After a bruising battle over state funding for the New Jersey Network, the public media system in New Jersey, the state is now facing another assault on independent and non-commercial media. However, this new legislative challenge strikes at the heart of New Jersey's information infrastructure, threatening to eliminate low-cost Internet for schools and libraries, and decimating community access TV.

The bill, which seems to have been hand-written by Verizon, is set to strip some of the most important consumer protections out of the telecom legislation for the state. A New Jersey Senate committee has already given the bill a thumbs up, and there is a hearing in the state assembly today that will move the bill one step closer to becoming law. Media watchdog organizations say they have never seen a bill move so fast through the system.

According to the New Jersey League of Municipalities, this bill would:

• Eliminate the requirement that cable companies provide municipalities with access to public, educational and government (PEG) channels;
• Eliminate the requirement that cable companies provide basic service and internet to municipal buildings and schools at no charge;
• Eliminate the requirement that cable companies provide equipment and training for access users; and,
• Reduce the franchise fee payable by certain cable companies that have converted from a traditional franchise to a system-wide franchise.

This is an attack on independent media in a state that is already suffering from a profound lack of media resources.

This new bill threatens to close the doors on a vital network of public, educational, governmental and community TV stations that empower local people to be participants in the media and give voice to important local issues that are not addressed anywhere else.

Correction: This blog post originally stated that WWOR was the only commercial broadcaster in the state, but in fact there are a number of low-power and full power TV stations.