Mahalo for Akaku Coverage

By Noel Ching-Johnson

I want to thank you for your balanced reporting on Election Coverage/ Molokai's first broadcast, and your story about the effort on behalf of the DCCA, Cable company and developers to squash public access television.

Even the Maui News is extremely unbalanced in their reporting when it comes to Akaku.  The Maui News is now refusing to even print letters to the editor if they are about Akaku, stating that they are tired of hearing about the station.

Akaku and its staff are extremely helpful, always willing to help with a production, answer questions about equipment, cameras or anything related to the medium of television. Mostly, the staff seems very dedicated to the mission of "empowering the community through access to the medium of television".

The combined efforts of powerful agencies and individuals to smother this community oriented non- profit agency is disgusting.

Thank You again for printing these balanced stories.

Mahalo
Noel Ching-Johnson
community producer

And thank you for your letter. I don't know how balanced our coverage of Akaku really is though – we are rather partial to Akaku because they have given Molokai a greater voice.

Akaku allows for anyone in our community to become a trained producer and, within weeks, will broadcast their video/story, to the entire county.

What's more, Akaku provides excellent coverage of our local meetings and events. There are many kupuna who don't get around so easily – for them Akaku has been a window into our greater community.

Plus, video on demand, live streaming, and most recently Molokai's first live broadcast – Akaku is busting out some awesome and exciting technology that is directly benefitting our community.

Molokai is a fragile place that could easily become a Waikiki, Hanalei, Kihei, or Kona. But Molokai is also a small place with big aspirations and organizations like Akaku are empowering our locals and allowing them to choose their own destiny.

The Molokai Dispatch mission is to strive to empower the various people and things that keep Molokai Molokai – Akaku is certainly one of those things.

Mahalo for your letter, Todd Yamashita – Editor in Chief