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Date Posted: 09:32:22 02/15/08 Fri
Author: JMR
Subject: CCFIILE Vindicated

Town attorney says Rizolis show should have stayed on air

By John Hilliard/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Thu Feb 14, 2008, 01:13 AM EST

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FRAMINGHAM -
An attorney for the town's public access corporation wrote a letter saying the cable channel should not have stopped broadcasting a show created by a local group of illegal immigration opponents.

Last month, James and Joseph Rizolis' cable program was cut short and replaced mid-broadcast with another program because it included 20 minutes of footage shot by the town's government cable channel.

According to a letter from William H. Solomon, the access corporation's attorney, Ron Rego, the town's director of media services, called Stephen Innis during the first broadcast of the Rizolis' show.

The Rizolis' hour-long show, "Illegal Immigration Chat," focuses on illegal immigrants and Brazilians living in Massachusetts.

Rego told Innis, the access corporation's executive director, that he was concerned viewers would mistake the Rizolis' public access program as a government broadcast because of the Rizolis' use of town footage of the Brazilian Community-wide Dialogue held in June 2007.

Innis agreed and decided to pull the show's final 20 minutes. After the move, Innis reportedly changed his mind that those concerns justified yanking the show off the air, and allowed the entire show to be rebroadcast twice more.

James Rizoli said Rego told him that the town's footage was the town's copyrighted material and could not be used for his own show.

Solomon said he did not have enough experience with copyright law to offer an opinion on the copyright concern, but noted there was not enough reason to pull the Rizolis' show off the air last month.

"I concur that the appropriate decision was to cablecast (or air) the program in full, and that the initial cablecasting of the program should (upon review and reflection) not have been interrupted," wrote Solomon.

In an interview, James Rizoli said Rego violated his and his brother's civil rights. The brothers want Rego investigated by the town and for him to resign from his post on the access corporation's board of directors.

He said his brother, Joseph Rizoli, complained to selectmen during their meeting last night and sent a letter to the town.

"We want them to look into this, investigate this," said James Rizoli.

According to Assistant Town Manager Tim Goddard, selectmen Chairman Dennis Giombetti told Joseph Rizoli to raise his concerns with the town's cable access corporation and complaints about employees must be made to the town manager's office.

As of yesterday afternoon, Goddard said no formal complaint was filed against Rego at the town manager's office. Town Manager Julian Suso was out of town yesterday, he said.

In an interview, Rego said he saw the Rizolis' show by chance and saw town footage used in the show. He said he contacted Innis with his concerns the footage could mislead viewers into thinking they were watching a government broadcast, but said he has no control over what is aired on the town's three cable channels. He didn't comment on the Rizolis' call for him to leave the corporation's board.

"I respect their right to free speech," said Rego of the Rizolis' show.

(John Hilliard can be reached at or jhilliar@cnc.com.)

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