March, 09 2010, 03:37pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Liz Rose, Communications Director, Free Press,
202-265-1490 x 32 or lrose@freepress.net
New Report Exposes Labor Relations Double Standard at T-Mobile USA
WASHINGTON
Today, just as the Federal Communications Commission is rolling out
parts of the National Broadband Plan to bring broadband to more
low-income Americans, cable giant Comcast is reportedly raising its
rates for Internet service -- including its most basic, lowest priced
service.
Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott made the following statement:
"It is a rich irony that the latest round of Comcast price hikes is
reported on the same day that the FCC is focused on affordable
broadband service to close the digital divide. Almost no one disagrees
that the FCC's proposals to increase broadband adoption are very
important. But they must be paired with a strong competition policy to
drive down constantly increasing prices or else they will struggle to
succeed. Nothing at today's FCC event on adoption drew an explicit
connection between affordability, adoption and price competition.
"Comcast is typical of the nation's broadband giants -- their own
costs are declining, yet prices keep rising. This combination of rising
prices along with declining costs is a strong indication the market is
broken. The public will take the industry's rhetoric about closing the
digital divide more seriously when prices for entry-level services are
dropped and kept low. Comcast's price increases, along with others
recently announced by Internet Service Providers like AT&T, should
make it clear that the incumbents have no intention of lowering their
prices and attracting more low-income users. Price competition is
simply not in their business model.
"While several elements of the National Broadband Plan announced
today are admirable, what we have seen so far will not directly
confront America's broadband competition problem. Chairman Genachowski
recently indicated that he is 'hopeful' that the elusive 'third-pipe'
wireless broadband platform will eventually inject some competition
into our duopoly broadband market. But this was the policy of both the
Powell and Martin FCCs, and the failure of this policy is exactly why
Congress charged the FCC with crafting a broadband plan to bring
robust, affordable services to all Americans. Subsidies for low-income
households certainly should be part of the solution, as should
innovative use of wireless assets -- but we need to make the market
work for consumers. Consumers need price relief, and are asking that
the FCC do something bold and decisive to promote meaningful
competition."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
(202) 265-1490LATEST NEWS
UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
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Dec 12, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
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Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
IFJ lists out each of the slain journalists in its 139 count, which includes the journalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, who was killed with journalist Mustafa Thuraya when Israeli forces targeted their car while they were in northern Rafah in January 2024.
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