The problems with the Cross Community Working Group’s (CWG) Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition draft proposal for ICANN may lie less in its recommendations and more in its clarity and time frame, said Internet governance experts in interviews Tuesday. The CWG released the draft proposal Monday, via an ICANN news release. The 118-page draft highlighted its suggestions on an Independent Review of Board Actions (IRBA) as especially ripe for community input, among other items.
Notable CROSS rulings
The European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday urging the EU Commission and member states to “break down barriers to growth” in the EU’s digital single market, a Parliament news release said. “The resolution underlines that ‘the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market’ and welcomes the Commission’s pledges to investigate further the search engines’ practices,” it said. Members of Parliament want EU competition rules enforced and for search engines to be unbundled from other commercial services. They want the EC “to consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services” in the long run, the release said. Consumer Watchdog urged the European Parliament to pass the resolution in order to break up Google’s “monopolistic dominance” in the EU, in a news release Thursday. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., led a Nov. 25 bipartisan letter from House lawmakers to European Parliament officials cautioning them about the resolution’s stemming of cross-border data flows.
The FCC should retain or tighten media ownership rules as a “race neutral” way of creating opportunity for new entrants, said the National Hispanic Media Coalition in a Wednesday meeting with Media Bureau staff, said an NHMC ex parte filing posted in docket 14-50 Friday. “The Prometheus line of cases out of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals prevents the Commission from relaxing any rules without first analyzing the impact that such relaxation would have on ownership rates by women and people of color.” Since radio contributes to viewpoint diversity, cross-ownership rules involving it should not be relaxed, said NHMC. The FCC should begin collecting and analyzing data about broadcast ownership by minorities and women, said the group. That should include an examination of the data collected through Form 323 submissions, a resumption of collection of Form 395 equal employment opportunity data and a public release of that information, said NHMC.
Fox Television Stations’ opposition to applications for review by public interest groups against a waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO) rule is based on a misunderstanding of FCC rules, said the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and United Church of Christ in a reply filing posted in docket 07-260 Monday. The waiver was granted in August (see 1408110046) to allow Fox to continue to own WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and the New York Post. In an opposition filing posted last week, Fox said it has never violated the NBCO rule, and its FCC waiver is temporary, in alignment with agency rules, rather than a “de facto permanent waiver,” as the groups have claimed. Fox’s arguments are “based largely on Fox’s unsupported assumption that the FCC’s failure to act on a request for a waiver extension is equivalent to granting the request,” said the public interest groups. “Because Fox’s position is highly contested and the issue remains unresolved, the Commission should reverse the Order and decide this important question of law."
A waiver of newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO) rules was granted to Fox Television Stations by the FCC Media Bureau without considerations of the many objections filed against it and will last long after the commission completes its 2014 quadrennial review, said the United Church of Christ (UCC) and Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC), represented by the Institute for Public Representation and Free Press in an application for review filed Wednesday. The temporary waiver (http://bit.ly/1uwy44J) was granted in August (CD Aug 11 p14) to allow Fox to continue to own WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and the New York Post, in spite of an extant petition to deny from UCC and RPC and petition for reconsideration from Free Press, said Wednesday’s application for review. By denying the petitions against the waiver without any analysis or discussion, the bureau failed to follow its own policies, the application said. Granting the waiver also violates “longstanding Commission policy of not granting waivers of the NBCO rule because of the pendency of a rulemaking proceeding,” it said. “Because the Bureau has effectively overruled a key Commission ownership rule even though it lacks the authority to do so, the Commission should reverse the Bureau’s decision to grant Fox a contingent waiver.” Fox declined to comment.
Process reform efforts taking place at the FCC and the effort to change satellite licensing rules at the International Bureau reflect a collaboration between commission officials and private sector, said a bureau official. The efforts toward change also are a reflection of staff under FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said International Bureau Deputy Chief Troy Tanner at an FCBA event Thursday.
Public interest groups opposing relaxation of FCC ownership rules “rely on the myth of the media mogul boogeyman,” said NAB in replies (http://bit.ly/1opj4l5) to a 2014 quadrennial review Further NPRM in docket 14-50 (CD Aug 8 p7). Broadcasters don’t have “a dominant hold on the attention of audiences” that warrants heavy regulation, NAB said. Public interest groups such as Common Cause chastised the FCC for not doing enough to increase ownership diversity. Other commenters said no evidence has been presented to justify the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, and several groups urged the FCC to regulate and require disclosure of shared service agreements (SSA).
An Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report (http://bit.ly/WEVrxd) Tuesday suggested a “cross-border” Internet governance framework that it says lets governments pursue Internet policies that don’t infringe on the sovereignty of other nations, nor the underlying architecture of the Web (CD Sept 3 p15). ITIF hosted a webcast panel of Internet governance experts to comment on the report, all of whom supported its framework, though some wondered about its applicability for Internet governance issues such as NTIA’s transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
The Media Bureau granted a deadline extension to file applications for review on its approval of license renewals for Fox stations WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and WNYW New York, said an order issued Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1oaHnBZ). The bureau granted the license renewals and a temporary waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules to let Fox own both the stations and the New York Post (CD Aug 11 p14). The deadline is extended from Sept. 8 to Oct. 8, the order said. Oppositions now are due Oct. 23, replies Nov. 3, in docket 07-260. The extension came at the request of Free Press, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, United Church of Christ and Voices for New Jersey.
The FCC’s 2014 Quadrennial Review of broadcast ownership rules is unlikely to lead to substantive change in the commission’s rules, several broadcast attorneys and industry observers told us. Comments on the quadrennial rulemaking were due last week, and though many commenters asked for rule changes, some didn’t seem to think such changes were likely. The review is mandated by Congress.