suspicion in Post-Socialist Europe (2021-2026). In this research Boris and his team combine a fascination with memory and temporality with the deep curiosity for conspiracy culture.

Kris Petrasova is a cultural programmer and activist. Since the beginning of the war she joined the opposition movement FreeRussiaNL as press officer, to communicate a unified voice of protest against the war. FRNL unites Russian speaking community in the Netherlands, fights disinformation, provides help to refugees, supports journalists in need and collaborates with Zeilen van Vrijheid, a humanitarian aid organization for Ukraine. Kristina also works as project lead digital heritage at the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision.

Ellen Rutten is Professor of Literature at the University of Amsterdam and editor-in-chief of the journal Russian Literature. Her interests include Russian & global contemporary literature, art, and media. She is author of Sincerity after Communism (Yale University Press, 2017) and co-editor of Memory, Media and Conflict (Routledge, 2014), Poetins rechtbank (Nieuw Amsterdam, 2018) and Imperfections: Studies in Mistakes, Flaws, and Failures (Bloomsbury, 2021), among other publications.'

About Tactical Media Room

The Tactical Media Room (TMR) is an initiative of Waag Futurelab and Institute for Network Cultures (HvA). It was founded in late February 2022 after the Russian invasion in Ukraine. In collaboration with hackers, artists, designers and researchers in the Netherlands, TMR aims to support independent tactical media, journalists, newsrooms and civic initiatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

As a temporary Amsterdam-based platform, TMR brings together different forms of expertise in the fields of journalism, media activism, arts, and research. A group of currently fourty members addresses topics and activities that vary from Russian disinformation, censorship and propaganda research to mapping platform geopolitics, support regarding hardware and online services by ISP’s and hosting providers, tech knowledge exchanges (from satellite phones to cyber security), and practical aid support.

What explains the choice to unite Ukrainian journalists, media activists, artists, and scholars with Belorussian and Russian colleagues?

Tactical Media Room aims to unite critical thinkers and cultural workers across Europe. The driving force behind TMR is the aim to offer support regarding tactical media firstly, but not exclusively, to Ukrainians at risk. We do so in the awareness that the war is, first and foremost, placing vast amounts of Ukrainian journalists, media activists, artists, and scholars at acute risk in one way or another. Belorussian and Russian critical thinkers, however, are also at risk and in need of support. Ukrainian people who face or flee the war, face different problems and needs than Belorussian and Russian critical thinkers who face political persecution because they express dissent against the authorities. TMR aims to support both of these groups.