Internet Free Speech Under Attack from Pacifica

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE steve [at] internetaddress.com

JUNE 26, 2001 Note: I will be unreachable from ~ 1 p.m. PT 6/28 through 7/1, inclusive

Internet Free Speech Under Attack from \"Free Speech Radio\"
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A web site through which listeners have sent more than 800,000
protest emails and faxes has been threatened with legal action by the
employer of Ken Ford, vice chair of the Pacifica Foundation.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), employer of
Pacifica vice chair Ken Ford, made the threat in an email to Steve
Freedkin, operator of the Progressive Portal web site
(http://www.progressiveportal.org).

\"This is one more case of the people who took over our free-speech
radio network trying to stifle the speech of others,\" said Freedkin.
Previously, Pacifica threatened several other protest sites with
lawsuits, but it later relented. One small site was temporarily
forced offline by the action.

Gerald M. Howard, the NAHB\'s Executive Vice President and Chief
Executive Officer, sent Freedkin a letter stating that NAHB is
\"exploring options for legal action.\" He added, \"We strongly urge you
to take down your web-page.\"

NAHB pressure also resulted in Progressive Portal\'s Web hosting
service directing him to stop the letters. An alternative host was
found, and the letter-writing continues uninterrupted.

Freedkin is joined in this effort by the Public Citizen Litigation
Group of Washington, DC. \"Public Citizen is concerned that the
attempts by Pacifica and NAHB to silence their critics could have a
chilling effect on Internet activism,\" said Paul Levy, an attorney
with Public Citizen. Levy defended the Web sites previously
threatened by Pacifica with legal action.

Public Citizen is the advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader.

\"We can see no legal basis for NAHB\'s threats against Progressive
Portal,\" Levy said, adding that NAHB\'s attorney has yet to explain
the grounds for his client\'s complaint.

Activists continue to use Progressive Portal to write to hundreds of
NAHB members throughout the country. They argue that Ford\'s behavior
on the Pacifica board brings disrepute to the home builders, and call
for Ford\'s resignation.

The letter campaign from http://www.ProgressivePortal.org has been part of a
wide-ranging activist campaign that has forced the resignation of
four members of the progressive radio network\'s board of directors,
including board chair David Acosta. These members, along with Ford
and six others, have been targeted by activists because \"they have
turned Pacifica into an anti-democratic institution, stifled the
progressive programming that is the lifeblood of the network, and
banned or fired dozens of the most skilled and honored personnel
throughout the network,\" Freedkin said.

He said the current board majority is a \"clique\" that has made the
board self-selecting rather than selected by the local communities of
the network\'s five stations. Ford, he asserted, is one of several
members serving illegally, having long since passed the end of his
board term according to the organization\'s by-laws.

\"These people have no progressive credentials, no radio credentials,
no reason for being there,\" Freedkin said. \"Ford works for a
regressive lobbying group that opposes environmental protection and
the rights of the disabled -- the antithesis of Pacifica values. It
appears this is nothing more than a power grab by a corporate cabal
intent on destroying Pacifica.\" He described Pacifica as \"one of the
few remaining media outlets with a progressive point of view.\"

Freedkin said he has no intention of curtailing Progressive Portal.
\"The fact that they must resort to these sorts of threats shows that
we\'re having an impact. That\'s our purpose, and we intend to continue
putting the pressure on, not just to restore Pacifica, but on a host
of progressive social issues.\"

Progressive Portal is an independent project launched by Freedkin
with a number of unpaid volunteers, he said.

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