As Congress moves toward reopening the 1996 Telecommunications Act, organizations representing millions of Americans have put forward the Bill of Media Rights. The Bill
is a milestone in the media reform movement that presents a positive and unified vision for a competitive, diverse, and independent media to better serve our nation's democracy and culture, today and tomorrow.

The American public has a right to:

• Journalism that fully informs the public, is independent of the government and acts as its watchdog, and protects journalists who dissent from their employers.
• Newspapers, television and radio stations, cable and satellite systems, and broadcast and cable networks operated by multiple, diverse, and independent owners that compete vigorously and employ a diverse workforce.
• Radio and television programming produced by independent creators that is original, challenging, controversial, and diverse.
• Programming, stories, and speech produced by communities and citizens.
• Internet service provided by multiple, independent providers who compete vigorously and offer access to the entire Internet over a broadband connection, with freedom to attach within the home any legal device to the net connection and run any legal application.
• Public broadcasting insulated from political and commercial interests that is well-funded and especially serves communities underserved by privately-owned broadcasters.
• Regulatory policies emphasizing media education and citizen empowerment, not government censorship, as the best ways to avoid unwanted content.
• Electoral and civic, children's, educational, independently produced, local and community programming, as well as programming that serves Americans with disabilities and other underserved communities.
• Media that reflect the presence and voices of people of color, women, labor, immigrants, Americans with disabilities, and other communities often under represented.
• Maximum access and opportunity to use the public airwaves and spectrum.
• Meaningful participation in government media policy, including disclosure of the ways broadcasters comply with their public interest obligations, ascertain their community's needs, and create programming to serve those needs.
• Television and radio stations that are locally owned and operated, reflective of and responsible to the diverse communities they serve, and able to respond quickly to local emergencies.
• Well-funded local public access channels and community radio, including low-power FM radio stations.
• Universal, affordable Internet access for news, education, and government information, so that all citizens can better participate in our democracy and culture.
• Frequent, rigorous license and franchise renewal processes for local broadcasters and cable operators that meaningfully include the public.

See www.citizensmediarights.orgwww.citizensmediarights.org for more information.

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