Press Release from Media Access Project

MEDIA ACCESS PROJECT CELEBRATES VICTORY IN SUPREME COURT INTERNET DECISION

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A LAW PROFESSOR TO UNDERSTAND ITS PRACTICAL EFFECT: CONGRESS MUST LET THE INTERNET GROW...."

PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FIRM SAYS RULING PROMOTES BOTH DEMOCRACY AND ONLINE COMMERCE

June 26, 1997, Washington, DC.

For immediate release -- The Media Access Project ("MAP") has issued the following statement from its President, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, on Thursday's Supreme Court decision striking down the so-called "Communications Decency Act" ("CDA"):

Although scholars will be studying this decision for years, you don't have to be a law professor to understand its practical effect: Congress must let the Internet grow, not strangle it.

The Framers of the Constitution wrote the First Amendment with quill pens on parchment, but their words have no less meaning on a video monitor. Different technologies can be used to promote democracy in different ways. What doesn't change is the need for government to create opportunities for citizens to speak to each other.

The opportunity of the Internet is that it can simultaneously promote both commerce and free expression. Today's decision enables Americans to realize this exciting promise.

The worst part about the CDA was that it was more effective in suppressing valuable political speech and artistic expression than in protecting children from exposure to inappropriate material. We are encouraged by reports that the Clinton Administration wants to find technological solutions to enable parents to decide what their children should see. That is the right approach. It would be a shame if Congressional demagogues begin another pointless argument on how much speech they can successfully suppress rather than devote their attention to finding solutions that will work for adults and for children.

MAP's attorneys served as co-counsel to Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition, one of the plaintiffs in Reno v. ACLU. MAP is a twenty-four year old public interest telecommunications law firm which represents the public's First Amendment rights to speak and to be heard in the electronic and mass media.

Contact: Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President
Gigi B. Sohn, Executive Director
MEDIA ACCESS PROJECT
1707 L Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 232-4300
http://www.mediaaccess.org


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