WASHINGTON – On Thursday, nine leading free speech and digital rights groups called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to focus attention on the alarming number of arrests of people documenting Occupy protests. Free Press has chronicled more than 70 such arrests since last September.

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order directing Comcast to stop denying Bloomberg placement in Comcast’s “news” neighborhoods. The ruling is in response to Bloomberg’s complaint filed last June.

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, Ars Technica reported that Sony Vice President and General Manager Michael Aragon expressed concern about Comcast’s discriminatory data cap policies. Aragon said that Sony is having second thoughts about starting its own online video service.

WASHINGTON – Occupy Wall Street organizers and activists have planned a day of protests for this Tuesday, and Free Press is calling on local, state and federal policymakers to ensure that the rights of all people to record and document these activities are protected.

WASHINGTON -- According to press reports Monday, the popular website Hulu will move to an authentication system similar to the “TV Everywhere” model large cable providers like Comcast favor. Hulu will now allow only those with a cable TV subscription to access its broadband video content.

WASHINGTON – On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to require television broadcasters to make their public and political files available online. Stations are already required by law to maintain these files, but up until now they were available only in paper form.

WASHINGTON – On Thursday, in an unexpected evening vote, the House of Representatives voted 248-168 to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), the controversial bill that would give the government and companies virtually unlimited power to track people online.

WASHINGTON –– On Monday, Free Press, Consumers Union, the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee urging it to consider the usage of punitive data caps by broadband providers. The committee is holding a hearing on online video on Tuesday, April 24.

WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, Verizon Wireless announced plans to sell off its 700 MHz A and B licenses if the Federal Communications Commission approves its acquisition of spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, Cox and Leap Wireless.

Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner made the following statement:

WASHINGTON –– On Monday, public interest groups and civil liberties organizations launched a week of Internet-wide protests against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA), the controversial cybersecurity legislation that would negate existing privacy laws and allow companies to share user data with the government without a court order.

WASHINGTON –– On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a ban on political advertising on public television and radio stations. The court said that permitting this type of advertising would not threaten or undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations. It upheld the ban on advertising by commercial and for-profit companies.

WASHINGTON –– Late Friday night before the holiday weekend, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it plans to vote on an order requiring television broadcasters to put their public inspection files online, including important political advertising records. The item was listed in the agency’s tentative agenda for its April 27th open meeting.

WASHINGTON -- On Tuesday, the Media Access Project announced that it will suspend operations in May.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee is scheduled to vote later today on the Global Online Freedom Act, a bill that seeks to prevent U.S. companies from helping repressive regimes censor and spy on their citizens. The legislation would also require Internet providers and search engines to disclose their policies for cooperating with censorship requests from "Internet restricting countries."

WASHINGTON -- On Tuesday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a long-awaited report that explores options to repurpose some frequencies currently used by the government for wireless broadband use.