Newspaper: PBS Station Withheld Files to Force Reporter to Reveal Sources

By: A South Texas public television station has refused to turn over financial documents to the Valley Morning Star unless a reporter reveals confidential sources, the newspaper reported Nov. 3.

Reporter Bruce Lee Smith on Nov. 2 tried to pick up financial documents he had requested from KMBH television and radio, run by RGV Educational Broadcasting Inc. as the local Public Broadcasting System affiliate.

When Smith arrived at the television studio, he was told KMBH officials would release the documents only if the reporter signed a letter in which he agreed to disclose confidential sources who provided background information to him about the station?s finances and operations.

RGV Educational Broadcasting board chairman George E. Borrego told the newspaper that he did not know of any conditions to the documents? release. Station officials could not be reached for comment by the Associated Press in time for this story.

Financial statements filed by the station with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as its biennial audits, must be available to the public per KMBH?s agreement with the CPB. A CPB official in Washington, D.C., said the station is required to promptly give any member of the public information about a station?s use of federal grant funds anytime it is requested.

Smith later learned that KMBH filed a police complaint alleging that he engaged in disorderly conduct while he was at the station office. The complaint accuses him of becoming upset and yelling at a receptionist.

Smith said that while waiting in the KMBH lobby, he was trying to talk to a newspaper editor on his cell phone, but had a bad connection. He also wanted the receptionist to hear him behind a glass enclosure.

?I spoke firmly and clearly to make no mistake that what I was requesting was public information,? he said. ?I had to raise my voice. I did not use any abusive language.?

No police officers contacted Smith or newspaper management Nov. 2.

Borrego said Nov. 2 that the financial records were ready. He was not aware of any conditions attached to the release of the documents or any letter that Smith would be required to sign.

?Not having been there, I can?t comment on that,? he said.