[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council
of the Township of Moorestown 12-19-1994 as Ord. No. 1731-94. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Cable television franchise — See Ch. A220.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
An entity which creates or presents a program for broadcast.
The "producer" is solely responsible for the content of the program
and for compliance with these programming standards. No program which
fails to meet these standards in any regard shall be broadcast on
the Moorestown Governmental/Educational Channel.
The activities of the producer and its staff in connection
with a Program.
A sequence of television images with accompanying sound which
is broadcast on the Moorestown Governmental/Educational Channel.
Only the executive branch of the Township of
Moorestown or of the Moorestown Township Public Schools may serve
as a producer. All activities relating to the production of a program
shall be directly controlled and supervised by a full-time, permanent
employee of the producer.
Nothing herein shall preclude the use of paid
professionals or of unpaid volunteers in the production of a program,
provided that all such persons are properly controlled and supervised
by the producer. Individuals or organizations that wish to have a
program considered for airing shall submit two copies of the program
on VHS format videotape to either the Township Manager or Superintendent
of Schools.
The purpose and content of every program shall
be exclusively governmental or educational. The Moorestown Governmental/Educational
Channel is not intended to be nor shall it be used as a public forum
or public access channel. Governmental/educational purposes may include
sports and cultural events.
No promotion or advocacy of any political or
religious doctrine, philosophy, point of view or position shall be
permitted, whether local, national or international in scope and whether
direct or implied, overt or subtle. This constitutes an absolute prohibition
and the doctrine of equal time is not sufficient to overcome it.
Nothing herein shall preclude balanced news
reporting or balanced coverage of newsworthy events of all kinds,
provided that such reporting or events are not for the principal purpose
of stating, promoting, advancing or advocating a particular political
or religious doctrine, philosophy, point of view or position to the
exclusion of others and provided that any opposing points of view
are fairly included.
No commercial message of any kind, whether paid
or not, shall be permitted at any time. The names of contributors
who have assisted with the cost of production may be displayed in
block letters for an aggregate period for all such names not to exceed
15 seconds at the beginning and again at the end of each program.
A simultaneous, verbatim oral announcement of said names may accompany
each such display. No addresses, telephone numbers or other means
to facilitate contact with such contributors and no mention of any
products or services shall be permitted.
Nothing herein shall preclude the timely announcement
(visual and/or oral) of bona fide civic or cultural events to be held
within the community of Moorestown or reasonably expected to be of
interest to Moorestown citizens or the presentation of programming
schedules for the Governmental/Educational Channel. Such community
service announcements may contain addresses and/or telephone numbers.
Prohibited at all times are images, language
and themes which are pornographic, lewd, lascivious, obscene or vulgar
or which are derogatory, demeaning or offensive to people of any race,
creed or ethnic background.
A major objective of these standards and hence
of every producer shall be to present programs of the highest possible
quality. Considerations of program content, general community interest,
aesthetics, artistic excellence, professionalism and technical quality
are vitally important and should be rigorously evaluated when determining
whether a program should be approved for broadcast.
All decisions of producers are final and not
subject to appeal, except for the decision as to whether or not a
completed program is approved for broadcast. Any person, 21 years
of age or older, whose primary residence is in Moorestown may appeal
a producer's decision to approve or disapprove a completed program
for broadcast by submitting a written notice of appeal to the office
of the Deputy Township Manager. To be deemed complete, such notice
must be typewritten; must include the appellant's full name and residence
address, with day and evening telephone numbers; must be signed by
the appellant; must clearly identify, by name or otherwise, the single
program which is the subject of the appeal (notices of appeal relating
to more than one program will not be accepted); must state the entire
reason and basis for the appeal, explicitly citing the section(s)
of these programming standards the appellant believes are applicable
to the appeal; and must be accompanied by six videotape copies, in
VHS format, of the program which is the subject of the appeal. When
the notice of appeal is complete, the producer will promptly be supplied
with a copy of said notice and may respond, in writing, to the Deputy
Township Manager within 14 days after the notice of appeal is complete.
The program, the notice of appeal and the producer's
response, if any, will be reviewed by the Cable TV Committee, and
the written ruling of a majority of said Committee will be delivered
within 28 calendar days after the notice of appeal is complete. (Failure
to deliver such ruling within the required time period shall be deemed
a ruling in favor of the appellant.) If the ruling grants approval
to broadcast, then it implicitly states the Committee's conclusion
that the program meets these programming standards and no further
reason for the ruling will be given. If the ruling denies approval
to broadcast, then it will state only the section(s) of these programming
standards that the Committee has determined are violated by the program.
No elaboration, additional reasoning or specific programming guidance
will be given as it is the responsibility of the producer to determine
the corrective action required to cure any failure of the program
to meet these standards.
Notices of appeal seeking to prevent the broadcast
of a program must be received and complete not less than 30 calendar
days prior to the scheduled broadcast date ("appeal deadline"). Appeals
objecting to the broadcast of a program where the notice of appeal
is completed after the appeal deadline will be heard nevertheless,
and the ruling thereon will be used as a non-binding precedent by
producers in approving future programs for broadcast and by the Cable
TV Committee in ruling on future appeals. However, such late appeals
will not be the basis for prohibiting or delaying the scheduled broadcast
of an otherwise approved program. Conversely, once a complete notice
of appeal is received, no acceleration of the broadcast schedule will
be permitted.
