STATEMENT OF MEDIA ACCESS PROJECT REACTING TO U.S. COURT OF APPEALS MEDIA OWNERSHIP DECISION

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of Media Access Project, has issued the following statement in response to today’s decision of the United States Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversing the Federal Communications Commission’s June, 2003 action which would have significantly deregulated broadcast media ownership rules:

This is a big, big win for diversity in the media. The Court has ruled in our favor on almost every issue in the case. The judges agreed with us that preserving democracy is more important than helping big companies grow bigger. Perhaps the most important part of the decision is the Court’s holding that the FCC improperly applied a presumption in favor of deregulation in its review of the broadcast media ownership rules. The Court’s directive that the FCC take its deregulatory thumb off the scale virtually assures a different outcome when the FCC revisits the question in response to the Court’s decision. We won on almost every issue we raised. While the Court did uphold the FCC’s authority to eliminate the current prohibition on new newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership, its remand to the FCC gives us the chance to prove that these limitations are necessary for local civic discourse. Almost as important as what we won is what the big broadcasters didn’t win. The Court decisively rejected claims that the FCC hadn’t deregulated enough, and that the existing ownership scheme is unconstitutional.

Decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals

Summary of the Decision

Press

• "Federal appellate court rejects new rules on media ownership," Chicago Sun Times, Eric Herman (06/25/04)
• "Court Rejects Rules on Media Ownership," Washington Post, Frank Ahrens (06/25/04)
• "Court Orders Rethinking of Rules Allowing Large Media to Expand," New York Times, Stephen Labaton (06/25/04)
• "Court Blocks Loosened FCC Media Limits," Wired News (06/24/04)
• "FCC Media Ownership Rules Sent Back for Agency Review (Update4)," Bloomberg, Neil Roland (06/24/04)
• "Court Throws Out FCC's Media Ownership Rules," SFGate.com, Seth Sutel (06/24/04)
• "U.S. Appeals Court Throws Out Most of Ownership Deregulation," Television Week, Doug Halonen (06/24/04)
• "Court keeps stay on media rules," Houston Chronicle.com (06/24/04)

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