About MAP
Media Access Project (MAP) is a thirty five year old non-profit tax exempt public interest media and telecommunications law firm which promotes the public's First Amendment right to hear and be heard on the electronic media of today and tomorrow. In the words of the Supreme Court:
"It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail... It is the right of the public to receive suitable access to social, political, esthetic, moral and other ideas which is crucial here."
MAP's work is in the courts, the FCC, and in active outreach as a coalition builder among other public interest organizations.
MAP is the only Washington-based organization devoted to representing listeners' and speakers' interests in electronic media and telecommunications issues before the Federal Communications Commission, other policy-making bodies, and in the courts. MAP's staff attorneys provide guidance and representation to scores of national and local non-profit groups annually. They appear frequently at academic, legislative, and professional meetings to ensure that the needs of the public are not forgotten as policies are established for the next generation. According to the National Journal, MAP is "considered by some ... dollar-for-dollar the best-run public interest group in Washington."
MAP grew out of the movement that began with the landmark United Church of Christ litigation of the 1960s. Those cases, involving the failure of a Mississippi TV station to serve the Black community, established that members of the viewing and listening public have the legal right, derived from the First Amendment, to participate in FCC proceedings.
Map Today
In its early days, MAP's work implementing the FCC's fairness doctrine helped open TV networks to anti-war and civil rights activists. In today's fast-changing telecommunications arena, MAP addresses issues posed by emerging new technologies. MAP's early dedication is now manifested in activities devoted to maintaining diversity of employment, programming and media ownership and to promoting access to diverse sources of information on the Internet, broadcast, cable and satellite, and other electronic mass media.
MAP has been active in issues surrounding broadband, cable open access, the "Dot.us" Internet top level country code. MAP tackled the AOL/Time Warner merger. MAP is at the forefront of efforts to develop media policies which will, quite literally, govern the terms of voter participation and public discourse in the next generation. MAP works to ensure that current and future telecommunications technologies promote, and do not impede, democratic values.
While much of MAP's advocacy has been devoted to building consensus, MAP has often found it necessary to resort to litigation. Among its victories has been a successful defense of portions of the 1992 Cable Act that require cable operators to carry local over-the-air television stations over their systems. These "must-carry" provisions ensure that all members of the public, including those cannot receive, or cannot afford to pay for cable, receive free, over-the-air television. In addition, MAP was co-counsel to plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court case which invalidated the so-called "Communications Decency Act," and established a framework for free speech on the Internet.
Boondocks knows what MAP is all about. Do you?
copyright 2002 Aaron Mcgruder
Provided by Universal Press Syndicate
For more, go to: boondocks.net
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