Senate votes to tighten media ownership rules
The Republican-led US Senate has defied Bush administration opposition and voted to rescind new rules allowing large media companies to grow even bigger.
The Senate approved a resolution that would roll back the Federal Communications Commission regulations allowing television networks to own more local stations and permitting conglomerates to own a newspaper, television stations, and radio outlets in a single market.
The measure faces a tougher battle in the US House of Representatives and a threat of a veto by President Bush if it reaches his desk.
The Republican-led FCC narrowly adopted the new rules in June, which would allow television networks to own local stations that collectively reach 45 percent of the national audience, up from 35 percent.
Critics, ranging from the National Rifle Association to Consumers Union as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, charged that the rules would narrow the choices of viewpoints and cut local news coverage. (Reuters)

Bush 9/11 admission gets little coverage
For months leading up to this year’s war on Iraq, the Bush administration strongly suggested that Saddam Hussein had a hand in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The argument was well received by Americans, and might have been the single leading factor behind public support for the US invasion of Iraq. An oft-cited poll conducted by The Washington Post last month revealed that 69 percent of Americans continue to believe it likely that Hussein was personally involved in 9/11.
No real evidence to support this has emerged, however, leading some to declare that the media had failed in its duty to correct the public misperception.
So when President George W. Bush admitted for the first time on Wed., Sept. 17 that there was “no evidence that Hussein was involved with the September 11th” attacks, one would assume that would be big news and an opportunity for the press to make up for past failings.
Of America’s twelve highest-circulation daily papers, only the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and Dallas Morning News ran anything about it on the front page. In The New York Times, the story was relegated to page 22. USA Today: page 16. The Houston Chronicle: page 3. The San Francisco Chronicle: page 14. The Washington Post: page 18. Newsday: page 41. The New York Daily News: page 14. The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal didn’t mention it at all. (Editor & Publisher)

Zimbabwe court orders Daily News to reopen
The High Court has granted Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) a temporary reprieve to resume operating, pending the outcome of their application to register with the Media and Information Commission (MIC).
In his ruling, Justice Omerjee also ordered the police to return the ANZ equipment they had seized following the closure of the company premises. He said the police had no right to bar ANZ and its staff from carrying out their business.
The judge also noted that the company started operating within the law after it lodged its application for registration on Monday.
However, the Government was preparing to apply to the High Court for leave to appeal against the provisional order and seek the setting aside of the order at the Supreme Court.
The week before, police closed The Daily News for operating illegally.
The Supreme Court last Thursday ruled that the paper was operating illegally because it was not registered with the Media and Information Commission.
The ruling prompted the police to evict the ANZ workers, seize property, and shut down the company’s two premises in the city center and industrial sites. ANZ then applied to the High Court seeking an order for the police to vacate its premises and return to the company all the property they seized.
The company also wanted to be allowed to continue operating while its application for registration was being considered. (Zimbabwe Herald Court Reporter)

Community radio gives India’s villagers a voice
Located in Boodikote, a millet and tomato-growing village in the southern state of Karnataka, Namma Dhwani — or Our Voices — is India’s first independent community radio initiative. It is a cable radio service because India forbids communities to use the airwaves. A media advocacy group, with the help of UN funds, laid cables, sold subsidized radios with cable jacks to villagers, and trained young people to run the station.
Emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling in 1995 declaring airwaves to be public property, citizens groups and activists began pushing for legislation that would free the airwaves from government control. Two years ago, India auctioned its FM stations to private businesses to air entertainment programs. And late last year, India allowed some elite colleges to set up and run campus radio stations.
Radiophony, an Indian lobby group for community radio, claims that villagers can set up a low-powered, do-it-yourself radio station — with a half-watt transmitter, a microphone, antenna and a cassette player — for approximately $25. The group says such a station can reach about a third of a mile and cover a small village.
Last year, the group supplied a low-wattage transmitter to a World Bank supported women’s group in Oravakal, a village in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Mana Radio, or Our Radio, ran for five months before officials from the communications ministry seized the equipment and shut down the broadcast in February.
Since it began broadcasting in March, Our Voices community radio has crackled with the sounds of schoolchildren singing songs and giggling to jokes; of young girls talking fearlessly about the evils of dowry and admonishing boys for teasing them at school; of women giving out recipes and teaching others how to open a bank account; and of farmers debating the vagaries of the weather and fluctuating crop prices. (Washington Post)