On February 24th over a million people heard radio commentaries by Mumia Abu-Jamal. Produced by the Prison Radio Project, this show includes recordings of Mumia reading his essays and is being broadcast daily for two weeks by Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! program. This program is being broadcast around the country but was censored in Pennsylvania.
Just moments before Democracy Now! was scheduled to air, Temple University's WRTI-Jazz FM canceled its subscription to all Pacifica programming. This cancellation eliminated all Pacifica broadcasts in Pennsylvania since this station serves as a relay for programming to the state's other affiliate stations.
The decision to yank the program came from the Temple University administration after WRTI staff ran public service announcements all week urging people to tune in to the Mumia readings. The University's Vice President of Public Relations admitted that the Democracy Now! shows inclusion of Mumia's commentaries was pivotal in the decision to cancel WRTI's contract with Pacifica.
It appears that the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (a.k.a Fraternal Order of Pigs, FOP) lobbied heavily for this cancellation and because Temple receives much state funding, the FOP was successful in its pressure campaign.
The Prison Radio Project and Equal Justice USA are demanding that Temple reinstate Democracy Now! and all Pacifica programming. They are urging people to contact Peter Liacouras, President of Temple University at pjl@eop.temple.edu to support this demand.
MIM knows that there is no such thing as free speech under Imperialism. Speech is available for purchase from the imperialists who own and control it. The myth of impartial reporting is exposed when shows like Democracy Now! are yanked off the air in response to FOP lobbying and state and university politics. Because of this, MIM says that there are no rights, only power struggles. If we want the voice of the people to get out to the people, it is our responsibility to set up independent media that can not be controlled by the political and financial interests of the imperialists.
We applaud Pacifica's efforts to bring Mumia's words to its audience and their experience in Philadelphia only reinforces the need for the people to set up independent media that does not rely on the bourgeoisie. We call on our readers to support MIM's work to set up independent newspaper, radio, Internet and television media. If you are interested in getting involved in supporting independent people's media, either financially, with technical skills, or as a contributor of news, information, art, or anything else, get in touch and we will let you know how you can help.
Source: Press release from Equal Justice USA and Prison Radio Project. February 24, 1997. Quixote Center P.O. Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782. quixote@igc.apc.org.