Yesterday, the Michigan Independent Media Center (IMC) web site was shutdown. In a statement posted on the site by Michigan IMC’s editorial collective, editors pointed to technical problems and the lack of a strong editorial collective as the main reasons for shutting down the site.

Founded in 2002, the Michigan IMC was frequently a good source for independent media coverage of the various social movements in the state of Michigan. In the early years of Michigan IMC, it was the best source for information on the antiwar movement in Michigan and provided many perspectives left out of the corporate media, perhaps most notably in its coverage of the riots in Benton Harbor in the summer of 2003. As recently as 2004, the site functioned well, but following the hacking of the site in April of 2005 it has been in a steady decline. Members of the site’s editorial collective will continue to be involved with independent media with BlackBox Radio, Critical Moment, Detroit Summer, and the Allied Media Conference.

The site’s archive remains online and the editors remain supportive of efforts to launch other Indymedia websites in Michigan.