All posts by Midnightschildren

Press Room, Surveillance

Media Alliance Joins With 19-Associations To Sue the NSA, DOJ and FBI Over Telephone MetaData Collection

 

San Francisco- Media Alliance joined 18 other not for profit membership associations, including the CalGuns Foundation, Greenpeace, People for the American Way, the Council on islamic-American Relations and many others, as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the National Security Administration (NSA) , the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Named defendants included Attorney General Eric Holder, NSA Director Keith Alexander and National Intelligence Director James Clapper.

The lawsuit focuses on the broad telephone metadata collection program reported in the Washington Post and UK Guardian in June of 2013. The lawsuit cites the freedom of association clause in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution and NAACP vs Alabama (1958), a case which denied government unfettered access to the membership lists of the civil rights organization. The lawsuit alleges a chilling effect on the freedom of individuals to associate.

Continue reading Media Alliance Joins With 19-Associations To Sue the NSA, DOJ and FBI Over Telephone MetaData Collection →

Media Ownership, Press Room

What’s Left of the Dial

 

Article in the Nashville Scene:

For a surreal stretch of hours last June, a radio tuned to 91.1 FM in Nashville did nothing but emit bottomless, hissing static. The erstwhile WRVU, which for decades beamed out an engaging, erratic mishmash of everything from punk rock to country classics, jump blues to hip-hop, had been sold to local NPR affiliate WPLN, its signal cut off abruptly. Continue reading What’s Left of the Dial →

Surveillance

Groups Ask FCC and DOJ to Investigate Law Enforcement’s Warrantless Use of Cellular Surveillance Devices

 

WASHINGTON, DC – On March 16, 45 civil rights, public policy and public interest organizations, including ColorOfChange, Open Technology Institute, Media Alliance, the Center for Media Justice and Public Knowledge, will deliver a letter and petition demanding that the FCC and DOJ investigate law enforcement’s largely unregulated use of military-grade cellular surveillance devices, called Stingrays. Continue reading Groups Ask FCC and DOJ to Investigate Law Enforcement’s Warrantless Use of Cellular Surveillance Devices →

Accountability and Representation

UC Berkeley ASUC Passes Resolution Campus Police Should Not Participate in Urban Shield

 

On February 24 2016,  the ASUC (UC Berkeley undergraduate student government) unanimously passed a resolution asking for campus police to be banned from participating in Urban Shield, the annual police militarization expo. The graduate student government body is expected to follow suit. Continue reading UC Berkeley ASUC Passes Resolution Campus Police Should Not Participate in Urban Shield →

Media Workers

Press Credentialing

 

MA submitted these comments to the Berkeley Police Review Commission looking at the events of December 2014, when local Ferguson support rallies were dealt with violently by the Berkeley Police Department.

Among other problems, several members of the press both mainstream and alternative were manhandled and injured by law enforcement.

Following the submission of these comments, the PRC voted to set up a subcommittee (probably including MA) to work on a new press credentialing policy for the City of Berkeley. Continue reading Press Credentialing →

Accountability and Representation

Justice is Not For Sale Act Introduced to Congress

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On September 18th, a bill banning all private prisons was introduced into Congress by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representatives Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison and Bobby Rush. Press statement from Texas-based Grassroots Leadership below. Media Alliance is proud to join the national coalition supporting the Justice is Not For Sale Act. Continue reading Justice is Not For Sale Act Introduced to Congress →