KMBH tries to compel reporter to reveal confidential sources

HARLINGEN — RGV Educational Broadcasting Inc., which operates KMBH television and radio, refused Friday to release financial information to a Valley Morning Star reporter unless he agreed to reveal confidential sources.

KMBH, which was founded under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, is the local Public Broadcasting Service affiliate and receives funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Financial statements filed by the station with the CPB, as well as its biennial audits, must be available to the public, per KMBH’s agreement with the CPB.

On Friday, KMBH Business Manager Dianna Alcalde called reporter Bruce Lee Smith, who covers entertainment and broadcasting news for the Star’s Rio Living section, to tell him the information he requested on Monday was ready to pick up.

But when Smith arrived at the television studio, he learned KMBH officials had conditioned the release of the financial documents on Smith’s disclosure of confidential sources who provided background information to him about the station’s finances and operations.

A receptionist told Smith that he must sign a letter agreeing to turn over the names of his sources before the station would release the documents.

Smith requested a copy of the letter to show his editors but the receptionist said she could give him a copy only if he signed it.

A CPB official in Washington, D.C., told Smith 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, he said.

Smith attended the station’s advertised public meeting on Monday, but was only allowed to observe an election of board members. No explanation was given for the absences of some longtime board members.

“I started asking questions on Monday,” Smith said. “They wouldn’t answer any questions (about use of federal grant funds). (The RGV Educational Broadcasting Inc. board) said I had to submit my questions in writing.”

The Monday meeting was held in a small boardroom at the station’s Tennessee Avenue building, and two extra chairs were placed in the room for Smith and another Star reporter.

No seating was provided in the room for members of the public who may have wished to attend the meeting, and no other residents were present.

The two reporters were required to identify themselves at the front counter before the meeting and, once inside, to sign their names on a pad of paper and identify their employers.

Such requirements are not allowed under the Texas Open Government Act or the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Smith said station officials on Tuesday posted financial documents on the KMBH Web site, “but they are partially illegible,” he said.

Later Friday after he tried to obtain the financial documents that the station told him would be available, Smith learned that KMBH filed a police complaint alleging that he engaged in disorderly conduct while he was at the station office.

The complaint states, in part: “Deborah Lee Ratliff (receptionist) contacted the Harlingen Police Department to report a disturbance. … Ratliff stated that when she requested (Smith) to sign a document for the release of the information, (he) became upset and began yelling and became very irate, causing a scene. Ratliff felt she was verbally abused in an obviously offensive manner and contacted (police).”

Smith said that while waiting in the KMBH lobby, he was trying to talk to a Star 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.”

The receptionist told Smith he could wait for Monsignor Pedro Briseño, KMBH president and chief executive officer, but no definite time was given for his return.

No police officers contacted Smith or newspaper management Friday.

RGV Educational Broadcasting board chairman George E. Borrego said Friday, “I know that the financial records are ready.”

However, Borrego said 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.