Live web video of legislature to continue   

April 27, 2010 – The State of Minnesota has rescinded its termination of The UpTake’s Capitol press room lease, allowing The UpTake to remain in the Capitol press room and continue to provide nonpartisan live streaming video coverage of the legislature as it has for the last two years.

However, the State Administration department is going ahead with its “review” of all media organizations’ leases at the Capitol. 

“Just like several other press organizations, we have deep concerns about the ‘review’ the state is doing of all media organizations space at the Capitol,” said The UpTake’s Executive Director Jason Barnett, “We plan to join with the other media to prevent the government from suppressing access which is necessary for all journalists to execute their rights under the First Amendment.”

During the review period, the state has suspended doing any new rental agreements with media organizations while they review its policy.  The State Administration made that decision after it had leased The UpTake additional space in the press room.  While the review is underway, The UpTake has agreed to postpone renting that extra space.

“We fully expect that if any media organizations are allowed to remain in The Capitol press room, we will be one of those organizations,” said Barnett. “We also expect the state to adhere to its promise to not rent out space while it does this review, so the space we desire will still be available when that policy is complete — and we expect to be able to rent it.”

About The UpTake and The UpTake Institute

The UpTake is a citizen-fueled video news gathering organization that uses the Internet as its broadcast medium. Since its inception in late 2007, The UpTake has explored the frontier of social media and news gathering. The UpTake uses a large, national network of professional and volunteer journalists to publish work on its own website, a large Twitter network, partnerships with You Tube, affiliated media outlets in the Media Consortium, the BBC, CNN and others.  The UpTake is considered a pioneer in online live-broadcast participatory journalism. With more than 24 million viewer minutes, The UpTake is one of the top 10 news video channels in the world on Livestream.  The UpTake has hosted thousands of people a day simultaneously on its live chat room, and published more than 2,000 local and national stories since its founding.  It produces a live radio show daily that is also simulcast with video on the web. The UpTake is a 501(c)4, non-partisan, non-profit organization.

The UpTake Institute was founded in the spring of 2009 to train citizen journalists in the principles and practice of journalism and to re-acquaint citizens with a civic interpretation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: Citizens have the right and responsibility to shape the media. Since its founding, The UpTake Institute has forged partnerships with Youtube, The Walker Art Center and Wellstone Action. More than 300 citizen journalists have received training. The UpTake Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit , non-partisan organization.

For more information contact Jason Barnett (612) 708-8224