Topic: Free Press

What’s the Biggest Threat to Free Speech in America?

October 12, 2007 |

If you thought phone companies were simply supposed to get you connected, think again.

Verizon’s notion of “progress” may not agree with your notion of free speech

Over the last several weeks we learned that the nation’s two largest telecommunications firms want to get into the business of censorship as well — blocking the free flow of information over phones and the Internet.

We saw an unsettling example of just how bad this can get last week. Verizon Wireless blocked text messages that national pro-choice group NARAL wanted to send to their members. That they reversed the decision after the censorship was exposed should offer little comfort.

While they may have scrambled to fix one “dusty policy” and let these messages through, we can see in the details of this and other episodes a worrisome pattern of abuse. And it’s not just at Verizon. Over the weekend, the technophiles at Slashdot exposed what many of us failed to read in the fine print of our AT&T customer agreements. «Read the rest of this article»

A Media Bill of Rights

By Bill Larson | February 20, 2007 |

An overview on the “Bill of Media Rights” as promoted and advanced by a large coalition of organizations and activists working towards a more democratic media system.

The program includes a point-by-point description of the principles inherent in it and required for a media system that is truly reflective of and responsive to the needs and interests of the public.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2416049167498839637

«Read the rest of this article»

Video: Independent media in a time of war

By Bill Larson | September 25, 2006 |

Part scathing critique, part call to action, “Independent Media In A Time Of War” is a hard-hitting new documentary by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center (http://www.hm.indymedia.org/). This film is composed of a speech given by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! illustrated by clips of mainstream media juxtaposed with rare footage from independent reporters in Iraq. «Read the rest of this article»

Media Consolidation and the Corporate Media

By Bill Larson | September 17, 2006 |

Tonight’s theme is media consolidation and the corporate media. I have rounded up a collection of videos from Youtube and Google Video which highlight some of the issues raised by the massive over consolidation of the media, giving a just few companies,  full control over what you see, hear, and read. You only have to look at the recent attempt to rewrite history attempted by the Disney Corporation in cahoots with ABC to see why this should concern all of us. «Read the rest of this article»

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