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KPFA Board Won't Call for Julian Assange's Freedom
On Saturday, October 20, the KPFA Local Station Board considered a resolution calling for the freedom of Wikileaks founder, journalist, and publisher Julian Assange. The board did not pass that resolution but it did pass one saying that it encouraged programming about Assange's case. This is the audio of that part of the board meeting.
On October 12, the Pacifica National Board voted 12 yes, 0 no, 4 abstain, and 3 present-not-voting to call for the freedom of Wikileaks founder, journalist, and whistleblower Julian Assange, who has been an asylee in Ecuador's London Embassy for the past six years. Assange believes that if he leaves the Ecuadorian Embassy he will e extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for publishing classified documents.
On October 20, the KPFA Local Station Board voted not to do the same, but instead passed a resolution saying that it "supports coverage of the dire situation of Julian Assange as an independent media voice and calls for an end to attacks on journalists and whistle blowers by the US government and the corporations who control the government."
Only three Board members, listener representative Tom Voorhees, and staff representatives Anthony Fest and Steve Zeltzer voted against the resolution that did not call for Assange's freedom.
For more information:
https://kpfa.org/about/kpfa-local-station-...
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Radio station KPFA has strayed far from its principled defense of truth and justice, in part because of the faction of a small core of paid staff supported by the listeners' faction led by some members of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club (and others), manifested over the years in the KPFAWorker website, the Concerned Listeners and their slate, SaveKPFA , and now, United for Independent Radio (KPFA Unity).
United because a portion of last election's United for Community Radio (UCR)opposition slate has been coopted to share the views of SaveKPFA and vote with them.
The watered down proposal diluting support for Julian Assange by freeing him from prosecution/persecution, and instead merely promoting coverage of his treatment on KPFA radio - which should be a given, but was actually blacked out for a while - was a result of the dominance of this group in the present Local Station Board.
We would like to remedy this situation in the upcoming KPFA LSB election with a regrouping of forces called Rescue Pacifica, consisting mostly of former UCR members who still oppose the Save KPFA stands. We are going to run candidates and probably recommend certain independents who share some of our platform.
The policies put forward by SaveKPFA/Unity derive from the goal of its leaders to separate the station from Pacifica and appropriate it for their group which would abolish its democratic structure and run it top down, "moderating" the programming to attract "moderate" progressives. That is why their actions/nonactions over the over the past years were to obstruct sound governance and sound finances, resulting in a financial crisis in which they advocated, and still do, taking "voluntary" bankruptcy. In bankruptcy court they could offer to buy the station without a vote of the members, take it from Pacifica, and drop it into a waiting shell corporation which they had secretly set up and called "The KPFA Foundation". The moderating of the programming, as seen in the Assange policy vote, in the advocacy of "humanitarian" warfare (by a station formed as an anti-war voice), the focus on Russian involvement in the US election, the censoring and now removal of "Guns and Butter" without due process, the suppression of uncovering government and corporate coverups, and other unilateral program changes, and more - all this is what we are struggling against: the move of KPFA toward the right.
So please, if you are a KPFA member, vote in the election which is now finally being organized. Vote for the candidates of Rescue Pacifica (and KPFA); your vote can make a difference in preserving and furthering the Pacifica network as a source of truth among all the bought and paid for "fake news"!
Watch this space as we develop our website and election campaign.
United because a portion of last election's United for Community Radio (UCR)opposition slate has been coopted to share the views of SaveKPFA and vote with them.
The watered down proposal diluting support for Julian Assange by freeing him from prosecution/persecution, and instead merely promoting coverage of his treatment on KPFA radio - which should be a given, but was actually blacked out for a while - was a result of the dominance of this group in the present Local Station Board.
We would like to remedy this situation in the upcoming KPFA LSB election with a regrouping of forces called Rescue Pacifica, consisting mostly of former UCR members who still oppose the Save KPFA stands. We are going to run candidates and probably recommend certain independents who share some of our platform.
The policies put forward by SaveKPFA/Unity derive from the goal of its leaders to separate the station from Pacifica and appropriate it for their group which would abolish its democratic structure and run it top down, "moderating" the programming to attract "moderate" progressives. That is why their actions/nonactions over the over the past years were to obstruct sound governance and sound finances, resulting in a financial crisis in which they advocated, and still do, taking "voluntary" bankruptcy. In bankruptcy court they could offer to buy the station without a vote of the members, take it from Pacifica, and drop it into a waiting shell corporation which they had secretly set up and called "The KPFA Foundation". The moderating of the programming, as seen in the Assange policy vote, in the advocacy of "humanitarian" warfare (by a station formed as an anti-war voice), the focus on Russian involvement in the US election, the censoring and now removal of "Guns and Butter" without due process, the suppression of uncovering government and corporate coverups, and other unilateral program changes, and more - all this is what we are struggling against: the move of KPFA toward the right.
So please, if you are a KPFA member, vote in the election which is now finally being organized. Vote for the candidates of Rescue Pacifica (and KPFA); your vote can make a difference in preserving and furthering the Pacifica network as a source of truth among all the bought and paid for "fake news"!
Watch this space as we develop our website and election campaign.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
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