The External Affairs Committee was created by Mr. Newman and Mr. Pitts to increase student involvement in local government. The EAC will become a standing committee in 1999.
Public Access Cable:
We don't have 'public access' television
in Athens.
Rather, when A-CC negotiated the cable
franchise, A-CC only asked for 'local origination' cable.
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The difference:
1. Public Access: Must be available
to anyone who wishes to broadcast. If the channel is being used enough,
by law, the cable company must create more public access channels.
Last, public access cannot be censored.
2. Local origination cable: A-CC has three
channels (Governmental, UGA, and A-CC Public Schools).
Local origination channels are under
editorial control of our cable company.
Since we only have local origination, the cable company may censor the channel for anything that it determines may be 'patently offensive.' This is the reason why the DAMN! show was removed from cable. As a result of A-CC's failure to negotiate a public access channel, Intermedia has broad rights to censor the channels that are available to us.
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And, the government has a channel to cablecast their beliefs, but we have none.
Could you imagine what students could do with unlimited, public access TV that could not be censored?