N.Y. PSC’s policy of ‘fully delegating’ to cable operators power ...
N.Y. PSC’s policy of “fully delegating” to cable operators power to adopt rules and regulations for use of public, educational and govt. (PEG) channel capacity and production facilities has been challenged in lawsuit filed by access programmer in U.S.…
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Dist. Court, Brooklyn. Lawsuit filed by Robert Goldberg, coordinator of L.I. Public Access Movement, also implicates town of Oyster Bay for delegating to Cablevision franchise authority to determine access rules. Accusing Cablevision of declining to carry his programming for his refusal to agree to access-user contract that he called “illegal, unconscionable and against public policy,” Goldberg sought preliminary injunction to prohibit company from refusing to cablecast all qualified public access programming he submitted. He said PSC and Oyster Bay should have known that Cablevision had financial interest in minimizing use of public access channel capacity and production facilities and that was in conflict with their responsibilities for regulation of use of public access by all programmers. By delegating regulatory authority to Cablevision, PSC and Oyster Bay “acted with deliberate indifference” to threat to his statutory rights to be free from editorial control by cable operator over his programming, Goldberg said. Seeking compensatory and punitive damages, he said Cablevision’s access contract was illegal because it: (1) Required programmers to submit scripts for all live programming. (2) Wanted programmers to indemnify company and hold it harmless from any liability, including for its “wrongful exercise of editorial control.” (3) Prevented programmers from using company’s facilities to produce partisan political programming. Citing company policy, Cablevision spokesman declined to comment on lawsuit. But Cablevision had made clear in past that while it had no problem with carrying political programing on its PEG channels, it objected to use by programmers of its equipment and employees for partisan political programming, saying that constituted “implied donation.” Goldberg conceded that while PSC rules on PEG access specified that cable operator couldn’t censor programs, it didn’t deal with company’s obligation to allow use of its facilities for political programming.