Last Saturday (Un)Occupy Albuquerque* held a rally for free speech a day after the City of Albuquerque decided out of the blue to terminate a 30 year contractual relationship with an award-winning Public Access TV provider Quote-Unquote Media Center.
In a turnabout that will cost the City of Albuquerque $117,000 more than Quote-Unquote’s proposal, the City recommendation went to uPublicTV, which until now has yet to produce any broadcast content. For over a year, it has had the Educational Access Channel but has failed to activate any TV programming.
Along with airing local events ( high school sports!) Quote-Unquote airs views mainstream media won’t touch, including looking at the human rights record of Israel and US complicity in violations of international law. QUQ has aired visiting speakers such as Ali Abunimah, Jeff Halper, Ziad Abbas, videos such as With God On Our Side, was the media sponsor for the AAPER Palestine Film Festival, aired the vigil for Gaza, aired live shows with guests such as Will Covert, Iris Keltz, Rita Erickson, Linda Durham, Ken Mayers, Gabe Schivone, Micha Kurz, and the list goes on and on.
“We have legitimate concerns about the scoring process for this contract,” said Quote-Unquote Executive Director, Steve Ranieri. “Any logical person would question the decision to move away from a television station that is live now for an operator which will not have live programming for at least one year. New Mexican taxpayers and families should not tolerate going dark and eliminating free speech.”
Albuquerque has a large vibrant Middle East peace and justice community whose guts and gumption has inspired citizen activism in major cities all across the country.
The City Council still has the opportunity to vote on this drastic change . Quote-Unquote along with local activists are mobilizing their supporters to contact City Council to try to persuade them to vote it down, as free speech is under threat.
*After much discussion, consensus at Occupy Albuquerque changed its name to(Un)Occupy Albuquerque as a nod to Native Americans who are sensitive to the word “occupation”.
Public Access TV and Local News are two of the most despised institutions in the country, and for good reason – they undermine state propaganda and profit centers for “the big boys.”
http://www.savethenews.org/sites/savethenews.org/files/Outsourcing%20the%20News.pdf
“Paired with the fact that, as noted in the FCC report, 21 percent of commercial TV stations air no local news at all,(4) it becomes clear that the American broadcasting system has abandoned its vital public service responsibilities, while prioritizing revenues over increased investment in news.”
a lot of these stations around the country are being shut down without much news about them. there will be no citizen access if things continue in this direction.
from last night: RAW Video of Tuesday’s arrests at UNM
They used the excuse of going “digital” as the first wave of assault to shut broadcasts down, now they are doing it directly. Pirate radio and mobile TV jam broadcasts should be used in all of these arenas.
ALTERNATIVE