brad brace contemporary culture scrapbook

November 2, 2008

White Farmers on Radio Qman Txun Swim 12 Hours For Land

Filed under: fiji,media,rampage — admin @ 4:15 am

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A tourist left behind on a dive trip swam all night, covering nearly 10
kilometers through shark-infested water before reaching land in Taveuni,
Fiji Monday.

If there’s a model of hope for the world’s indigenous peoples, it is the
town of Todos Santos Cuchumatan in northwestern Guatemala. The Mayans who
live here still wear their traditional clothing with pride and practice
their traditional ceremonies and customs, and 95 percent of the population
still speaks Mam. At the same time, the people of Todos Santos also
participate vigorously in the larger society and have a thriving economy.

Some white farmers whose land was acquired by the Government for
resettlement purposes have reportedly destroyed maize fields belonging to
new farmers in Mashonaland West, claiming that the land was theirs.

Thomas Holz, 40, of Berlin, Germany, was out a scuba diving trip with three
other tourists at Rainbow Reef, near Viani Bay in Vanua Levu, according to
the local Fiji Times.

The key to this indigenous success story is Radio Qman Txun, the town’s
community radio station. The station’s programs reinforce the local
language and the culture while also bringing news from the nation and the
world into the town. The station is all the more important because the
whole country of Guatemala is flooded with Western music, information, and
cultural standards, and without Radio Qman Txun, those influences would
quickly overwhelm the town.

He surfaced after running out of oxygen and waited for the dive master to
return with the other divers. A local police spokesman said that when the
dive master resurfaced with the other tourists, they couldn’t find Holz.
They searched until nightfall, and began again early at 5 a.m. Monday.

At least two new farmers who had done dry planting had their germinating
maize crop destroyed recently. It is said that the white farmers are
refusing to vacate the land and to recognise the new farmers’ offer
letters. One new farmer Colonel Tony Kapanga said he lost over 20 hectares
of his maize crop on Wednesday after the former owner of his Chingford Farm
in Selous Mr Colin Cloete allegedly ploughed the land. He said he also lost
billions of dollars worth of fertiliser he had applied to the crop.

“The currents were strong, and my main fear was for my family in Germany.
Even though I was tired, I hung on to the oxygen cylinder and kept
swimming,” Holz told the Fiji Times. “Then early this morning, I felt the
seabed and just screamed out for help before I collapsed on the shore.”

But Radio Qman Txun, along with all the other community radio stations in
Guatemala, is at extreme risk. Elements in the government do not want these
stations to succeed. In past few weeks police have raided four radio
stations near Todos Santos and confiscated all the equipment. The country’s
constitution guarantees the right to community radio, but the
telecommunications law does not, and government forces are using the
pretext of this law to shut down the stations and cut off this vital
cultural lifeline.

Police at Selous confirmed the incident saying they had opened
investigations into the matter. When contacted for comment Mr Cloete said
he had ploughed down the maize seed because Col Kapanga was not supposed to
be on the farm. “Selous Police have recorded my statement and are charging
me with malicious damage to property but when Mr Kapanga was disturbing me
no one came to my rescue. This is my farm and the house in which the police
details are housed is my father’s house, so how do you explain this,’’ said
Mr Cloete.

A local woman heard his cries and helped him from shore. Holz has recovered
and is continuing his tourist activities on an eco tour.

This assault on Mayan culture has to stop, and right now we have a unique
chance to do it: a new telecommunications bill has been introduced in the
Guatemalan Congress, and recent elections resulted in 94 of the 158 members
of Congress being new. We have a very short window of time to reach these
new legislators before they are swamped with conflicting agendas. And the
math is all too simple: for the new bill to pass, 80 legislators must vote
for the bill. Currently, we have the support of 24; we need 56 more.

At Maunze Farm in Darwendale employees of one Mr J S Crowley allegedly
ploughed down more than six farmers’ fields which had maize seed. One of
the affected farmers Mr Roy Chinanga claimed he had nine hectares of maize
destroyed by Mr Crowley’s managers. “I used seed from last year’s reserves
but that has now been ploughed down and I do not have anywhere to turn
to,’’ said Mr Chinanga. Mr Crowley could not be reached for comment as he
was said to be living in Harare.

October 27, 2008

World Press Freedom Index 2008

Filed under: General,human rights,ideology,media — admin @ 3:35 am

http://tinyurl.com/6acbpd

The news media advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders released their fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index this week, and it shows that the United States has dropped 9 places since last year, and is now ranked 53rd, alongside Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. The authors of the report say that the steady erosion of press freedom in countries like the US, France and Japan (two other countries that slipped significantly on the index) is “very alarming.”

The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognize the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism.

Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.

The organization bases the index on responses to 50 questions about press freedom asked of journalists, free press organizations, researchers, human rights activists and others. Jurist reports that the organization received responses from 168 countries, and “compiled based on “the degree of freedom journalists and news organizations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the state to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.”

The world’s worst violators of press freedoms remains unchanged from last year: North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China.

October 6, 2008

Taka Tales

Filed under: bangladesh,General,global islands,media — admin @ 1:15 pm

Sound Design 2008: Taka Tales from Narikel Jingira Island, Bangladesh
(Art Exhibition with Installed Audio, Tea and free Taka Tunes CDs)
flyer: http://bbrace.laughingsquid.net/taka-tunes.jpg
available from brad brace bbrace@eskimo.com

complete recordings sometimes playing now:
http://69.64.229.114:8000

mp3 podcast materials:
http://216.70.118.235/two-taka-tunes-podcast/two-taka-tunes-podcast.html

Scene: extensive, evocative audio field-recordings from a concrete Bangladeshi guesthouse looking back on a thatched bamboo village by the Bay of Bengal, with an exhibit of particularly well-used, framed two-taka banknotes.

bbs: brad brace sound:
http://69.64.229.114:8000
Global Islands Project:
http://bbrace.laughingsquid.net/id.html
http://bbrace.net/id.html

‘Rickshaw Idols’ ride to glory in Bangladesh

On the busy streets of Dhaka, Omar Ali snakes his way through the city’s gridlocked traffic, pedalling passengers around town on his cycle rickshaw.

As one of an estimated one million rickshaw drivers in the Bangladeshi capital, the 45-year-old blends in on his colourful three-wheeler — until one of his clients recognises his face.

Ali is one of three men selected by judges to appear later this month in the final of an ‘American Idol’-type television contest for rickshaw drivers.

The father of four learnt to sing folk songs as a teenager by listening to the radio in his village in northern Bangladesh.

He came to Dhaka 25 years ago to earn money for his family.

Like most drivers on the streets of Dhaka, Ali has legs of steel, a result of working 12-hour days, seven days a week to earn a daily wage of between 150 and 200 taka (two and three dollars).

“In the village I drove a buffalo cart and I would sing,” he says.

“Now in Dhaka whenever I get snarled up in traffic, I sing. It makes my passengers very happy and they sometimes give me 10 percent extra. They get upset in the traffic but the singing helps make it bearable.”

The television show, ‘Magic Tin Chakar Taroka,’ meaning three-wheeler stars, is open to drivers of both pedal and motorised rickshaws who sing Bangladeshi folk songs.

The idea is the brainchild of current affairs reporter Munni Saha, who was inspired after seeing an informal talent show for rickshaw drivers in a school playground on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Better known for making politicians squirm with her tough interviewing techniques, Saha made a five-minute news story about the initiative and from there the plan for a televised talent show gained momentum.

The three-wheelers — still the cheapest and sometimes only mode of transport that can navigate Dhaka’s narrow alleys — are a vital source of income for many in the impoverished country.

The physically gruelling work is often criticised by rights groups as inhumane, but several attempts to eliminate rickshaws from Bangladesh have come to nothing.

“I just felt that as a human being you can’t do so much for low-income people. Maybe they are a rickshaw driver, but they are also singers, so I thought why don’t we help them,” said Saha.

After getting her TV station to support her idea, she put posters on the back of rickshaws to advertise the talent hunt.

Soon after, outdoor auditions at four venues in the city attracted 3,000 men.

The number was whittled down to 20, who appeared in weekly episodes on the ATN Bangla network in September.

As well as gaining a huge following in Bangladesh, the show has rated well with overseas viewers, said Saha, with the station watched via satellite by Bangladeshi expatriates in the United States, Britain, Australia and Africa.

Until now, the best singers have been chosen by three judges, including renowned Bangladeshi singer Momtaz, but the winner will be decided by viewers voting by text message.

Saha said the show’s popularity was likely mean the competition becomes a national event held annually.

The winner of this year’s contest, to be aired on October 31, takes home 100,000 taka (1,460 dollars) and will have a solo album made.

There will also be a best-of CD of the top 10 finalists.

During his long days pedalling, Ali has allowed himself to briefly think about what winning might mean for him and his family.

“Riding a rickshaw is hard on my body and it’s getting harder as I get older,” he said. “If I win I’ll give up the job and start a small business.”

Media Lens

Filed under: media — admin @ 4:26 am

http://www.medialens.org

Media Lens is a response based on our conviction that mainstream newspapers and broadcasters provide a profoundly distorted picture of our world. We are convinced that the increasingly centralised, corporate nature of the media means that it acts as a de facto propaganda system for corporate and other establishment interests. The costs incurred as a result of this propaganda, in terms of human suffering and environmental degradation, are incalculable.

In seeking to understand the basis and operation of this systematic distortion, we flatly reject all conspiracy theories and point instead to the inevitably corrupting effects of free market forces operating on and through media corporations seeking profit in a society dominated by corporate power. We reject the idea that journalists are generally guilty of self-censorship and conscious lying; we believe that the all-too-human tendency to self-deception accounts for their conviction that they are honest purveyors of uncompromised truth. We all have a tendency to believe what best suits our purpose – highly paid, highly privileged editors and journalists are no exception.

Media Lens has grown out of our frustration with the unwillingness, or inability, of the mainstream media to tell the truth about the real causes and extent of many of the problems facing us, such as human rights abuses, poverty, pollution and climate change. Because much modern suffering is rooted in the unlimited greed of corporate profit-maximising – in the subordination of people and planet to profit – it seems to us to be a genuine tragedy that society has for so long been forced to rely on the corporate media for ‘accurate’ information. It seems clear to us that quite obvious conflicts of interest mean it is all but impossible for the media to provide this information. We did not expect the Soviet Communist Party’s newspaper Pravda to tell the truth about the Communist Party, why should we expect the corporate press to tell the truth about corporate power?

We believe that media ‘neutrality’ is a deception that often serves to hide systematic pro-corporate bias. ‘Neutrality’ most often involves ‘impartially’ reporting dominant establishment views, while ignoring all non-establishment views. In reality it is not possible for journalists to be neutral – regardless of whether we do or do not overtly give our personal opinion, that opinion is always reflected in the facts we choose to highlight or ignore. While we seek to correct corporate distortions as honestly as possible, our concern is not to affect some spurious ‘objectivity’ but to engage with the world to do whatever we can to reduce suffering and to resist the forces that seek to subordinate human well-being to profit. We do not believe that passively observing human misery without attempting to intervene constitutes ‘neutrality’. We do not believe that ‘neutrality’ can ever be deemed more important than doing all in our power to help others.

We accept the Buddhist assertion that while greed and hatred distort reason, compassion empowers it. Our aim is to increase rational awareness, critical thought and compassion, and to decrease greed, hatred and ignorance. Our goal is not at all to attack, insult or anger individual editors or journalists but to highlight significant examples of the systemic distortion that is facilitating appalling crimes against humanity: the failure to communicate the truth of exactly who is responsible for the slaughter of 500,000 Iraqi children under five; the silence surrounding the motives and devastating consequences of corporate obstruction of action on climate change; the true nature, motives and consequences of ‘globalisation’; the corporate degradation and distortion of democratic society and culture. Our hope is that by so doing we can help all of us to free ourselves from delusions. In the age of global warming and globalised exploitation these delusions threaten an extraordinary, and perhaps terminal, disaster – they should not be allowed to go unchallenged.

We have to acknowledge the debt we owe to Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, and in particular to their brilliant (and largely ignored) text, ‘Manufacturing Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass Media’. (Pantheon, 1988) We recommend Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model of media control” as a basis for understanding the manner in which truth is filtered from, rather than consciously obstructed by, the modern media system.

We hope that this website will help to turn bystanders into compassionate actors. As historian Howard Zinn has written:

“Society has varying and conflicting interests; what is called objectivity is the disguise of one of these interests – that of neutrality. But neutrality is a fiction in an unneutral world. There are victims, there are executioners, and there are bystanders… and the ‘objectivity’ of the bystander calls for inaction while other heads fall.”

August 13, 2008

RWB condemns Fiji police tactics against journalists

Filed under: fiji,global islands,government,ideology,media — admin @ 9:16 am

The international journalists’ organisation, Reporters Without Borders, has condemned two cases of Fiji journalists being arrested and questioned for several hours by police in the past 10 days.

The latest was that of Fiji Times reporter Serafina Salaitoga, who was arrested at her home in the presence of her children, after writing a story that quoted a businessman Charan Jeath Singh as commenting about Suva politics.

Isaac Lal of the Daily Post was arrested and interrogated about an article linking a convict, Josefa Baleiloa, to an alleged plot to assassinate national leaders.

Mr Lal was picked up after the police spokeswoman complained about being quoted in the report.

Reporters Without Borders says these arrests will foster a climate of fear among journalists and harm news coverage.

May 8, 2008

Internet Archive Beats Back FBI’s Demand for Subscriber Data

Filed under: General,government,ideology,media,usa — admin @ 7:32 am

The FBI has agreed to drop its demand that a San Francisco-based Internet library turn over subscriber information, according to court documents unsealed Monday. As part of a settlement, the FBI also agreed that its previously secret efforts could be publicized.

The bureau served the Internet Archive — whose Wayback Machine page allows viewers to see old versions of millions of Web pages — with a national security letter in November 2007, but under the terms of a settlement reached between the two in April, the FBI has withdrawn the letter and agreed to make most of its contents public.

Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney with San Francisco’s Electronic Frontier Foundation who helped represent the archive, said he believes the victory is only the fourth successful challenge to a national security letter.

The FBI said the letter to the archive was part of a national security investigation and that they “permit the FBI to gather the basic building blocks for our counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations,” according to a statement by Assistant Director John Miller.

The letters, often compared to subpoenas, don’t need approval from a judge and contain gag orders prohibiting their recipients from even speaking of their existence. The settlement in the Northern District federal court comes less than a year after New York District Court Judge Victor Marrero found national security letters unconstitutional, though his decision is under appeal.

“One of the most important victories here is that we can even say this letter was received,” said Opsahl.

The Internet Archive sued the FBI in December, arguing that the gag orders in the letters violate the First and Fifth amendments. The suit asked the court to find the letters unconstitutional and order the FBI to stop sending them.

After four months of negotiating, the FBI decided to settle, Opsahl said.

“The consequences [of litigating] would be that a second court would find that the statute was unconstitutional and that it was not applicable to libraries under this circumstance,” he said.

The use of national security letters has skyrocketed since 2001, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. A March 2007 report by the Department of Justice’s inspector general said the FBI issued more than 192,000 requests between 2003 and 2006.

In the letter served on the Internet Archive, the FBI sought the name, address and e-mail exchanges of a subscriber to the archive’s services. Opsahl said the archive only gave agents public information that they could have gotten themselves from the nonprofit’s Web site. He said the archive keeps a record only of registered patrons’ e-mail addresses.

Opsahl said that although the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is reviewing Marrero’s decision, will now have the most say over the constitutionality of national security letters, he hopes the Internet Archive’s challenge will encourage other groups to take on the FBI.

The archive agreed to redact portions of the letter, but the FBI must prove to Judge Claudia Wilken by Dec. 1 that those sections pose a national security threat, otherwise the entire document will become public. Among the still-secret contents are the name of the targeted subscriber, the name of the FBI agent pursuing the target and more specifics about the kind of information the agent was seeking.

May 6, 2008

Fiji’s military threaten more expats and the media

Filed under: fiji,global islands,ideology,media — admin @ 7:02 am

More expatriates will be deported and Fiji’s military has threatened to close down the Pacific nation’s news media.

But military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama – who has installed himself as prime minister – says he did not want to close media down.

Bainimarama has confronted Fiji’s media bosses after last week deporting Fiji Times publisher Evan Hannah, three months after Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter was also kicked out.

Regional news agency Pacnews said Bainimarama told the meeting that Hannah will not be the last of the expatriates to be deported.

He told the executives he could not reveal why Hannah had been deported but said that others are likely to follow.

He said the news media were publishing “inciteful” articles and called for balance and fair reporting.

Pacnews said Bainimarama added the last thing he would want to do is close down the media and his government should not be likened to Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The Fiji Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd.

The Australian, owned by the same stable, reported this morning that the Fiji Times editor Netani Rika described how Bainimarama claimed that local journalists hate him.

Bainimarama claimed that shutting down the country’s media would be the worst-case scenario.

“He told us that he can shut the media down, but in his quotes, ‘I don’t want to do that’,” Rika told The Australian.

“He told us today that he did not want us to go down the path of Zimbabwe, but he was quite clear … while he did not want to close the media down, that would be an option if we did not take on board the concerns that he raised today.”

During the meeting, Bainimarama became agitated when the media representatives made it clear they would not “roll over and do what he wanted”, Rika said.

Bainimarama refused to explain how Hannah had breached his work permit, he said.

“The actual words he said was: ‘There’s no use discussing that matter. This person, Russell Hunter, and the other, Hannah whatever-his-name is, are not coming back’.”

November 21, 2007

More than 100 Journalists Killed in 2007

Filed under: General,global islands,media,nicaragua,usa — admin @ 10:40 am

More than 100 journalists have been killed in 2007, the World Association of Newspapers said in its half-year report on press freedom worldwide, published today.

One hundred and six journalists died on duty in 28 countries, 45 of them killed in Iraq, where 150 media workers have lost their lives since 2003.

The number of journalists killed in 2007 is approaching the record 110 deaths last year.

The full report can be read here. The list of journalists killed, with details about their cases, can be found here.

The report also said:

– Journalists in Latin America continue to be the victims of murder, threats and harassment when investigating sensitive subjects such as corruption and drug trafficking. Government persecution and legal actions also hinder the work of the press, which nevertheless continues its unyielding battle for freedom of information.

– In the Middle East and North Africa, there are a growing number of independent newspapers that do not shy away from criticising the authorities and questioning the lack of democracy. Nonetheless, the general media scene is plagued by strict government control and legal action taken against anyone who dares question those in power.

– More and more journalists in sub-Saharan Africa are prosecuted and jailed on charges of “endangering state security,” whereas harsh repression through “insult laws” and criminal defamation continues. These repressive measures are the target of a new initiative from WAN and the World Editors Forum to improve conditions for journalists on the continent: the Declaration of Table Mountain, www.declarationoftablemountain.org/….

– Hostility toward independent and opposition media and attempts to silence them can again be seen in parts of Europe and Central Asia. Spurious charges of “extremism” and “anti-state” criminal charges remained an effective tool to hinder critical reporting.

– Asia is home to some of the most repressive regimes in the world, which suppress all dissident voices and forbid any form of independent media. Simmering ethnic, political and religious tensions exist in a number of countries.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its membership includes 76 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and world-wide press groups.

November 8, 2007

Bangladesh’s software piracy rate 4th highest in the world

Filed under: bangladesh,General,media — admin @ 7:06 am

DHAKA, Nov. 7 — Bangladesh has been found to have a software piracy rate of 92 percent, which is number one in the Asian Pacific region and the fourth highest in the world, local newspaper The Daily Star reported Wednesday.

A report, Global Software Piracy Study 2006, conducted by IDC, the IT industry’s leading global market research and forecasting firm, warned that the software piracy in Bangladesh is crippling the local industry and costing local retailers 90 million U.S. dollars a year.

The report shows that 92 percent of software used on personal computers in Bangladesh had been pirated in 2006. This means that for every dollar worth of software purchased legitimately, nine dollars worth was obtained illegally.

The high software piracy rate has resulted in 90 million dollars in retail revenue losses to the local Bangladesh software economy.

However the report says that the broader economic impact of software piracy is significantly greater.

“Among the many negative consequences of software piracy is the crippling of local software industries because of competition with pirated software, lost tax revenues and decreased business productivity from using unwarranted software,” the report said.

Bangladesh has a Copyright Act, under which piracy is a punishable with imprisonment for a term, which may be extended to five years and may be imposed a penalty of 500,000 taka (about 7,143 dollars)

The IDC global software piracy study covers piracy of all packaged software that runs on personal computers, including desktops, laptops and ultra-portables. This includes operating system, system software, business applications and consumers applications.

November 4, 2007

Groups Seek Stop to Comcast Net Meddling

Filed under: General,media — admin @ 7:52 am

NEW YORK — A coalition of consumer groups and legal scholars on Thursday formally asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop Comcast Corp. from interfering with its subscribers’ file sharing.

Two of the groups are also asking the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

The petitions will be the first real test of the FCC’s stance on “Net Neutrality,” the long-standing principle that Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers. The agency has a policy supporting the concept but its position hasn’t been tested in a real-world case.

Last month, Comcast reportedly hindered file sharing by subscribers who used BitTorrent, a popular file-sharing program. Tests confirmed claims by users who also noticed interference with some file-sharing applications.

Comcast is the country’s largest cable company and has 12.9 million Internet subscribers, making it the second-largest Internet service provider.

Comcast denies that it blocks file sharing, but acknowledged last week that it was “delaying” some of the traffic between computers that share files.

In practice, the company blocks requests from users who are trying to retrieve files from a Comcast subscriber’s computer for a period of time. But it eventually lets the requests through if they are repeated.

In one test, a request went through after 10 minutes of trying. The technology does not directly affect downloads of BitTorrent files by Comcast subscribers, only uploads.

Comcast has said the interference is intended to improve the Internet experience for all its subscribers, noting that a relatively small number of file sharers is enough to slow down its network.

In response to the filings, David Cohen, an executive vice president at Comcast, said that the FCC’s policies recognize that ISPs need to manage the traffic on their networks.

But if other ISPs follow in Comcast’s footsteps, file sharing would essentially crawl to a halt. While the technology is a popular way to illegally share copyright movies and music, legal uses are proliferating, particularly in movie distribution.

“They’re blocking an innovative application that could be a competitor to cable TV,” said Marvin Ammori, general counsel at Free Press, one of the advocacy groups behind the petition to the FCC.

The petition asks the commission to immediately declare that Comcast is violating the FCC’s policy. The co-signers are Consumer Federation of America; Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports; Media Access Project; Public Knowledge; and professors at the Internet practices of the Yale, Harvard and Stanford law schools.

Free Press and Public Knowledge are separately filing a formal complaint that asks the FCC to demand a “forfeiture” from Comcast of $195,000 per affected subscriber.

The number is based on the statutory maximum of $97,500 for a single continuing violation, doubled by what the groups see as deception on the company’s part. Comcast kept its practice secret until publicized, saying that it couldn’t divulge the inner workings of its network for security reasons.

Its filtering technique also involves the company forging network messages so that they appear to come from subscriber and non-subscriber computers.

The complaint includes affidavits from three Comcast subscribers who say they have been affected by Comcast’s interference. The complaint asks the FCC to determine the total number of affected subscribers.

It’s not clear how quickly the FCC would act on the filings.

“The FCC should be aggressively reviewing these cases because they go to ensuring the freedom and openness of the Internet which is so vital to our communications future and to our civic dialogue,” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement.

Comcast’s Cohen noted that the FCC’s policy statement, which says that consumers are allowed to run the Internet applications of their choice, makes that “subject to reasonable network management” by ISPs.

“If Comcast is right — that what it’s doing meets the policy statement — then anyone can start blocking BitTorrent tomorrow,” Ammori said.

A ruling against Comcast could cause problems for other Internet service providers. Many of them acknowledge managing traffic to improve flow, which likely includes slowing down file-sharing traffic by means less drastic than Comcast’s.

The Net Neutrality debate erupted in 2005, when the FCC abolished the obligation of providers of Internet service via digital subscriber lines, or DSL, to carry all traffic nondiscriminately (that obligation had been abolished for cable broadband in 2002). The obligation was replaced with the policy statement.

Phone companies started suggesting that they would like to be able to charge large Web companies more for guaranteed delivery of their traffic as a way to finance the build-out of their networks.

Web anchors like Google Inc. and Amazon Inc., joined by consumer groups, opposed the notion, saying it would make Internet service providers the toll keepers of the Internet and enable them to stifle competition and innovation.

The debate was stilled when AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to shelve their plans temporarily to get their respective plans to acquire BellSouth and MCI approved by the FCC.

Ammori said it appeared that the “nightmare scenario” portrayed by Net Neutrality proponents like his own group, Free Press, had been averted.

“Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Comcast is doing exactly what we most feared … secretly degrading an application,” Ammori said. “We didn’t expect the first violation to be so blatant.”

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