Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms did not like the content
of some of the station's programs.
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Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms did not like the content
of some of the station's programs.
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Speak Up Tampa Bay sued the county claiming it violated first amendment rights when it cut funds earlier this year.
The county must continue funding the public access station until legal issues can be resolved.
For more on this developing story tune to Bay News
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Without funding from the Hillsborough County Commission, 'Speak Up
Tampa Bay,' will go silent.
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Hillsborough County and its public access television station are scheduled to meet in court later today.
At stake is the future of Speak Up Tampa Bay. "Speak Up Tampa Bay", the American Civil Liberties Union and the Alliance for Community Media claim county leaders violated the first amendment when they cut funding for the station.
Their lawsuit asks the court to prevent the county from terminating the station's source of financial income.
The case came about after months of debate between members of the station's management team and Hillsborough County Commissioners over the content of some programming.
"The vote to terminate Speak Up's funding was just a pretext for unconstitutional censorship of protected speech," said Rochelle
Reback, lead counsel for Speak Up. "The public record demonstrates that the move to eliminate public access funding is motivated by the Commissioners' simple dislike of some of the community's programming."
In addition to Tampa attorney Reback, the public access channel's legal team includes Paul Rebein and Mark Brown, Cooperating Counsel for the
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida, Inc., and Deanna A. Tedone, a Tampa attorney.
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Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms did not like the content
of some of the station's programs.
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There's new information in the Hillsborough County Cable Access Television Station lawsuit.
The temporary restraining order issued by a judge last month that kept funding in place has been extended through the end of the month.
The extension will allow the county time to respond to Speak Up Tampa Bay's request for answers from two County Commissioners.
The cable access channel filed suit last moth saying the county violated its first amendment rights when its members decided to stop funding the station.
'Speak Up Tampa Bay' receives a late reprieve from U.S. District Court
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'White Chocolate' is one program Storms had problems with.
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Judicial intervention is keeping a Hillsborough County public access television channel up and running today.
A Bay area judge ruled Monday that Hillsborough County must keep paying for the station's bills. The ruling comes just hours before Speak Up Tampa Bay was ready to go off the air.
Last month County Commissioners voted to cut all funding to the channel when they approved their new budget. Speak Up Tampa Bay and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against that decision, claiming it was a violation of the First Amendment.
The judge also ruled, the county must keep paying for Speak Up Tampa Bay until the dispute is heard in Federal Court.
U.S. District
Judge James Moody Jr. ruled that the county won't be hurt by his order, but
by forcing the station to shut down creates "immediate and irreparable
harm."
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Storms sent at least
two tapes to State Attorney Mark Ober concerning questionable content.
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A hearing is set for October 15.
The lawsuit details some of the commission's complaints about the content of programming on Speak Up Tampa Bay, dating back to June 2001. Included in the complaints are at least two requests to State Attorney Mark Ober to review material that was considered obscene.
Commissioner Ronda Storms sent Ober tapes of a show entitled "Insanity Defense", and another called the "Happy Show." He declined to prosecute.
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Storms often clashed with the station over its content.
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A Bay area public access television station is fighting to stay on the air in Hillsborough County.
Speak Up Tampa Bay and the ACLU has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.
Earlier this month, commissioners
voted to cut all funding to the station when they approved their budget.
That means unless the channel wins this court battle, Speak Up Tampa Bay
will have to be off the air by Tuesday.
Most of the station's problems began when Commissioner Ronda Storms spoke out about "The Happy Show".
Commissioners say their decision was purely directed by a
lack of funds.
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Speak Up Tampa Bay will go black October 1st.
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Hillsborough County residents will not be able to use public access TV for much longer. County commissioners approved the yearly budget without including any money for public access.
It all started when Comissioner Ronda Storms criticized public access over a show that she said was sexually explicit.
For the past year, Weaver Barber and his wife Mildred has used the public access facilities for free to produce a weekely gospel music segment ministering to folks in the community.
Barber says "People call us and tell us they are blessed by the message in the songs."
County commisioners axed the $355,000 in their budget for public access, meaning county residents can no longer come in to use the equipment or see any of the public access programing on their cable provider. "We won't be able to come down here and have a program anymore because producers won't be able to put a show on that live outside the city limits. So by cutting county funds we won't have a show," said Barber.
Hundreds of other county residents like the Barbers will lose out because of the funding cut.
On October 1st, the station will go to black. However, Public Access Board President Louise Thompson says it's not over. She says the station has tried to work with commissioners all along and now they'll continue to fight the county's decision.
"They have forced us to go into a lawsuit. Last night they made a decision, 'Sue us.' We didn't make a decision, they did. They said, 'Go ahead we want you to sue us,' because all along, certainly, we have prepared for this eventuality," said Thompson.
Public access leaders say the American
Civil Liberties Union is also supporting their lawsuit against the county.
Lawyers representing public access are prepared to head to federal court
next week.