Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform group, today launched the official Web site of the 2005 National Conference on Media Reform and opened general registration for the event. The conference, which will be held May 13-15 at the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, will bring together several thousand people working to create a more democratic media system.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission is expected to announce today that the U.S. Solicitor General will not appeal the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Prometheus Radio Project vs. Federal Communications Commission to the Supreme Court. That decision threw out the FCC rules issued in June 2003 that would have significantly loosened media ownership caps.

The <I>Wall Street Journal</I> reported Friday morning that Michael Powell is resigning after four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Robert W. McChesney, founder and president of the nonpartisan media reform group Free Press, made the following statement:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell today instructed the Enforcement Bureau to launch an investigation into possible payola violations regarding the $240,000 paid by the Bush administration to pundit Armstrong Williams to promote its education policy.

WASHINGTON — Free Press, the nonpartisan media reform group, has called on Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to launch an immediate investigation into undisclosed payments given to pundit Armstrong Williams by the Bush administration.

In response to reports that Fox News radio will be broadcast on as many as 500 Clear Channel-owned stations, Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver made the following statement:

ST. PAUL, Dec. 2 — Free Press, along with a broad coalition of local partners, is hosting a series of Public Testimony Workshops for Twin Cities residents to prepare comments for the St. Paul Media Concentration Forum at Hamline University on Thursday, Dec. 9.

WASHINGTON – Despite widespread public opposition, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill late last night that will prevent local communities across the state from providing broadband Internet services that compete with companies like Verizon.

WASHINGTON – Free Press, the national media reform group, today called on Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to veto a bill that would prevent local communities in the state from providing broadband Internet services that compete with private companies.

Washington – Free Press today joined the Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) campaign, the Consumer Project on Technology, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, and other organizations in proposing concrete suggestions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) draft Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultur