Public Access TV Stations! Closed?

When someone thinks about our Founding Fathers one may never make a connection to Public Access Television. It was them who created the 1st Amendment in the Federal Constitution, which guarantees our “…free exercise thereof…the freedom of speech.”

And Public Access Television IS A VENUE of Free Speech….

But recent laws known as DIVCA, http://accessf.org/soscoalition/DIVCA_issues.php, are threatening the very existence of Public Access TV, and may eliminate them all-together,

UNLESS….

We The People stand up and demand that the Federal, State or City governments halt the closure of 100’s of public access stations throughout the country, by creating and passing legislation that secures funding for Public Access TV.
And although we still have the internet, broadcast television still remains the most viable form of mass communication for the citizens.

Without it…
∙ faith based entities will not be able to share their culture with the community.
∙ the disabled will not be able to educate or share information with those who are
homebound.
∙ senior citizens will not be able to learn about valuable new programs.
∙ youth will lose a way to mass communicate their plight to the community via television.
∙ GLBT people will not be able to educate the community about their lives and
communities.

And finally all television will still be controlled by a narrowly defined group of men who could care less about our access to the media or our rights to Free Speech.

The Battle to Save Public Access Television has started in California, namely San Francisco, but over a dozen public access stations have already been closed in the Los Angeles, http://accessf.org/soscoalition/press.php, and locally Access SF or San Francisco’s Public Access station is slated to close by June 30, 2009,

UNLESS We Fight!

Locally this fight starts at San Francisco’s City Hall on February 23rd 2009 at 10am. Please follow link for more information. http://accessf.org/soscoalition/hearings.php

Recently Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi created a resolution… http://accessf.org/soscoalition/mirkarimi_resolution.php,
…that brings-to-light the plight of the Future of Public Access TV. But the local government needs to see the constituency that supports or uses Public Access TV.
And Nationally the Federal Government needs to step up and create and pass legislation that secures our Venue for Free Speech. http://www.house.gov/pelosi/



Many organizations support Public Access TV including the San Francisco Labor Council, http://www.sflaborcouncil.org/
The African American Art and Culture Complex, http://www.aaacc.org/
Independent Living Resource Center, http://www.ilrcsf.org/
And the Youth Commission, http://www.sfgov.org/site/youth_commission_index.asp

What we are also asking of the community is to please consider and subsequently join the Coalition to Save Public Access TV. Please follow the link http://accessf.org/soscoalition/index.php

And communicate to the governments that we need access to the media without interference by mainstream media outlets.

In other words we Want to Keep the Right to Create our own media, while exercising our rights to Free Speech.