August/September1999
Free speech battle at KPFA
Berkeley, Cal.-For more than two weeks KPFA, the country's oldest listener
sponsored radio station, was shut down and put on autopilot by its parent
organization, the Pacifica Foundation. Labor activists and
listener-supporters have maintained a continuous presence in front of the
boarded up, padlocked station to denounce Pacifica board chair Mary Frances
Berry's campaign to broaden and diversify KPFA's appeal at the expense of
free speech and local control over community radio.
The standoff was precipitated by management's on-air removal of a
programmer who aired a fifteen minute excerpt of a news conference during
which a speaker presented e-mail evidence that selling KPFA's frequency,
94.1 MHz, had been discussed by board members.
Station management broadcasted recorded music and archival audio tapes of
popular leftist lecturers during its lockout of staff.
The conflict came to a head on August 1 when 10,000 supporters of KPFA
startled Pacifica by attending a march and rally. Organizing this
demonstation around the idea of free speech struck a deep cord in the local
community. So much so that there is no compromise: KPFA staff won complete
autonomy for at least six months and the removal of armed guards as well as
assurances that the station's frequency will not be sold.
A confrontation with a protestor helped me see more clearly the importance
of free speech. She was so appalled by News & Letters' position, supporting
the Kosovar's struggle for self determination, that she doubted we could
really be interested in supporting local control of KPFA. Maybe that it so
because the station largely ignored the issue of the Kosovar's struggle
against ethnic cleansing in their opposition to NATO bombing. She argued
that Kosova is merely a province of Serbia and therefore you can't support
self determination for its population. She left before I could ask her if
she would then support Berry's clampdown on this "province" of Pacifica
Foundation.
-David M.
CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO NEWS AND LETTERS
| 
