Public access is based on public forum decisions in court cases. The courts take public forums very seriously as vehicles of free expression under the 1st Amendment. Therefore, any citations in support of banning candidates’ forums that are not in the context of public forum law are irrelevant. Please review articles from “Communications Lawyer” and “The Florida Bar Journal” to familiarize yourself with public forum issues.
This could be the end of the matter. However, the day-to-day policies and procedures are also spelled out in the “Community Programming Members Manual.” This manual has guided TV 8 operations for six years. The current edition has been approved by the joint city/county PEG Board, a body Clearlake City Administrator Dale Neiman has deferred responsibility for PEG matters to in the past. Residents who submit content assume full responsibility for their productions.
This manual states in section 3.8 under “Programming Policies”: “Special political programming shall be scheduled for each election, with reasonable guide lines as to time, place, and manner of such programming to be established by the PEG Committee in cooperation with the PEG Manager.”
The Members Manual, now under the authority of the PEG Board, is the operational interface between Lake County residents and the cable franchisers. The city of Clearlake’s ability to take unilateral action is now limited by not only public forum law but by the voluntary agreement with the county. Clearlake’s status as “lead agency” does not mean “only agency.”
It is my position that public forum doctrine and TV8’s own operation guidelines, now ceded to the PEG Board, give Lake County residents the right to cable cast political programs subject only to the regulation allowed for type two fora. They are residents’ productions, not government productions. Allowing residents to use a public forum, such as TV 8, is not subsidizing the activity with government funds.
Putting a ban on legal programming that people are now producing is taking away a free speech resource that residents already have and must be justified by legally established compelling reasons and not convenience or irrational fears.
Dante DeAmicis lives in Clearlake.
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