New York, NY-- December 10, 2006-- Now in its fourteenth year, the Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s Community Media Grant Program will allocate $170,000 to support community-based groups throughout Manhattan in learning how to produce, or use their skills for the production of television programming. 

The Program’s mission is two-fold: It enables groups to increase their media capacity in reaching to a broader constituency, while providing new and fresh programming for the channel. 

Jennifer Stearns, a staff member of the Coalition of the Institutionalized, Aged and Disabled said, “MNN's support enables adult home residents to speak out about the deplorable conditions in New York City’s adult homes. We will produce several videos on the need for alternative housing (in partnership with the Campaign for Mental Health Housing) and the 2007 legislative agenda issues, among others.  For CIAD, video production is an invaluable tool for leadership training, teaching and public outreach.  

In addition to CIAD, nineteen groups representing the arts, immigrants and youth, among others, were awarded grants ranging from $3,500 to$14,000 in three categories. The grantees include: 

For the Curatorial Category (Groups use existing video and film material to create special programming): Rooftop Films,  Third World Newsreel, African Diaspora Film Festival, The Urban Visionaries Film Festival and Asian Cinevision 

For the Tactical Media Toolkit Category (Groups receive a media package that includes a camera and a computer): NEDAP, Mexicanos Unidos, Time’s Up, The Sikh Coalition, FIERCE, and the Brecht Forum. 

For Training & Production (In addition to equipment, groups also receive production training): Picture the Homeless, The Children’s Art Carnival, Project Reach, Coalition of the Institutionalized and Disabled, Esperanza del Barrio and the Lower East Side Girls 

Decisions were made by a panel made up of community advocates, media arts professionals, board and staff members who subscribe to the mission of MNN: To ensure the ability of Manhattan residents to exercise their First Amendment rights and create opportunities for mutual communication, education and artistic expression. 

“The grant program is just another way MNN is empowering community through ensuring access to digital media technologies. We are honored to be able to have groups that cover such a wide array of issues and constituencies. When we see their stories on our four channels, we know we have succeeded”, stated Dan Couglin, MNN’s executive director.  

For a detailed description of these projects, please visit http://www.mnn.org/en/grantees

Press conference 12:30pm May 10, 2006 - City Hall Steps.

Speakers: NYC Council Member Gale Brewer, Michael Max Knobbe (BronxNet), Roosevelt Orphee (Picture the Homeless), Nancy Eng (Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association), Dan Coughlin (Manhattan Neighborhood Network), others TBA.

Proposed Telecoms Bill Strips NYC of Local Control of ‘Public Rights of Way’—costing NYC millions. New York City Council Plans May 10th Vote on “opposing” Resolution. NYC's five public access TV stations threatened by Telcom bills.

NEW YORK—On May 10th the NYC Council will vote on a city Resolution 0136-2006—if passed this Resolution will send Washington legislators the clear message not to change existing local cable TV and teleco franchising rules.

NYC’s Resolution is in response to the soon to be voted on “Communications, Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act (COPE Act/H.R. 5252)” in the House of Representatives. COPE will strip local communities of the ability to require Cable TV and phone companies to negotiate local franchises—in the process stripping local communities of the ability to ensure these companies meet local public and consumer needs or protections.

“If this legislation passes Congress, New Yorkers will have to call the FCC – instead of 311 – if they have a problem with their cable TV service or Internet connection. That would be an outrage and affront to the residents of New York City,” said New York City Council Member Gale Brewer, Chair of the Committee on Technology in Government.

Critics of COPE point out that it could cost NYC more than $75 million in lost franchise fees annually—it would do away with local rules preventing “service-redlining”—and it would restrict funding and channel capacity to New York City’s five Public Access TV stations. The COPE bill would replace the local franchising system with a one-size-fits-all federal system.

Franchise fees are regarded as rent-payment for the cable companies’ running of cables and other use of the city owned “public rights of way”. The existing local franchising system also provides the channel space and monies for the city’s Public Access TV stations. These stations provide New Yorkers with locally produced programming—and allow the city’s diverse communities to have a voice in the media.

On May 4th scores of New Yorkers opposing COPE crowded City Hall for hearings on Resolution 0136 by the Council’s Zoning and Land Use Committee—prominent among the testimony were comments from the public, elected officials, and community organizations that COPE could do away with the five Public Access TV stations in NYC—BronxNet, Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN), Queens Public Television (QPTV), Brooklyn Community Access TV (BCAT) and Staten Island Community TV.

“Our Public Access TV project has allowed our members to produce local, non-commercial media that reflects the life of immigrant workers in Chinatown”, testified Fun Mae Eng of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association. “Public Access is local TV, local perspectives and local points of views—there is nothing else like it on television, it’s a cornerstone of local New York life—and a cornerstone of democracy”, said MNN staffer Jennifer Wager as she listened to loudspeakers in the overflow room during the May 4th hearings.

Also testifying were NYC’s borough presidents—“this is a clear case of the federal government interceding into a local system which operates well and serves the needs of local residents in order to demand a one-size fits all approach which will benefit corporations not residents” testified Manhattan’s Borough President Scott Stringer. “Local government must have the power to regulate franchising… so the best interests of their constituents do not get run over by the avarice of outside business interests”, said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.

There is growing opposition to COPE nationwide—and to the three major loopholes it creates. 1) Allowing video-service companies to “redline” low-income and rural communities they do not want to serve. 2) Dismantling Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) TV. 3) Singling an end to “Net-Neutrality”—thereby allowing Broadband Internet providers to create a tiered “pay-as-you-go” Internet system where content favored by the service provider will be quickly accessible while other content is slowed to a snail’s pace.

The driving force behind COPE is efforts by the phone companies to enter the “video service” market—allowing them to offer video services and compete with the Cable TV companies. The phone companies seek to avoid local franchising arrangements and to play by different rules to those governing current Cable TV operation. The phone companies have launched an aggressive public relations effort to pass COPE— reportedly spending over $1million per week on lobbying efforts in Washington.

Around the country over eighty cities or towns have proposed or passed Resolutions similar to the one now under consideration in NYC. Critics call COPE a "sweetheart deal" for the phone giants—and believe it will result in poorer service and higher rates for consumers.

Resolution 0136-2006 is supported by NYC Council members Gale Brewer (Manhattan), Melinda Katz (Queens), Miguel Martinez (Manhattan), Helen Foster (Bronx), Letitia James (Brooklyn), Charles Barron (Brooklyn), Maria del Carmen Arroyo (Bronx), Yvette Clark (Brooklyn), Leroy Comrie (Queens), Simcha Felder (Brooklyn), and Annabel Palma (Bronx)— Resolution 0136-2006 was proposed March 1st 2006.

On May 24th, major cities across the U.S. say "Hands off our public access, our internet, and our privacy."

New York - Wednesday, May 24th at 12:30 p.m. Verizon Headquarters, 140 West St. (corner of Vesey Street)

On Wednesday May 24th concerned citizens, community advocates and media activists in cities across the United States will join together for a National Day of Out(R)age to protest the ‘million-dollar-a-week’ “deregulatory” efforts of the major telecommunications companies (AT&T, Verizon, Bell South, and Qwest) to advance legislation in Congress that would rewrite U.S. telecommunications policy, negatively impacting millions of local communities, citizens, consumers and the city government.

Public events and demonstrations will be held throughout the day on May 24th in New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco to draw public attention to the phone companies multi-million dollar campaign to buy Congressional votes and public support for the “COPE Act” (HR 5252/ S 2686), legislation that seeks end local franchising by replacing it with national franchising. The phone/telecommunications companies are fast-tracking this legislation that would allow them to enter the video service market by eliminating local franchising, open access, and public interest requirements.

If passed, the “COPE Act” will remove local authority of video franchises from cities and towns, allow the 'red-lining' of low income and rural communities, negatively impact local Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) Access channels, and jeopardize the openness of the internet by removing Net Neutrality provisions. The “COPE Act” (House Bill 5252) is slated for a vote by the House within the next week and Senate Bill version (S.2686) is scheduled for markup on June 20th.

The May 24th National Day of Out(R)age will also highlight the recent exposure of the privacy violation of millions of telephone users by AT&T, Bell South and Verizon who willingly handed over call records to the National Security Agency without proper legal warrants. “ AT&T and Verizon want to away with consumer protections and have even more access to homes throughout the country - and to your information – with their planned fiber networks for video and Internet services. This would provide far more capacity than the current copper wire connections - hence the slogan, 'your world delivered'” says Jeff Perlstein, of Media Alliance and organizer of the San Francisico protest.

The National Day of Out(R)age is organized by the Saveaccess.org, a national coalition of concerned citizens, media activists, community based organizations, members of Public Access media centers. Across the U.S., they are joined together to demand that the phone companies be accountable to local communities and to protect the future of telecommunications infrastructure to the public interest. Around the country dozens of local cities and towns are opposed to this legislation—including the National League of Cities, US Conference of Mayors, and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA).

In New York, the organizations involved in Wednesday’s actions include: Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), NYC Grassroots Media Coalition, Paper Tiger TV, NABET-CWA Local 11, National Mobilization Against SweatShops, Picture the Homeless, Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizations, Community Voices Heard, and Chinese Staff & Workers Association.

New York’s public access TV—first in U.S.—turns 35 years. MNN marks anniversary with a screening in East Harlem, August 3rd.

August 3rd - To mark the 35th anniversary of public access TV, Manhattan Neighborhood Network will host a community celebration and video screening in East Harlem.

The anniversary celebration will feature live performance, free food, and a screening of videos from 35 years of access. The celebration will take place at the White Playground Basketball Court, on E. 106th Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenue, at 7pm. All are welcome!

Public access TV was created in the 1970s to allow ordinary members of the public to make and air their own TV shows—and thereby exercise their free speech. It was first launched in the U.S. in Manhattan July 1st 1971, on the Teleprompter and Sterling Cable systems, now Time Warner Cable.

A sampling of shows airing on MNN by East Harlem based organizations includes; Chica Luna Productions—who train local women of color to make their own media; Picture the Homeless—an advocacy organization for homeless New Yorkers and producer of a TV show made by homeless New Yorkers; Esperanza del Barrio— who assist the self-empowerment of low-income Latina immigrants and their families through grassroots organizing, political/legal education, and leadership development; Justice Works Community— who organize and mobilize a partnership of concerned citizens and organizations to advocate for just, humane and effective criminal justice policies; and Community Voices Heard—a grassroots organization stressing community self-empowerment. Other co-sponsors include Movimiento Por Justicia del Barrio, Association of Hispanic Arts, BronxNet Public Access, Brooklyn Community Access Television, along with other community-based organizations.

“Thousands of New Yorkers watch public access TV everyday, but for others public access is like a hidden treasure—our anniversary will be a celebration for those who know us, and a way of reaching out to new people, maybe recent immigrants or people new to NYC, so they too can learn about what we do”, said Ivettza Sanchez of MNN’s community outreach department and an organizer of the event.

Today Manhattan Neighborhood Network airs over 500 hours of programming each week—shows made by individuals and community organizations from throughout Manhattan. Committed to the airing of local viewpoints, MNN supports the making and airing of shows that foster community empowerment and social justice among NYC’s communities—programs unseen elsewhere in the mass media.

The event will also feature hands-on demonstrations of MNN's cutting-edge digital camera and field production equipment, and information booths on MNN's free classes and how the public can start their own TV show.