What do these events have in common? News item: Washington, D.C., Library of Congress – Two reporters are tackled by library police, dragged downstairs, hauled outside and told by police to leave the grounds and never to return for asking
What do these events have in common?
News item: Washington, D.C., Library of Congress – Two reporters are tackled by library police, dragged downstairs, hauled outside and told by police to leave the grounds and never to return for asking the question, “Why are you using a public library to promote a junk food product?” News item: Lihu’e – Kathyrin Mataoshi, director of Hawai’i Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), cancels a meeting of the executive directors and board presidents of all the public access corporations in Hawai’i because a board member from Ho’ike Public Access Television wants to observe the meeting and refuses to leave.
News item: Lihu’e- The Ho’ike board of directors jettison their promise to “act in the spirit of State Sunshine Law” and passes a resolution forbidding the audio or videotaping of their board meeting by reporters or members of the public. One board member resigns in protest.
News item: Lihu’e – The executive director of Ho’ike forcefully attempts to stop a public access producer from videotaping a Ho’ike board meeting. The police are called. The producer agrees to stop videotaping the meeting.
The answer to the question, “What do these events have in common?” is that in each instance corporations are attempting to manage public opinion by prohibiting members of the public from asking questions, observing or documenting their activities in public meetings and places.
Corporations are more than willing to push the public around in public buildings and at public meetings. They will create bylaws and enforce rules governing how the public may document a public meeting. They are willing to do whatever it takes to control public opinion.
Why prevent public recording of board meetings? Well, if someone takes notes of the meeting, the accuracy can be challenged, giving board members “plausible deniability” or the “that’s-not-what-I-said” defense. An audio or videotape recording can easily prove or disprove this defense. That is why Ho’ike changes it bylaws to prohibit electronic recordings or proceedings. The goal is to maintain absolute control of the corporate image seen by the public. All that’s left are official minutes and faded memories of board activity.
The irony is that Ho’ike, a private non-profit corporation that professes to promote free speech and greater public access, is taking action to limit the public’s ability to use technology to document Ho’ike’s own board activities.
Unlike the state library system, which is funded by taxpayers and obeys Sunshine laws, it appears these non-profit public access corporations were intentionally set up by the DCCA to circumvent the Sunshine laws.
Here’s the deal on getting around that pesky Sunshine law. First you form a corporation exempt from Sunshine law that you control. Here’s how: ?
The state creates several tax-exempt 501C-3 non-profit access corporations on Oahu, Maui, Hawai’i and Kaua’i, and appoints the majority of the board members. The cable company appoints the minority. These access corporations have no members other than the state and cable company-appointed board members. The state maintains control of the board.
?
The state imposes a public access franchise fee that takes 2 percent to 5 percent of the cable company’s gross revenues to fund the Public, Educational and Government (PEG) access corporations they created. This fee, collected from all cable subscribers, adds up to several million dollars a year.
?
The cable companies pass the entire cost on to their cable subscribers (check you cable bill). Non of the cable subscribers who pay for PEG are members of the corporation (unless the state or the cable companies appoint them).
?
The cable companies pay the state-mandated public access franchise fees directly to the access corporations. This direct payment of cable company PEG fees to the PEG access corporations circumvents the money going through the state’s general fund, so the State can claim no government money is being used for PEG access. The state also claims that since no government money is involved, state Sunshine laws don’t apply.
In summary, the current situation is that cable subscribers are being assessed a user fee by the state that is collected by the cable companies and paid directly to an access corporation run by a state and cable company-appointed board of directors. Whew! The cable ratepayers who are funding the access corporations are not members, have no say in governance, nor how their money is spent. Oversight by the public and journalists is impossible because these access corporations are exempt from Sunshine laws.
What does Ho’ike have to hide? As a former board member, I can say there are more than a few skeletons stuffed away in the closet that would benefit from being brought out for good bleaching in the sunshine.
Can a secretive organization set up and controlled by the state government fulfill its mission of providing effective citizen access to the medium of television? The answer is no. A non-democratic organization by definition cannot promote democracy effectively, or the organization itself would be democratic.
If you asked me if this is an ongoing scam between cable companies and the state to pick the public’s pocket and while neutering their voice, I wouldn’t say you’re wrong. After all, why create this whole public access structure at all when it would have been better to fund the state library system to provide this service? Oh, I forgot.
Then they would be covered by Sunshine law and might be effective. Currently, democracy loses coming and going.
Ed Coll is a former board member of Ho’ike and a multi-media producer. He has lived on Kaua’i since 1985.
