May 29, 2003
Oakland, CA – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held two Bay Area events highlighting the need for greater civil liberties under a Bush Administration that continues to tear away at the fundamental rights of Americans. At the San Francisco Public Library, Lee and Sanders held a discussion with library, bookseller, and Frist Amendment advocates that included calls for Sanders’ Freedom to Read Act, which would amend the Patriot Act to restore legal standards for investigations of libraries and bookstores to levels in place before the passage of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act now allows the FBI to search library and bookstore records without a traditional search warrant.
The event was emceed by Susan Hildreth, City Librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Other participants in the event included Zoia Horn, retired librarian; Ann Brick, ACLU—Northern California; Mark Zimmerman, First Amendment Project; Karen Dyer, California Association of Library Trustees; Angela Yang, Fremont Library; and Anne Turner, Santa Cruz Library.
Lee told the forum that the Patriot Act “fundamentally altered basic rules about search and seizure, detention, wiretaps, and electronic surveillance. We must not allow our Constitution to become collateral damage in the war on terrorism.”
This evening, from 7-9 p.m., Lee and Sanders will participate in a KPFA call-in show about the FCC’s upcoming ruling on media ownership. Next week, the FCC will vote on proposals that would allow broadcast networks to buy more television stations and would remove the ban preventing newspapers from buying television stations in the same media market.
About the need for ensuring diversity within media markets, Lee said, “The power and resources of large media companies have grown exponentially over the last fifteen to twenty years. Smaller, independent companies don’t have the resources to compete with Viacom or Newscorp. These rules are needed to ensure we don’t lose what’s left of our locally-owned media and have access to diverse sources of information.”
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Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Congressman Bernie Sanders Join Forces in Bay Area To Call for Passage of the Freedom to Read Act
Lee and Sanders to participate in KPFA call-in show from 7-9 p.m. tonight on next week’s expected Federal Communications Commission ruling permitting media monopolies
Oakland, CA – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held two Bay Area events highlighting the need for greater civil liberties under a Bush Administration that continues to tear away at the fundamental rights of Americans. At the San Francisco Public Library, Lee and Sanders held a discussion with library, bookseller, and Frist Amendment advocates that included calls for Sanders’ Freedom to Read Act, which would amend the Patriot Act to restore legal standards for investigations of libraries and bookstores to levels in place before the passage of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act now allows the FBI to search library and bookstore records without a traditional search warrant.
The event was emceed by Susan Hildreth, City Librarian for the San Francisco Public Library. Other participants in the event included Zoia Horn, retired librarian; Ann Brick, ACLU—Northern California; Mark Zimmerman, First Amendment Project; Karen Dyer, California Association of Library Trustees; Angela Yang, Fremont Library; and Anne Turner, Santa Cruz Library.
Lee told the forum that the Patriot Act “fundamentally altered basic rules about search and seizure, detention, wiretaps, and electronic surveillance. We must not allow our Constitution to become collateral damage in the war on terrorism.”
This evening, from 7-9 p.m., Lee and Sanders will participate in a KPFA call-in show about the FCC’s upcoming ruling on media ownership. Next week, the FCC will vote on proposals that would allow broadcast networks to buy more television stations and would remove the ban preventing newspapers from buying television stations in the same media market.
About the need for ensuring diversity within media markets, Lee said, “The power and resources of large media companies have grown exponentially over the last fifteen to twenty years. Smaller, independent companies don’t have the resources to compete with Viacom or Newscorp. These rules are needed to ensure we don’t lose what’s left of our locally-owned media and have access to diverse sources of information.”
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