Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East (2nd from right) and community television activists, Sid Chow Tan (l), Rick Ward and Patrice Leslie, at August 13, Press Conference, Independent Community Television offices

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VANCOUVER, BC -- Community Media Education Society (C.M.E.S.) and Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, will host a media briefing of a proposed community-owned and operated low-watt broadcast station on channel 4. It will be a true community channel. Developed by ICTV Independent Community Television Co-operative, the licence application is expected to be made before the end of December, 2001.

The briefing is scheduled for Monday, August 13th, 2001 at 10:45 AM at the ICTV studio, located at 1650 East Hastings St. (near Commercial Drive) in Vancouver.

The proposed station intends to restore the volunteer participation, public access and local expression that has steadily eroded on the community channel since the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC ) 1997 decision to no longer require cable licensees to operate a community channel. Since that decision the dominant Lower Mainland community channel operators, first Rogers and now Shaw, incrementally eliminated volunteer opportunities, public access and local expression.

Recently Shaw TV announced they were cutting all community-produced programs from the channel 4 schedule in September, 2001. However, community producers may now be allowed to contribute one three minute segment a week to programs which will be completely controlled by paid Shaw staff. In other words, if these segments meet Shaw's corporate programming criteria they may get airplay. At the same time, Shaw TV shut down its Kitsilano studio, leaving it no significant community television facility in Vancouver other than its base at city hall.

C.M.E.S. and ICTV began on November 19, 1996 when Rogers closed three of its four neighbourhood television (NTV) production facilities in anticipation of the CRTC's 1997 ruling. The volunteers at the Van East NTV office on Commercial Drive organized C.M.E.S. and ICTV, which continue to be primarily managed and operated by volunteers.

"I believe community interests are best served when there is a vibrant community media not beholden to corporate interests," states Libby Davies, MP, who presented a C.M.E.S. petition to Parliament in 1999 to save independent community television. "Community media is essential for the advancement of democracy in that it offers the general public an opportunity to be well informed and able to hear voices that traditionally have not been heard."

According to the CRTC, which licenses and regulates broadcasters, cable companies and new media, "the role of the community channel...should be primarily of a public service nature, facilitating self-expression by free and open access to members of the community. Also, community programming should complement that of conventional broadcasters. The provision of adequate financial resources to support the community channel remains the cable licensee's principal contribution to the public in exchange for the privilege of holding a cable television licence." (CRTC Public Notice 1991-59

Our proposed community channel "is a vision for the future; people in control of their stories and celebrations." says Andrew Lithgow, founding director of ICTV and producer of the program After Hours which will be cut in September. "Individuals and community groups will have a voice unfiltered by corporate necessities. We hope citizens will help ICTV in this bold and exciting opportunity of returning the public to the airwaves."

"The CRTC has called for public comments to look into licensing community television independently to broadly representative community groups," says Richard Ward, C.M.E.S. executive director. "In Vancouver, that community channel should be on cable 4 and be supported by the community channel levy."

CRTC rules allow cable companies to allocate up to 2% of gross annual revenues, derived from broadcasting activities, toward local expression. Based on a $30/month cable bill and 660,000 Lower Mainland subscribers, Shaw collects close to $5,000,000 that should be supporting a community channel. But little of the collected money is currently directed to help local community television producers and organizations. Instead, Shaw TV uses the community channel money to create repetitive opportunities in their programming to market Shaw goods and services.

"I don't believe viewers want this. They tell me the opposite when they respond to my programs," states Julius Fisher, who bought editing and camera equipment to continue the now cancelled, international award-winning working TV, a weekly social justice and workers' rights program. "I have had two meetings with Shaw and asked them to show me the market research that directs their decision making. Pollsters can skew their so-called research to provide any result a client wants. I believe Shaw got the response they paid for."

Even Vancouver's City Council appears to be concerned about how cable's community levy is being used. On August 2, 2001, Vancouver City Council voted in favour of asking, "That the City Manager be requested to write a letter to Shaw Television asking what resources are available from Shaw to support community programming, especially volunteer-based community programming." This is the United Nations Year of the Volunteer.

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