How much control should the county have over its public news outlet?

The County Council is considering a bill that would apply new standards to Montgomery Community Media, the nonprofit that streams council meetings on public access television.

Its sponsor, council member Kate Stewart, said she’s trying to align MCM with rules governing other nonprofits, such as Strathmore, that receive significant county funding.

The bill bothers Jasmine White, MCM’s CEO, who said the legislation could curtail press freedoms. She’s particularly concerned with a provision that would require the council and county executive to each appoint one member to MCM’s board of directors.

“Changing the governance structure of an independent nonprofit organization, and the government having the authority and ability to do that specifically or particularly because of funding, I think is really a dangerous precedent,” White told The Banner.

Consequences

As the only news outlet with which the county contracts, MCM would be the only one directly impacted by the legislation. In addition to running the channel that streams council meetings and other local programming, MCM fields a team of reporters and editors who dissemintate county news.

More than 80% of MCM’s budget comes from the county’s budget — in fiscal 2027, it received nearly $2.5 million.

The bill, which would also require MCM to comply with open meetings laws and adopt policies related to journalistic ethics and racial equity and social justice, is cosponsored by council Vice President Marilyn Balcombe and Stewart’s colleagues on the Government Operations Committee, Shebra Evans and Sidney Katz.

Stewart said the legislation was created following conversations in the committee about economic pressures on the county’s cable fund. In those discussions, it became clear MCM was subject to different protocols than similarly funded organizations, she said.

“There was no requirement for a racial equity and social justice statement. There was no requirement for following open meetings rules. There were no requirements for board members to adhere to county ethics,” Stewart said. “All things that, for an entity that receives a sizable amount of money in taxpayer dollars, should be followed.”

Norms

Mark Graber, a regent professor and constitutional law expert at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, said what Stewart and her colleagues are proposing is not unusual and does not violate free speech law.

“The government can say, ‘If we’re going to provide you with substantial funds, if we’re going to provide you access to government services not provided to others, then we can in fact exercise some control,’” Graber said.

Other public media outlets in the region are subject to similar regulations — public access DCTV, for example, receives funding from the Washington, D.C., government.

Stewart said her intention is not for elected officials to hold MCM board seats and that she is amending the bill to make that clear. But she also pointed out that elected officials, including Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman, have served on MCM’s board in recent years.

White argued that the situation is different and noted that Ashman did not have control over the county budget.

“When the organization approaches an elected official who has shown an interest in the work and the mission and wants to support the organization at a different level, and invites that person on the board, that’s a very different relationship than the government saying, ‘We have the authority to put a person on your board,’” White said.

Stewart’s legislation includes a provision that would prohibit the board of directors from censoring content.

Public media organizations that contract with the county must “determine independently in the public interest and without government interference the content and scheduling of programming” and must “develop and implement policies to ensure fair, non-partisan, and unbiased coverage.”

Stewart said she’s long championed funding for MCM and is frustrated that some see the bill as an attempt to censor.

“The important pieces of this bill are making sure that MCM and organizations that receive a large percentage of their budgets from taxpayer dollars are following basic open meetings and ethics rules,” Stewart said.

County Executive Marc Elrich said in a media briefing Wednesday that he supports requiring greater transparency from MCM in terms of financial decisions and operations but has concerns about the board appointee provision.

“I’m not totally comfortable with the idea that representatives of either myself or the council should be serving on the board of an organization whose job it is to cover and report on us,” he said.

White said she’s been meeting with county officials and hopes they will agree to amend the legislation to ensure MCM continues to operate without government influence. Although current council members may not want to censor MCM, future officials may feel differently, she said.

“It would be naive of us to think or believe that there is no influence, potential intimidation, potential retaliation that could happen as a result of someone being unhappy with the way they were covered or the way they were not covered,” White said.

Jeffrey Slavin, MCM’s board chair for the past 12 years, said he appreciates White’s concerns and would support the bill with amendments to protect the news outlet’s independence.

But he sees an additional place to reinforce that firewall.

“We need to put guardrails in MCM’s bylaws to prevent any members of the board of directors from interfering with content,” he said.