Come on, assatashakur.org fam, please take a few moments out of your busy day tomorrow and make your voice heard, we would all want the same for any one of us!! Asante sana!

KPFA NEEDS TO HEAR FROM YOU!
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STAND UP FOR ONE OF OUR OWN!
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Bro. JR Valrey is a revolutionary journalist who really cares -- we know him, his outstanding reports, and his additional activism as Minister of Information for the Prisoners of Conscience Committee. This Bro. gets our maximum respect because he is cut from that very distinguished cloth that painstakingly produces professional media reports from the doorstoops of our communities. He unflinchingly keeps his ear to the ground and is right alongside our people in times of grief, rage, and struggle to accurately record and broadcast the truth on behalf of all those ignored and trashed by society and mainstream media. His groundbreaking and insightful reporting is widely available on San Francisco Bay View and Block Report Radio - Home, where he consistently exposes worldwide tyranny.

As you are probably aware, this courageous freedom fighter was arrested and is facing possible jail time for a manufactured and ridiculous charge to try and silence HIS voice, which is but a reflection of OUR voices! He DID NOT set fire to a trash can; he had just left Mayor Dellums' press conference, where he had asked some tough questions, as a good journalist should, on Jan. 7, the evening following Oscar Grant's funeral and the first rally protesting Oscar's lynching by BART police. We all witnessed the cops at the BART Station the night Oscar Grant was murdered snatch up as many cellphones from witnesses as they could -- now imagine what they will try to do to a full-time, dedicated photojournalist such as Bro. JR.

Although Pacifica stations outside of the Bay Area have covered this attempt to railroad Bro. JR, KPFA is incredibly discouraging other hosts from speaking out on his behalf!! Check this out:
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Management Taped this to the Board Operator's station at KPFA 2/21/09 or 2/20/09.

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Dear On Air Staff:

Two reminders:

1) On air personnel is not authorized to issue editorials on behalf of the Pacifica Foundation. Only the Pacifica National Board has the authority to issue statements on behalf of the foundation.

2) You may play only scheduled carts and live reads. You may not recite live reads nor play carts for events unless they have been approved by station management and scheduled for air.

Violation of station/foundation policy will result in disciplinary action.

If you have any questions, please contact chief operator Michael Yoshida at ext. 218 or engineering@kpfa.org.

Thank you for your cooperation.
KPFA Management.
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JR's hearing is this Monday, Feb. 23, 9 a.m., in Courtroom 112 at 661 Washington St., Oakland, and we need KPFA to cover it and help keep up the momentum on the issue of police terrorism, the "war at home" that most media consider taboo. Oakland youth and their allies - without the help of celebrities - have made unprecedented progress in pushing the issue into the media spotlight. They are heroes in hoods and barrios around the country. We must not allow them to be censored at KPFA!

MOST IMPORTANTLY, let KPFA hear from people OUTSIDE of CA, and this is where we ALL must play a part! We know that the SF Bay View serves a tremendous international purpose and that Bro. JR is a very significant part of that family. In whatever way we can, let's rally around JR -- air his Block Reports, interview him, and press the DA to drop the charges against all the Oscar Grant protesters and to drop the charge of felony arson against JR, which could put him in state prison for three years.

Mary Ratcliff, editor of SF Bay View eloquently states: "This is Black History Month. What would Ida B. Wells, the great journalist who almost single-handedly stopped decades of lynching, say about KPFA, supposedly one of the most progressive stations in the country, censoring the journalist nationally known for his work against police lynching - or any mention of the retaliation against him?"

Please MAKE THE TIME to call and/or email KPFA General Manager Lemlem Rijio at either:
Contact | KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley: Listener Sponsored Free Speech Radio
(510) 848-6767, ext. 203
generalmanager@kpfa.org
and cc: dbernstein@igc.org.

Bro. JR has never been MIA for our community, we MUST NOT be MIA for him!! Forward Ever!