Following is the text of a press release distributed by Pacifica Foundation:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 24, 1997

BERKELEY, CA -- Pacifica Radio's governing board complied with open- meeting requirements during a series of planning retreats, according to a Corporation for Public Broadcasting compliance audit.

The audit, conducted by CPB's Office of Inspector General, followed accusations that Pacifica's governing board was in violation of CPB openness rules when it conducted strategic planning retreats in private. The audit concluded that, "Pacifica classified their planning sessions properly as retreats."

"Pacifica has long asserted that its strategic planning retreats were held in full compliance with the Communications Act and CPB guidelines, and I'm glad that the Inspector General agrees with us," said Pacifica Executive Director Pat Scott.

The audit also asserted that only about an hour of governing board meetings "were being held in open session," but the finding was immediately challenged by Pacifica.

"The Inspector General made a massive misinterpretation of the meeting agendas," Scott said. "When he saw that we had allotted an hour for public comment at recent board meetings, he assumed wrongly that the public was somehow barred from the rest of the proceedings. This is flatly not true, and there were plenty of observers present who can verify this."

Scott added that during the September 30, 1995, governing board meeting in Houston, "some parts of the meeting were closed to the public in reaction to harassment from some of the people present at that meeting." The four board meetings held since the Houston meeting have been open to the public as normal, she said.

Among the audit's other conclusions:

* As a national network of radio stations, Pacifica "needs strong, central leadership when it comes to organizational and operational matters," and "Pacifica is improving its central management in those areas." The audit praised improvements in communications between the board chair and the chairs of the local advisory boards, as well as the practice of barring station personnel from serving on the governing board. "The audit's endorsement of keeping separate the governing board and staff lends support to a similar rule recently adopted for our advisory boards," Scott said.

* Pacifica had not been providing adequate notice of upcoming governing board meetings, but there was a "willingness by the Executive Director to make appropriate changes." Specifically, announcements for meetings were made only in the city where the meeting was to be held. "We assumed listeners would not travel across the country for a board meeting, but Pacifica will be exploring ways to improve its notification efforts," Scott said. "We need clearer directions from CPB."

* KPFA-FM advisory board meetings are "well-advertised and the meetings are open to the public."

* The advisory boards were "not being provided with the autonomy they needed to perform their functions." Scott agreed that local advisory boards have an important role in communicating the needs of listeners, but in the past many of them have had confusing and ill-defined roles. "The audit mistakenly assumes the local advisory boards have decision-making powers over programming," she added. "The guidelines are clear: the advisory boards are not to make decisions, but instead are to act as conduits for public comment."

While the audit provided a mix of praise and criticism for Pacifica, Scott said she plans to submit a formal complaint to CPB. "The audit contains a number of gross inaccuracies about Pacifica, most alarmingly its flatly false assertion that board meetings have been largely closed to the public," Scott said. It would have been appropriate to send us a draft prior to its release so we could help correct the numerous inaccuracies.

"I am shocked that a report by a new Inspector General unfamiliar with the law and totally unfamiliar with public broadcasting was immediately made public," she added.

Pacifica, founded in 1949, is the country's first listener-sponsored radio network. Pacifica operates five stations in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Houston, and Berkeley, and provides programming to more that 50 affiliate and subscriber stations across the country.

---------- [NOTE: There is no indication whether or not an actual full copy of the Compliance Audit report was sent out along with the press release.]