Wednesday, March 1, 2000
2:30 P.M.
House conference room 325
 

Chair Menor and Vice Chair Lee, members of the Committee,
 

My name is Jeff Garland, an eight year volunteer producer at 'Olelo, and I am here to testify in favor of  HB 2888 with

amendments. Entirely gut the current bill and insert the content of  HB 2953 in its place, inserting the following passage to line

15, after the word "senate;" add the following line, "Three members elected by the cable access users group;"
 

Since the 1978 Supreme court ruling that Corporations have the same First Amendment rights of free speech that private

citizens have, Democracy has eroded almost out of existence through corporate funded "issue ads". PBS has gotten less

controversial in their programming and is now allowing Corporations to wrap advertising around their programs, and the

content of the news and information we are receiving is controlled by giant corporations who own all the media outlets.
 

Now access centers are catering more to non profits that are armed with representatives from big companies and allowing their

access boards to be taken over by them. Programs are less controversial and more facilitated by the centers rather than

facilitating the producers to exercise their freedom of speech, and more PBS like programming already paid for with tax

money, is taking the place of local Public Access user produced programs.
 
 

The writer of ‘Olelo’s contract (RealVideo) with the DCCA was also the director of that state agency. He later became a

member of Olelo’s Board, steering it in the direction of merging with another over-endowed (despite its public pleas) inept

organization (KHET) that also has questionable yield of service for the funds it receives, and now he has been appointed to

KHET’s new non profit board.
 
 

For six years public access producers have been actively working toward legislation in their own words and spirit only to have

their concerns whittled down to meaningless meatless resolutions. One was a request for public representation on the board.

Despite these efforts, the only result has been the attached letter from a few Senators requesting ‘Olelo to include members of

the public on its board. Both Olelo and the DCCA ignored this request.
 
 

The irony is that an organization whose mana’o and kuleana is to "provide access to and training for media," spends more of its

time trying to restrict access by creating the country’s largest book of rules for access and has gone into creating programming

rather than "facilitating the creation of programming" as stated in their articles of incorporation and bylaws and mission. This is

effectively taking the "soap box" away from the under served and redistributing it to organizations that are underwritten by the

very same corporations that already enjoy access to commercial media. The soapbox is needed to provide a vehicle for

diverse views, including particularly, non-commercial speech. ‘Olelo heavily facilitates their own chosen projects with paid

staff, crews chosen on a racial basis and grant money not available to others and drive out those that dare to speak out against

them, both staff and users alike.
 
 

The current ubiquitous elite board people who serve together on numerous other non profit and media related boards are held

up as "leaders of the community", but who’s community and where are they leading us? These Government appointed people

were all asked if they had ever used the facility and none responded affirmatively. They were also asked if they watched the

channels and only two reluctantly admitted they did! Are they the best qualified to make decisions about an access

organization? I think not. The public access users and the under served of our community need representation on the board

through a more democratic process. I believe this is the only way to get access in Hawaii back on track!
 
 

This is the first time volunteer access community producers and technicians have been taken seriously enough to have their

concerns drafted as a bill and it would be a disgrace to all of you if yet another year of this inequity continues. Let

"the people" have a say in what the mandated money is used for. Please help them help themselves exercise their freedom of

expression and allow them to become even more a part of the democratic process by passing this bill.
 

Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Sincerely,

Jeff Garland
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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