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March/April 2000 issue (#44)

From: savepacifica@peacenet.org
Subject: Activists support the Pacifica strikers

Dear fellow progressive activists, We are writing to ask you to support the strike by freelance reporters of Pacifica Network News (PNN) by signing the attached statement of support. Since the crisis at KPFA Radio last spring and summer, when armed guards were brought in to lock out the KPFA staff, Pacifica management has repeatedly censored or altered PNN news stories and public-affairs programming, or prevented segments of programs or whole programs from being aired.

In November of last year Pacifica news director Dan Coughlin was "reassigned" after airing a story describing a boycott by sixteen Pacifica affiliates over the issue of censorship. More recently, news anchor Verna Avery Brown has left Pacifica over issues including censorship and a trend away from progressive coverage in Pacifica's national news. The strikers' demands are that Coughlin be re-assigned as news director and that Pacifica renounce censorship of the news throughout the network.

The striking journalists comprise a majority of active contributors and reporters to Pacifica Network News, a daily, half-hour news program that airs on some 70 radio stations nationally. Those committed to the strike include journalists from ten states and four continents. Virtually the entire news staff of the network's flagship Berkeley station, KPFA, and its New York station, WBAI, are supporting the action. The demands have been sent to the Pacifica governing board. Since they have not been met, the reporters have begun a three-month strike. The reporters' January 24, 2000 letter to Pacifica management, describing the censorship and their demands for change, can be found here: http://www.savepacifica.net/strike/letter_to_management.html.

Since its inception, Pacifica has been a bastion for free speech. For fifty years Pacifica has been a voice of protest against repression and injustice, and an invaluable resource for progressive movements. We cannot afford to lose it. Pacifica Network News relies on interviews with progressive activists. One way you can support the journalists' strike and fight censorship is to refuse to "cross the picket line" by refusing to provide comments to the reporters of Pacifica Network News. We urge you to refuse to support PNN in any way until they have ended their policy of censorship.

Note that the news staff of the five Pacifica stations--KPFA, WBAI, KPFK, KPFT, and WPFW--and the news staff of Pacifica's "Democracy Now" show are not on strike: please continue to provide interviews to them. Please sign the accompanying petition to affirm your opposition to censorship of the news by Pacifica management and to affirm your refusal to be interviewed by PNN reporters or any other journalists who intend to provide a news report to PNN. This petition will be sent to Pacifica Foundation Chair Mary Frances Berry and the other Pacifica National Boardmembers. Also, please forward this message to colleagues and friends.

Thanks,

Activists United in Support of PNN Reporters

Statement in Support of PNN Strikers' Demands

To sign this statement, send your name, organizational affiliation and title to picketline@peacecenter.com, or phone (650) 326-8837 or fax (650) 321-4464

To Pacifica Foundation Chair Mary Frances Berry and other Pacifica National Boardmembers:

We, the undersigned, are activists working to implement progressive ideals of freedom, justice, honesty, democracy, and compassion. We are deeply concerned about Pacifica management's attempts to intimidate and censor those who try to report on matters of vital importance to the Pacifica network. This kind of censorship is intolerable and creates a chilling effect throughout the network, a network founded on the principles of free speech and open debate. Therefore, we support the demands of Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship, as outlined in their January 24 letter to you. In particular, we recognize their strike and will honor their "picket line" by refusing interviews with any reporter intending to file a story with PNN.

Barbara Lubin, Executive Director, Middle East Childrens Alliance, Berkeley, CA

Medea Benjamin, Founding Director, Global Exchange, San Francisco, CA

Erik Gustafson, Executive Director, Education for Peace in Iraq Center, Washington, DC

Norman Solomon, Syndicated Media Columnist, Point Reyes, CA

Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator, Voices in the Wilderness, Chicago, IL

Fadi Saba, Arab American Caucus, California State Democratic Party, San Jose, CA

Alison Harris, Director, San Jose Peace Center, San Jose, CA

Teri Shore, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, Forest Knolls, CA

Marcy Darnovsky, Ph.D., Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University, CA

Bill Mandel, KPFA Broadcaster 1958-1995, Berkeley, CA

Michael Parenti, Author, Berkeley, CA

[and others]

website: http://www.savepacifica.net

email: savepacifica@peacenet.org

subscribe or unsubscribe: Visit http://www.savepacifica.net/subscribe.html

Strike fund donations needed

Freelance reporters are putting their livelihoods on line during the strike, and many strikers are filing stories for Free Speech Radio News, the alternative news cast. Donations to the strike fund are desperately needed. Please make contributions payable to Friends of Free Speech Radio, and mail to: "Freelancers' Strike Fund," c/o Friends of Free Speech Radio, 905 Parker St., Berkeley, CA 94710. Thank you for helping fight censorship at Pacifica!