What's New

July 19, 2010:  The Media & Democracy Coalition is hiring an Organizing & Communications Manager.  View a job description and application instructions here. 

July 16, 2010:  Members of MDC filed comments with FCC urging the agency to use its oversight over the Internet to make the U.S. a global broadband leader.  Read more about what the groups said here.

March 15, 2010:   Today, the Federal Communications Commission released the beginnings of the long-awaited National Broadband Plan. The Media & Democracy Coalition and our members have been pushing for a bold, innovative Plan to bring broadband to all U.S. consumers.  Read our press statement on the Plan here. 

March 8, 2010: Nineteen civil rights and media reform organizations and advocates - including many members and allies of the Media and Democracy Coalition - signed this letter commending the Federal Communication Commission’s ongoing efforts to promote diversity.  The letter respectfully suggests, however, that the Commission should move ahead with its triennial Section 257 inquiry, its collection of media ownership data on Form 323, and other measures designed to fulfill statutory mandates favoring a diversity of media voices as well as entrepreneurs’ ownership of telecommunications and information services.

February 17, 2010:   A coalition of public interest and consumer groups is urging the Federal Communications Commission to include a set of bold benchmarks and policies in the agency’s upcoming National Broadband Plan.  The groups issued their challenge to the FCC on the date the Plan was originally due to Congress per the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.  The Plan is now due on March 17, 2010.  More....

February 10, 2010:  The Media and Democracy Coalition applauds Google’s announcement that it will build experimental high capacity fiber-optic networks serving between 50,000 and 500,000 consumers. This announcement comes as the Federal Communications Commission is putting the final touches on the National Broadband Plan, due to Congress in mid-March.  We urge the Commission to embrace in the Plan many of the commitments Google is making today: networks that are open access, offer symmetrical high-speed, and that involve community input.  We are pleased to see the company will abide by the principle of network neutrality, and urge Google to offer services over these networks at prices low-income consumers can afford.  More...

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January 7 2010: The Media and Democracy Coalition joined two-dozen other groups in a letter to President Obama and Members of Congress to express concern over the merger proposed by Comcast and NBC Universal.  

In a statement, MDC Executive Director Beth McConnell said “A combined Comcast and NBCU poses significant harms to consumers.  They could pay higher prices for cable and Internet, see fewer choices of content available on television or over the web, and face unfair, discriminatory practices by the merged media behemoth.  Internet subscribers, community media providers and creative producers should be protected if the merger is permitted.”      

You can also read a statement from Free Press here. 

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November 20, 2009: Hannah Miller of the Media and Democracy Coalition (MDC) testified today before New York City Council's Technology in Government Committee today in favor of open access policies, voicing support for the six principles put forward by the FCC and discussing the findings of Harvard's Berkman Center on how best to universalize next generation broadband for America.

MDC's testimony, on Councilwoman Gail Brewer's Resolution 712A in support of net neutrality, encouraged Council to pass it as a signal to policymakers in Washington that the issue is of pressing importance. Miller also discussed the findings of the FCC-commissioned Berkman Center for the Internet and Society report on what regulatory framework would best result in ubiquitous, affordable broadband.

The Berkman report, Next-Generation Connectivity: A Review of Broadband Internet Transitions and Policy from Around the World, delved indepth into 14 different regulatory frameworks, and found that open-access policies - opening carriers' networks up to different providers that then competed to sell service on those networks - resulted in lower costs and higher quality for the consumer, and lessened the digital divide.   

"These 14 nations had a choice: between the interests of a handful of telco companies, or the economic wellbeing of society as a whole," Miller said. "And in all 14, it turned out to be no contest." 

The full hearing is available online; MDC shares a panel with Common Cause NY and Future of Music Coalition at 56:12. MDC members People's Production House, Public Knowledge, and Free Press also testified. Testimony is available here.

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Future of Music Coalition
The Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. The FMC seeks to educate the media, policymakers, and the public about music / technology issues, while also bringing together diverse voices in an effort to come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges in this space.

Upcoming Events

Jul 28 - Aug 1: 2010 NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair, San Diego, CA

Aug 4 - Aug 7: AAJA 2010 National Convention, Los Angeles, CA

Aug 5: Digital Justice for Us!, Albuquerque, NM  

Aug 12 - Aug 15: International Summit for Community Wireless Networks, Vienna, Austria

Sep 29: Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Awards Breakfast, Washington, DC