Editorials Amplify Call for Congress to Act Against Telco Censorship

By Save The Internet.

Verizon and AT&Tıs attempts to sweep away the controversy over cell
phone censorship isnıt working.

Despite their best spin, another message is getting through: Phone
companies canıt be trusted to protect free speech.

As weıve reported here and elsewhere, this is a story that goes
beyond one outrageous case of blocking a text message.

New York Times: ŒTextbook Censorshipı

The New York Times responded today with an editorial calling on
Congress and the FCC to set new standards that ³bar interference with
text messaging.²

³Alarm bells should be ringing on Capitol Hill, where industry
lobbying, legislative goldbricking and Republican aversion to
regulations have bottled up much-needed laws on digital
communications,² Times editors write, singling out Verizonıs effort
to block text messages sent from national NARAL Pro-Choice America.

³The Verizon policy was textbook censorship,² they add. ³Any
government that tried it would be rightly labeled authoritarian.Š If
Verizon had attempted it on normal phone lines, it would have been
violating common carrier laws that bar interference with voice
transmissions. Unfortunately, those laws do not apply to text
messaging.²

This sentiment is echoed in a column today by Vindu Goel of the San
Jose Mercury News, and an editorial late last week at the Los Angeles
Times.

³I donıt blame the carriers for wanting control. Theyıve invested
billions of dollars in building their networks,² Goel writes. ³But
the government ‹ which represents you and me ‹ has given them a
license to use public airwaves. The phone companies have a
responsibility to allow broad access to their services.²

FCC Leaks and the Revolving Door

The Times called upon the FCC to act, while acknowledging that the
agency has long been held captive to the interests of phone
companies. That conclusion is supported by a GAO report released
today that found FCC officials routinely leaking information to phone
companies to give them a leg up on influencing critical decisions at
the agency.

That many former FCC officials are guaranteed cushy jobs at blue-chip
telecommunications lobbying firms goes a long way toward explaining
the special treatment. Whatıs not measured is the incalculable damage
this insider trading has on the public.

Congress Must Take the Lead

Corruption at the FCC ³means Congress will have to take the lead, as
it must on other issues affecting the mushrooming world of digital
communications,² according to the Times.

While some members of Congress have already protested recent cell
phone censorship, they need to take this one step further * by
convening hearings into the matter and affirming our legal commitment
to free speech on the Internet, over cellphones, everywhere.

³Our democracy is built on basic freedoms not being left to
individuals, or individual companies,² the Times editorial board
writes. ³Freedom of speech must be guaranteed, right now, in a
digital world just as it has been protected in a world of paper and
ink.²

Amen.

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpres...als-amplify-ca
ll-for-congress-to-act-against-telco-censorship-2/

--
"New York Times has all ready sent me a response stating you have
been warned."
-- prison clerk heishman lying as "Osprey" <[email protected]>
in news:[email protected]




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