Ownership limits should be maintained by the FCC, claims McLaughlin
Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel
Access Humboldt has joined more than 50 public interest groups that filed comments today with the Federal Communications Commission regarding the FCC’s broadcast ownership review.
“Access Humboldt supports the national public policy goal of media diversity,” said Sean McLaughlin, executive director of Access Humboldt. “We join with colleagues across the nation in citing the facts of historic failure to achieve diversity of media ownership, and asking for the FCC to address the harms caused by ongoing consolidation.
In their letter to FCC chair Genachowski, Access Humboldt and the public interest groups request that the FCC:
- Evaluate the impact of its media ownership rules on ownership opportunities for women and people of color.
- Take proactive measures to promote ownership of broadcast stations by underrepresented groups.
- Guard against further erosion of media ownership among these groups by maintaining existing media ownership limits.
“For a healthy democracy, we need an open marketplace of ideas that supports freedom of information and expression, including local voices and the unique perspectives of all kinds of people,” added McLaughlin, who is also a Knight Media Policy Fellow with New America Foundation.
“Concentrated absentee ownership of broadband media networks is harmful to the public interest. The best way to ensure information diversity is to support development of community based networks and local media access for public, education and government purposes.”
For more information, call McLaughlin at (707) 616-2381.
