June 2011

United Nations Declares Internet Access a Basic Human Right

A lengthy report released by the United Nations argued that disconnecting individuals from the Internet is a violation of human rights and goes against international law.

"The Special Rapporteur underscores the unique and transformative nature of the Internet not only to enable individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression," according to the report's summary, "but also a range of other human rights, and to promote the progress of society as a whole." "[T]he recent wave of demonstrations in countries across the Middle East and North African region has shown the key role that the Internet can play in mobilizing the population to call for justice, equality, accountability and better respect for human rights," the report notes. "As such, facilitating access to the Internet for all individuals, with as little restriction to online content as possible, should be a priority for all States."

Syrian Internet Networks Shut Down as Protests Against Assad Intensify

About two-thirds of Syria’s Internet networks became unreachable June 3 as protests against President Bashar al-Assad intensified.

Starting in the early morning, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table, security firm Renesys said on its website. The country’s Web traffic depends on domestic operator Syriatel Mobile Telecom SA, the company said. Syrian security forces killed more than 60 people in the town of Hama and injured as many 20 people in Deir Al-Zour as thousands demonstrated today after prayers in Hama, Damascus and the province of Idlib, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said today. Gunfire was heard also in Nawa in the south, he said, adding that the central towns of Rastan and Talbiseh are surrounded by tanks and troops.

UK Wireless Spectrum Sale Should Not Dictate Market Size, Vodafone Says

Richard Feasey, Vodafone's public policy director, says Ofcom must avoid determining the number of mobile-phone operators in the country before a frequency auction that may raise as much as 2.6 billion pounds ($4.3 billion). Ofcom wants to maintain at least four national carriers and would impose limits on the minimum and maximum amounts of frequencies set to go on sale in the first quarter of 2012 to ensure competition. The industry should decide the size of the market in the long run, Feasey said.

NCTA Wants to Join FCC in Pole Attachment Defense

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association filed a motion at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that it wants to intervene in support of the Federal Communications Commission's pole attachment ruling.

NCTA said it had the right to intervene in the case because it participated in the rulemaking and its members would be affected by it. Various power companies have challenged the FCC's April 7 decision to lower the rates utility pole owners can charge for telecom service (which has been as much as $20 per foot per year) to about the same as the cable rate of about $7 per foot per year. The FCC also voted to boost wireless access to poles and to set a deadline for utility companies to allow attachments. The change will mean cable companies won't have to pay more for their telecom offerings, either, which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. Not surprisingly, the utilities have opposed the move, and took that opposition to the DC Circuit, which has jurisdiction over appeals of FCC decisions. They had argued that the FCC was shifting the cost from telecom companies to its ratepayers.

Republicans demand TV station yank ad claiming GOP plan would 'end Medicare'

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which oversees House races for the GOP, has written a sharply-worded letter demanding that a New Hampshire TV station yank an ad making the claim that the Republican plan would "end Medicare." Progressive Change Campaign Committee is airing the ad on WMUR against GOP Rep. Charlie Bass. The letter — which calls on Comcast Boston to take down the ad and is unusually detailed and emphatic — reflects how badly Republicans want a halt to these attacks.

Here’s the letter’s core argument:

The Budget Resolution as approved by the U.S. House of Representatives does NOT end Medicare. In fact, the Budget Resolution makes no changes at all to Medicare for current or near retirees, as none of the Medicare-related provisions in the Budget Resolution would even take effect until 2022. This fact makes the Advertisement especially misleading, as the woman featured in the Advertisement is a current Medicare beneficiary, and would not have her Medicare benefits ended, or even changed in any way, under the Budget Resolution...

Additionally, the Budget Resolution ensures that Americans aged 54 and younger will still have Medicare when they retire by implementing a new, sustainable model of Medicare. This new version of Medicare would actually REQUIRE insurance companies to GUARANTEE coverage for seniors.

The letter argues that the claim that Republicans would “end Medicare” is “blatantly and wholly false, and has been deliberately crafted to mislead and frighten voters.” It also cites a recent Politifact analysis that pronounced the assertion “highly misleading.”

Rep Darrell Issa: Gmail hack underscores White House email risk

The brouhaha over hackers penetrating the Gmail accounts of top US officials would be much ado about nothing if White House employees just followed the rules.

That's the view from the office of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), who has been pushing the White House to make sure employees with private email accounts comply with the Presidential Records Act. He has repeatedly complained about senior administration employees — among the reported targets of the scam — sending work e-mails to their personal email accounts because, he argues, it circumvents the law. And Chairman Issa believes the hack on Gmail is further evidence that the administration needs to step up and do a better job of ensuring its staff complies with the records act.

Levin: FCC shouldn't interview for private sector jobs

If Blair Levin had his druthers, no Federal Communications Commission commissioner would be allowed to interview for a private sector job, let alone take one, while sitting in public office.

“No one who is a Senate-confirmed person at the agency should interview for any private sector job while they are there,” said Levin, principal architect of the National Broadband Plan. “If the Senate confirms you to be a decisionmaker, go be a decisionmaker,” he added, arguing that public officials should have some sort of cooling-off period before going to work for the entities they previously regulated. After leaving the FCC, Levin took a job as a fellow at the Aspen Institute. That’s where he remains today.

Stop the revolving door at the FCC

[Commentary] A supposed public servant skips out on her job at the Federal Communications Commission to take one as a lobbyist for the company whose multibillion-dollar mega-merger she just voted to approve. Scandal or business as usual? Depends who you ask.

Inside the Beltway, the revolving door between government and industry is dismissed with a shrug because "everybody does it." Out in the real world, people know something stinks. If you want to know why so many people are disillusioned and disgusted with Washington, look no further than FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker’s decision to leave the FCC to become a lobbyist for Comcast after rubber-stamping the media giant's takeover of NBC. Of course, Baker is not the first government official to accept a paycheck from the industry she was once charged with regulating, and, sadly, she will not be the last. However, her announcement has brought the unseemliness of the revolving door into stark relief. Free Press sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the three other remaining commissioners, asking them to pledge neither to seek nor accept employment from AT&T or T-Mobile directly upon leaving their present posts. We ask for assurance that, in this matter, the FCC’s commitment is to the public it serves and not to potential future employers.

There are philosophical differences among the commissioners on what role government should play in regulating business. There is also no single resolution to this proposed merger that will satisfy everyone. But we hope that through this pledge the public can at least be confident that deliberations are based not on any future job prospects, but on the agency's actual mandate: whether this deal is truly in the public interest. [Aaron is the president and CEO of Free Press]

Rep Blackburn slams Free Press 'collusion' with FCC Commissioner Copps on network neutrality

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch released e-mails between Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Michael Copps and his aides and members of Free Press.

The media reform group offered to help draft an editorial by Commissioner Copps to place in a newspaper. The correspondence also shows that Copps's office declined the help with drafting, but accepted the help with placing the article.

“As you can see from even a cursory glance at these e-mails, there is nothing unusual or controversial in what Judicial Watch 'uncovered.' They found us — shockingly — filing ex partes about meetings we had, recommending our allies to testify at public hearings, urging the public to attend those hearings and sending a daily headline service to anyone who signs up," Free Press President Craig Aaron said, arguing that the e-mails reflect the ordinary activities of advocates.

But Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) strongly condemned what she described as "collusion" and called for further scrutiny of Free Press by the House. "I am deeply disturbed by the revelations of collusion between the FCC and Free Press on the net-neutrality issue. The FCC has moved against the will of the people, the wisdom of Congress and the order of the courts, to nationalize our most productive marketplace," Rep Blackburn said.

TechAmerica lauds House GOP's tech agenda

The industry group TechAmerica praised House Republicans on June 3 for the technology legislative agenda they unveiled one day earlier. The House Republican Technology Working Group said it will focus on protecting U.S. intellectual property, preventing cyber attacks and ensuring there is enough spectrum available for mobile broadband during the current session, spurring the industry's hopes that tech policy will take center stage this year. "In order to get our nation’s economy back on track, we need to ensure that American innovation is fostered and given every opportunity to succeed, creating jobs and expanding business investment opportunities," said TechAmerica CEO Phil Bond.

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