A street protest outside News Corp.'s annual shareholders' meeting in Los Angeles is sending a message to Rupert Murdoch and his investors that "News Corp. Is Not Above the Law." And community members spoke eloquently at the Rural Broadband Summit about Appalachia’s need for high-speed broadband service.

A draconian state law has kept Longmont, Colo., from using its fiber optic broadband network to increase broadband competition and create business opportunities for residents. But the residents are undeterred and will try again to take the network public this November. And Mexico has quickly become one of the most dangerous places for journalists as it has failed to prosecute more than 90 percent of press-related crimes over the last decade.

The FCC released its 450-page assessment on the future of media. Unfortunately, many the report’s recommendations around localism, media consolidation and transparency are contradictory to its analysis. And Sonic’s new 1 Gbps fiber broadband connection with two phone lines for $70 is sure to shake up the broadband market in Sonoma County.

Could the United States be plunged into digital darkness? A new bill is being prepared in the Senate that could give the executive branch the power to flip an Internet kill switch. And Internet service provider Frontier is fighting the fiber-to-the-home broadband plan of two small towns in rural Minnesota.

The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, in partnership with Michigan State University, has been awarded $2 million in federal stimulus funds to help create a media-based economy in the city. And a team of professors at Rice University is pioneering a project to use “white spaces” to bring high-speed Internet to their community.

The National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution in support of Net Neutrality and the efforts of the FCC to reestablish its authority to regulate the broadband industry. Finland declared broadband access a legal right for its citizens. And the DISH satellite network is suing the FCC over a legal requirement to carry HD public broadcasting

Law professor Susan Crawford discusses Google's plan to build high-speed fiber networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. And Public Knowledge has introduced a new Copyright Reform Act -- model legislation that will look at updating copyright law for the digital age.

A new study about how the Internet is being used on tribal lands has placed Native Americans in the discussions about the National Broadband Plan. And the debate over Net Neutrality has moved from the halls of Washington to city council agendas in New York and San Francisco.

At a moment when technology and media are rapidly changing, the Free Press Summit explored the future of the Internet and the fate of journalism in the 21st century. More than 500 people packed a room on the seventh floor of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., to discuss the state of journalism, public media and the Internet in America.