Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Tri-Cities, and as a news reporter here in North Carolina, I thought I would "listen" to the scanner I use as the normal course of work I am engaged in. I was surprised when I had programmed the channels publicly available into my scanner corresponding to those "licensed" by the Federal Communications Commission to Sullivan County, Tennessee, and I heard NOTHING!

I saw emergency vehicles in the normal course of daily activities but heard NO calls from either a "dispatch" center or an individual vehicle. I saw an ambulance running emergency traffic, and I saw a Johnson City Police car stopped with another vehicle in an apparent traffic stop. On Friday, I spoke with an official at Washington County Emergency Services, who told me that he knew all local emergency communications in Sullivan County were "encrypted" or "blocked" which is overreach of local officials and bothers me as someone who lives by the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment including free speech!

I understand this newspaper published a news story about six months ago concerning this issue. Folks, this is plain censorship of the public airways! It should NOT be tolerated!

I am surprised at the folks who feel they can do this and somehow show their face to the public or work for better relations between the police and the public!

Sullivan County, you have a lot going for you. Don't continue to mess it up with overreach and excessive control of the "public" airways. Fix this censorship immediately!

The government belongs to ALL people, NOT a few employed by the government!

Read the original here:

LETTER: An unseen kind of censorship - Bristol Herald Courier (press release) (blog)