Ladies and Gentlemen,
As a producer here at TPV and I have had to suspend my work on programming this morning in order to respond on behalf of TPV to unfounded and malicious public comments made by Sonia Poulton in relation to her departure from the station. I will attempt to answer as many of the concerns as possible which have been raised in this forum, as a result of the scurrilous, ambiguous and potentially harmful allegations which our former presenter decided to publish yesterday afternoon.
TPV would like to announce that a full cost report of expenditure from day one until the present will be made public imminently, hopefully within the next 48 hours. These will not be full audited accounts prepared by chartered accountants - those will follow in due course at the appropriate time, as this is indeed a legal requirement. It is, however, necessary to respond to allegations of financial impropriety as soon as we can, in view of our publicly funded, not-for-profit status, and the fact that you, our viewers, have funded TPV. The malicious allegations which Sonia decided to make in her statement of January 7th could be harmful to TPV, and whilst we really do have better things to do, certain things must be cleared up once and for all so that this entirely selfish attempt to slander us comes to an end.
Further, in response to unfounded speculation on this forum, we draw your attention to the fact that we are always here to respond to your concerns or questions through the 'Contact Us' button found in the 'About Us' section of our website
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.tv. We are, of course, aware that sometimes people do not receive a response as quickly as they would wish, but please remember that we are staffed largely by volunteers, who are stretched way beyond the normal realms of expected workload, even for a TV station, and we are all doing the best we can. Apologies to those of you who may have had difficulty engaging with TPV in this way, and this situation will improve as we move forward.
Sonia's allegations yesterday are completely unfounded and made with malice. We could become embroiled in a petty mud-slinging exercise but we choose not to, out of professionalism, human decency, and the fact that we do not want to indulge in this schoolyard behaviour.
The accusations she made yesterday are untrue, unfounded and unsubstantiated, but it is easy to see through them. No names are mentioned, emotive adjectives are used liberally in an attempt to create drama, and sympathy for herself. And then there are outright lies.
For instance: the mention of a "missing camera: is used to create an impression of perhaps thirty thousand pounds worth of kit walking out of the door into someone's car boot. In reality, this was a £400 domestic handycam, which was inadvertently left on a train by one of our most valued and talented volunteers after she had been out filming. Luckily, she still had the memory card in her pocket. Sonia knew all about this, yet chose to imply a picture of endemic theft and wrongdoing.
As mentioned above, our financial statement will be available to you all as soon as possible. Close inspection of this will yield no surprises. The set up and ongoing running of this channel has been an expensive undertaking and miracles have been worked in all areas. Stories of staff and volunteers squandering money on drinks in pubs and takeaways are also fabricated. We are happy to indicate the rare instances of where we made valid production decisions on catering to anyone who is interested.
I am making this statement as a senior producer at TPV with 20 years experience in TV. As many members of the TPV crew as possible were consulted in the draft of this statement in order to ensure its veracity, accuracy and the feeling of all staff here.
A response on behalf of The People's Voice staff and volunteers. Please direct your response via the 'About TPV' button above and 'Contact Us'. Thank you for your continued support during the past few days.
