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WE SUPPORT MEDIA DEMOCRACY!

"Media Democracy Week" was March 19 - 25, 2000

A CALL FOR MEDIA DEMOCRACY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Originally released for publication 2/27/2000)

> "Local resident proposes 'JCC-MAC' to produce community-based local cable television and internet programming for Jersey City"

> "Proposed Proclamation recognizes the importance of Community Media" and the failure of the present system since 1996.

> "Community media activist outlines plan to create, preserveand nurture public electronic green space by helping people telltheir stories, giving them the tools to do so, in order to allow Jersey City residents to tell their stories about the character and purposes of their community."

> "Ackshun Al's" "Manifesto" for a JERSEY CITY COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS CENTER ["JCC-MAC"] recognizes the power of the people,the politics which have suppressed local community media, and the challenge to create a living "green space" where personal stories thrive, where technology serves, and where the residents of Jersey City can pursue personal and political development."

THE JERSEY CITY
COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS CENTER MANIFESTO:

WHEREAS The Alliance for Community Media ["ACM"] has designated March 19-25, 2000 as Media Democracy Week; and ACM, a national non-profit organization [ 666 11th St. NW, Suite 740,Washington, D.C. 20001-4542, 202.393.2650 voice, 202.393.2653 fax, email at government@alliancecm.org; website at www.alliancecm.org] believes that community media can change peoples' lives for the better, by allowing "ordinary" citizens to participate in and create television, radio and internet programming that makes a positive impact on their local communities, and because most of the broadcast and other media and institutions have not fulfilled their promises to provide public forums as a service to the public and

WHEREAS democracy is the foundation of our society and in order for democracy to flourish, people must be able to communicate ideas, share opinions and get information and

WHEREAS a healthy, democratic society is founded on an engaged, informed and included citizenry and

WHEREAS the primary means of information delivery and exchange today is through electronic media and

WHEREAS Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) cable television "media centers" serve their communities' needs and promote media democracy for all people regardless of their life circumstances, their political or religious beliefs or their ability to pay and

WHEREAS the City of Jersey City does not have a dedicated and independent Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) "mediacenter" unlike other municipalities or counties in the State of New Jersey or other states of the Union or foreign countries;

WHEREAS the facilities provided by Comcast Cable of Jersey City pursuant to the Cable Television Franchise Agreement between said company and the City of Jersey City is inadequate to fully and properly serve the needs of all of the City's people or provide the proper technical facilities and other resources to the public access producers, community activists, community groups and other non-profit and non-commercial organizations, who currently produce a minimal and inadequate amount of localcommunity television programming on Comcast Channel 51 ["ThePublic Access Channel"] airing part-time only between about 5:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on week nights, which channel it shares with"The Box" music television channel;

WHEREAS Comcast Channel 1, which currently combines the "The Municipal Government Access Channel" and "The Educational Access Channel" into one part -time channel airing from about 5:30 p.m.to 10:00 p.m. on week nights, which includes a half-hour show for the Mayor, City Council members and the weekly "Council Caucus", which limited programming is presently inadequate and should be supplemented by additional programming to fully keep the residents informed of the workings of city government, including, but not limited to the actual City Council meetings which is attended by the public, the meetings of the City Planning Board, the City Ethics Board, the Board of Education, the Municipal Utilities Authority; and the County Freeholders' meetings, to name but a few;

WHEREAS the "N.J. State Takeover Team" which has controlled the Jersey City School Board and the Jersey City Public Schools for more than a decade is producing about one-half hour or less of programming, the "Connections" show, on average, per month over the last year or more, from the television studio and facilities located at Snyder High School, the "Media Magnet High-Technology High School Program", for which the taxpayers have spent millions of dollars on equipment and infrastructure in the past, and which is currently undergoing another multi-million dollar investment, has resulted in an inadequate commitment to community programming and less than acceptable quality and quantity of student and/or faculty produced programming;

WHEREAS none of the other secondary schools or vocational-technical or community colleges or the public university with television facilities and communications curriculum located within Jersey City have produced little, if any community based programming;

WHEREAS the City of Jersey City has recently awarded a second Cable Television Franchise Agreement to RCN CableTelevision which goes no further with regard to local community programming than that currently required of Comcast;

WHEREAS, by way of example, Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of the District of Columbia, has 13 "PEG" channels in use - two are used by the University of Maryland, one by the community college, two by the public schools, one by county government, and three allocated to the municipalities; in addition to one traditional "free speech" channel; an independent access corporation also runs a public affairs channel that features a daily news broadcast; the Montgomery County PEG channels are relatively well funded by $3 million annually from franchise fees and

WHEREAS, by way of example, the island of Manhattan, City of New York has the "Manhattan Networks", which are twelve public access channels running 18 - 20 hours per day, seven days per week, with facilities consisting of about a dozen television editing systems, and a multi-camera production studio available for nominal rental fees by local residents to produce quality programming by its many diverse citizens and groups and

WHEREAS, the "experiment" in Jersey City has failed since the federal deregulation resulting from the 1996 Telecommunications Act has produced an inadequate quantity and quality of local public access programming, an inadequate quantity and quality of educational programming and an inadequate quantity and quality of government programming which has at times better served the interests of the politicians and/or narrow interests rather than all of the people and

WHEREAS, the "experiment" having failed, the local community having been rendered "information-poor", (those people who have/will have access to technology and those who don't/won't and how that lack of access to technology has/will create(d) a secondclass citizenry, a "digital divide", which is about more than access to information or education on the internet or e-commerce - there's another divide - the one between democracy and technology - the yet unrealized potential of the telecommunications / digital revolution to revolutionize our political system, reinvigorate our residents, citizens and voters, because of access to modern communications tools to disseminate information and education) at a time when current video technology [the "handycam" (r) digital camcorder that fits in the palm of your hand] allows such ease of use of the equipment that grammar school students can produce interesting, engaging and personal local television, radio and internet programming

THEREFORE the demand is made for the immediate establishment and funding of a non-profit and independent "JERSEY CITY COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS CORPORATION" to design, build, operate and maintain ["DBOM"] a Local Television Production Center and administer the public, educational and government ["PEG"] access channels on the existing [Comcast] and planned [RCN] local cable television systems and any other distribution networks, including but not limited to satellite, microwave or internet and

WHEREAS the importance and convenience of the local residents to have electronic access to our local government services and community learning environments which are related to our economic vitality in this, the 21st century should be recognized at this time and

WHEREAS the increasing commercialization of the Internet, the incipient efforts to control content, the full-scale arguments over who should have access via cable and telephone company wires to high-speed Internet access, and long-term strategic positioning by companies to corner as much advertising revenue as possible, all point in the same direction commercialization with little, if any, public service or public space required,

THEREFORE, in addition to its "traditional" functions of local community cable television production and administration, said "JERSEY CITY COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS CORPORATION" will also be charged with the task of researching and ultimately, implementing an "I-Net" system (institutional networks) which are the high-speed community networks for efficient and cost effective voice, data and video transmission for the public and community sectors because of the importance of a "wired community" for overall economic development and quality of life and

THEREFORE the local municipal government institutions, the Office of the Mayor, the City Council and the Department of Administration and any other municipal departments or divisions, along with the Jersey City Public Schools, with the cooperation and involvement of the City's private, parochial and charterschools on the primary and secondary levels, the vocational and technical schools operated by the City and County of Hudson, the colleges and public university, and last but not least access producers, community media activists, community groups and non-profit organizations, all cooperate to implement the JERSEY CITY COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS CENTER in the shortest possible time, with the least amount of conflict and turmoil, TO BEST SERVE THE INTERESTS OF ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF JERSEY CITY RATHER THAN THE NARROW INTERESTS WHICH HAVE BEEN SERVED, FOR THE MOST PART, TO DATE SINCE "FEDERAL DEREGULATION".

Please support this application.

Respectfully Submitted to the Government, Press and Community;
/s/
Alan S Pollack,
local resident, public access producer and
member, Alliance for Community Media

INTERCITY SPORTS REVIEW EDITOR
ENDORSES CALL FOR
INCREASED COMMUNITY MEDIA ACCESS

The Alliance for CommunityMedia observed March 19th through 25th, 2000 as "Media Democracy Week". "The paucity of public affairs media coverage of many crucial events in the locality underscores the need for more community media access," according to the Editor of Intercity Sports Review - ICA Online.
The Editor of Intercity Sports Review - ICA Online has endorsed that declaration.
Click here for the complete text of the proposal.

JERSEY CITY COMCAST CABLE VIEWERS
WATCH ACKSHUN AL PRESENTS
WATCH ACKSHUN AL PRESENTS
ON Public Access CHANNEL 51
Wednesdays at 10 PM
AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

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LOCAL ACCESS in JERSEY CITY - Spring 2001

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