Open Letter Outlines Tension Between CUTV Management and Members
As soon as the outlined agenda points were finished, tempers flared at Monday’s Concordia University Television meeting.
Although the meeting was terminated shortly thereafter by the moderator for reasons of rapidly eroding good faith, it wasn’t before the rumblings of interpersonal conflicts made an appearance.
“I request that everything on the Facebook page, that we all agree is harming the station, not only individuals, to be taken off,” said CUTV Executive Director Laith Marouf.
Marouf went on to cite an open letter released by CUTV members and posted on the CUTV Facebook page as an example of this “damaging” content.
“That is not CUTV content and it should be off our site,” said Marouf, referring to the station’s Facebook page. “Follow whichever way you want—with democracy somewhere else.”
The letter in question was published the night of Nov. 14, and made several demands, including a call for a new, non-hierarchical structure to the station, the immediate appointment of a provisional Board of Directors and plans for a general assembly to be organized no more than 12 days after its publishing.
“We want to take back our station,” the letter reads. “Community media is for the community by the community. We are some of the CUTV community and we want to work this out.”
The following morning, the letter had 10 signatures, but in the days to follow that number grew to about 50.
The legitimacy of all signatures, however, was called into question by Marouf, who said he found his own name on the letter. The option to add names has now been removed.
CUTV member Emily Campbell, who read the letter’s demands at Thursday’s meeting, said the catalyst for its drafting were two impromptu member gatherings the night before.
The letter voiced the collective concerns of about 25 members, according to Campbell. They felt uninformed on the station’s precarious situation, stating in the letter that they knew nothing of the “legal limbo” CUTV was in until reading about it in The Link.
While the preliminary steps have been made towards a new CUTV, there’s no sign that the letter, or its demands, are going anywhere just yet.
“There is no slander in the letter. And yeah, it needs to be online,” said Campbell.
