Editor,
The Albuquerque community is in danger of losing a valuable First Amendment platform if the Albuquerque City Council decides on May 7 to approve Mayor Berry’s proposal to strip our public access TV channels away from Quote-Unquote Inc., the station that has been operating our public channels 26 and 27 efficiently and effectively for more than 30 years.
I naively thought public access channels were guaranteed by some FCC regulation, but in recent weeks, I’ve learned there is a nationwide campaign by phone companies — including AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. — to move into the cable market. They have their sights on public, education and government channels, i.e., PEG channels.
Albuquerque is part of a much larger battle being waged in Los Angeles; Troy, NY; Tampa, Fla. and elsewhere around the country.
Quote-Unquote trains community journalists, provides access to equipment and studios and helps us all get our voices and our stories heard in the community. We can’t find those stories on KRGE, KOB, KRQE or anywhere else in New Mexico.
Time for students and the UNM community to rise up and tell the City Council that free speech in Albuquerque is not for sale.
Lora Lucero
Daily Lobo reader
