Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Vaught. In this case, plaintiffs ALDF and three other groups challenge the constitutionality of Arkansas’s ag-gag statute. The statute creates a civil cause of action [...]
Participated with the Reporters Committee and 113 other media organizations and outlets in a letter to Minnesota officials urging them to take immediate, concrete steps to end the police arrests and attacks on credentialed and clearly identifiable journalists that occurred during civil protests. The letter states that the right of the press to document police [...]
FOR RELEASE: May 28, 2020 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., May 28, 2020 – Media Institute President Richard T. Kaplar issued the following statement in response to the Executive Order signed by President Trump on May 28 regarding social media platforms: “The First Amendment must be the unwavering beacon in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-18-20 Attorney General Bill Barr made Apple's refusal to build government back-doors into information on its iPhone part of the lead of his announcement on the December shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Barr said Apple's practice of warrantless encryption is "dangerous" and "unacceptable." Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-18-20 Broadcasters and tech companies are high on the broadband-related prospects of ATSC 3.0, particularly for automotive applications as a near term starter, but ultimately only as a complement to the mothership of a primary TV signal sporting major new upgrades due to that Next Gen TV-branded broadcast [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-18-20 The FCC is proposing to help promote broadcasting as a new competitive broadband pipe by making it clear that legacy broadcast TV ownership regulations do not apply to broadcast-delivered internet services like over-the-top video and data. That is according to FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who has been [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-15-20 House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and ranking member Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) have introduced a stand-alone bill that would make radio and TV stations that are part of larger broadcast groups eligible for forgivable small business loans. There is a provision to that effect in the [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Perry v. Hollingsworth. The case concerns access to the video recording of the 2010 Proposition 8 trial. In April 2017, KQED moved to unseal the videotapes, but the district court [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Husch Blackwell v. WMATA. This case concerns the “consultant corollary” and Exemption 5 of FOIA and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Public Access to Records Policy (“PARP”). Husch Blackwell LLP [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the New York Appellate Division in Center on Privacy & Technology v. New York City Police Dept. This case arises out of a public records request that CPT made to the NYPD under New York’s Freedom of Information Law. The NYPD claimed [...]