Tell Trade Negotiators: "Our Media Are Not for Sale!"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: November 18, 2003
Contact: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sasha Costanza-Shock
607-351-0585 (cell)

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MIAMI, Nov. 18 – On the eve of negotiations beginning here for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), media activists from across the country and around the world planned to join thousands of union members, environmentalists, students, indigenous people, small farmers, and others in a permitted march Thursday to say: “No to the FTAA: Our Media Are Not for Sale!”

Trade ministers from every country in the hemisphere – except Cuba – begin meeting Wednesday to negotiate the FTAA, a trade agreement that critics say will undermine public services and expand corporate power in every sector, including media, culture, and communications.

In particular, media activists fear that the FTAA could serve as an end run around the political battle raging in the United States over media ownership. The Federal Communications Commission’s June 2 decision to relax ownership limits in the United States sparked opposition from groups across the political spectrum and led citizens to send more than 3 million emails, letters and petitions to the agency and to Congress. Courts stayed the implementation of the rule, and congressional opponents are currently challenging the FCC’s decision.

However, under the FTAA, laws that limit media ownership could be considered trade violations. In addition, public funding for nonprofit media could be attacked, and media corporations could be allowed to sue governments for maintaining democratically created, public interest media and cultural policies.

“The FTAA would be a disaster for our media system, and for democracy here in the US and across the hemisphere,” said Free Press founder Robert McChesney, a media expert at the University of Illinois. “Big Media hasn’t been able to get their way in Congress, so they’re pushing their fantasy of unfettered monopoly control in closed-door trade agreements like the FTAA. The growing movement for media reform is stepping up to stop them.”

The Miami trade talks also mark a major stopping point for the “Tell Us the Truth” tour, sponsored in part by Free Press. The tour is an effort by activist musicians, including Billy Bragg and Steve Earle, to raise public awareness about the ills of media consolidation and the need for fair trade.

Free Press is a national organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates. The ultimate aim of Free Press is to generate a range of policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.

More information on the impact of the FTAA on media and culture, and the growing movement for media democracy, can be found at Free Press’ website: www.mediareform.net/ftaa. For more information about Tell Us the Truth, see www.tellusthetruth.org.

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Free Press does not support or oppose any candidate for public office. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media and universal access to communications.