Welcome to the Free Press blog! We post several times a week on everything from Internet access to free speech to media mergers, so check back often to see what we’re up to.
AT&T is at it again, blocking the open Internet and finding devious new ways to stomp on innovation, nickel-and-dime its customers and add to its ever-growing profits.
Just days after news broke that the Justice Department had secretly obtained AP journalists’ phone records as part of its ongoing crackdown on leaks, the New Yorker released a new tool — Strongbox — to enable people to safely and securely leak electronic files.
Free Press joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and major news organizations in calling on the Justice Department to return the phone records it secretly obtained from more than 100 journalists.
It was just revealed that the Justice Department secretly obtained a huge cache of phone records from reporters and editors at the Associated Press. The AP has called this a “massive and unprecedented” violation of journalists’ constitutional right to gather and report the news.
But this is not just a journalists’ issue. It’s a democratic issue that has implications for all Americans.
Consumers were irate about their cable bills, which were increasing at nearly three times the rate of inflation. And Congress actually did something — adopting in overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion the 1992 Cable Act. The law resulted in lower cable bills, saving consumers $3 billion in just over a year’s time.
Want to learn how to be a better online spy? Curious to see a very brief history of the Internet? Tired of all those TV spoilers from your Twitter feed? Read on.
Also: Whatever you do, do NOT click that last link at the bottom. It might ruin your weekend.
Opposition to the Koch brothers’ reported plan to take over the eight Tribune Company newspapers has spread from activist groups, unions, lawmakers and journalism advocates to the readers of these papers.
Imagine for a moment if 50 percent of America’s media was noncommercial. How would that change whose stories got told and which issues got debated? How would it shape access to information or the role of arts and education in our homes and communities?
