Ho’ike Kaua’i Community Television Inc. had one of its seven annual board meetings last Thursday, and Andy Parks came. Parks, who writes, produces and directs his own public access television show, “The Parxist Conspiracy,” (a play on the words Marxist
Ho’ike Kaua’i Community Television Inc. had one of its seven annual board meetings last Thursday, and Andy Parks came.
Parks, who writes, produces and directs his own public access television show, “The Parxist Conspiracy,” (a play on the words Marxist conspiracy, Parks’ nod to history) was forced to stop videotaping the meeting by Ho’ike’s executive director, Robert Riggan.
Parks’ show has played on Ho’ike in the past.
What happened next is disputed.
Parks claimed Riggan pushed him, grabbed him and tried to take his camera.
Riggan said he never touched Parks, just his camera.
Riggan added that Ho’ike had recently changed its bylaws to prohibit videotaping of its board meetings.
“Andy was told he could take notes but not videotape,” Riggan said, adding that Parx was asked twice to stop taping before the alleged incident took place between the two men.
“We do it (videotape) ourselves, and we’ll probably show it at least once” on Ho`ike, Riggan said.
Kaua`i Police were called and ended the dispute without further incident. No arrests were made.
“Basically, on Dec. 7 at 2:09 p.m., Ho`ike called us and said a male subject was causing a disturbance,” said police Sgt. Wes Kaui. “I was in the area and (discovered) Mr. Parks with his camera. We compromised the whole thing. According to Riggan, he (Parks) was allowed a notepad and paper, but no videotaping was allowed.” Kaui said Parks could provide no identification designating himself as a reporter when he was asked.
But according to a legal expert, that fact has no bearing on this type of incident.
“Reporter is not a very well-defined term. Typically, access rules require that if a meeting is open to the press, it’s open to members of the public unless there are space limitations. Also, someone who does a public access program is probably a reporter, anyway,” said Roger R. Myers, a San Francisco, Calif.-based media attorney who works for the Pulitzer Newspapers Inc. chain that owns The Garden Island.
But, Myers added, attending a meeting is not the same as filming one.
Ho’ ike is “a private corporation. That doesn’t necessarily make them a government entity because they might take some (governmental) monies,” Myers said.
He said each state handles the legality of filming private board meetings differently.
In defending Ho`ike’s position, Riggan said the private, non-profit corporation takes no federal funding.
In his own retelling of the reported dispute at the board meeting, Parks said he claimed First Amendment freedom of the press provisions allowed him to cover for television any meeting to which the public is admitted.
After the police intervention, Parks left the scene quietly.
“I don’t want to press charges, necessarily. I just want to be protected,” Parks said.
Kaua`i Police have referred the matter to Prosecuting Attorney Mike Soong for an eventual determination on whether Parks can bring his video camera to the next Ho`ike board meeting in two months.
“If the law says I can, I will be there with the camera,” Parks promised.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.
252) and [dwilken@pulitzer.net]
