Hillsborough, public access station settles lawsuit
January 6, 2009 at 5:48 pm by Wayne GarciaA mediator announced a proposed settlement in the case of Tampa Bay Community Networks, the provider of public access programming in Tampa, and Hillsborough County, which some believe undertook a political purging of funding for the station that had been a target of the county’s right-wing politicians.
Two years ago, the county dropped its $350,000 in funding for TBCN, drawing howls from First Amendment advocates. The public access programming had been attacked by commissioners such as Ronda Storms over the years for a few shows that were racy or lewd.The cuts were made in a year when millions in funding for professional sports and other uses were approved.
In the settlement (here in .doc format), the county agreed not to reassign the public access channels for other uses through 2013, to accept a lower payment for a county-finance remote broadcast truck than it had previously sought and to allow TBCN to create a process and rate structure for county residents to use the station’s public facilities.
TBCN Executive Director Louise Thompson told me this afternoon: “Our primary goal in the world was our channel capacity. That will stay available to the public; well we have it through 2013.”
The settlement is pending approval by the current Hillsborough County Commission.
