Re: 3rd Circuit Reverses FCC Media Ownership Rule Changes

Brook North wrote:
> 
> Anyone know if the complete opinion is available online (for free)?


The Media Access Group's summary (text pasted below):

> http://www.mediaaccess.org/prometheus_decision/index.html

The decision:

> http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/033388p.pdf

Media Access's PDF summary, at the link below is also very helpful.

Seth

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> http://www.mediaaccess.org/prometheus_decision/index.html


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.

30/30/30


MAP's Statement and Attached Backgrounders
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/prometheus_decision/MAPStatementReMediaOwnershipCase.pdf)

Contact:
Harold Feld 202 454-5684
Cheryl Leanza 202 454-5683
Andrew Jay Schwartzman 202 454-5681


Decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals

Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC (622 KB)
(http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/recentop/week/recprec.htm)


Summary of the Decision

Summary
(http://www.mediaaccess.org/prometheus_decision/prometheussummaryfinal062404.pdf)





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