The TPP: A Threat to Our Media and Rights on the Internet

Trans-Pacific Partnership could sabotage the First Amendment-3/21 SF Media Workers Meeting On TPP
Trans-Pacific Partnership could sabotage the First Amendment
http://mediaworkers.org/trans-pacific-partnership-could-sabotage-the-first-amendment/
Pacific Media Workers Guild — March 14, 20162 0 0
Concerns about a provision that could sabotage the First Amendment rights of our members, especially journalists, have prompted the Pacific Media Workers Guild to oppose U.S. participation in a proposed 12-nation trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Guild Executive Committee voted in January to urge all U.S. senators and House representatives from within our Local’s primary coverage area of northern California, Nevada and Hawaii to reject the TPP.

Troubling to us is TPP Article 18.78 (QQ.8.H in early drafts), which bars unauthorized disclosure of corporate trade secrets. The provision purports to protect companies’ competitiveness and profitability. But it also puts journalists, news media and whistleblowers at risk of lawsuits or even criminal prosecution for exposing environmental pollution, product impurity or toxicity, corrupt business practice or other corporate malfeasance.

If Congress could rewrite the TPP before voting on whether the United States should be part of it, we could urge that Article 18.78 be deleted or revised to specify that it could not overturn constitutionally protected freedom of expression or of the press. But that’s not the case. Congress ceded that power when it approved trade-promotion, or “fast track,” authority for the U.S. president.

It means that Congress must approve or reject the TPP as a whole package and as presented by the president. In our view, that makes Article 18.78 a deal-killer.

The Guild in early 2015 spoke out against the secrecy of TPP negotiations and cautioned Congressmembers that by approving trade-promotion authority for the president, they would surrender their constitutionally prescribed advise-and-consent role in this matter.

Bernie Lunzer, president of our national Union, The NewsGuild-CWA, went further and opposed the TPP outright, and urged locals to do the same. Our Local declined at first to take sides on the trade pact itself, because journalistic ethics dictate that we stay neutral on most issues.

But we do speak out on matters affecting the ability of our journalist members to do their jobs, and TPP Article 18.78 meets that criterion.

What is more, we hope the Guild’s component units and their members will contact their Congressmembers (http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ offers an up-to-date directory), to the extent their bylaws and ethical standards allow, to urge that the United States stay out of the TPP.

Trans-Pacific Partnership forum: How it threatens journalistic freedom and Internet democracy
http://mediaworkers.org/events/trans-pacific-partnership-forum-how-it-threatens-journalistic-freedom-and-internet-democracy/
March 21 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
A forum sponsored by the Pacific Media Workers Guild

Monday, March 21, at 7 p.m.
Bernal Library Community Room
500 Cortland St.
San Francisco
Speakers:

• Maira Sutton, Electronic Frontier Foundation global policy analyst

• Richard Knee, freelance journalist and Guild Legislative and Political Committee chair
Certain TPP provisions would seriously jeopardize the rights of reporters, the news media and whistleblowers. They would, among other things:

• Compel Internet service providers to take down websites without a court order, as the Stop Online Piracy Act would have done had the House Judiciary Committee not shelved it in 2012.

• Extend U.S. copyrights to life plus 70 years, preventing anyone from using works that belong in the public domain.

• Bar unauthorized disclosure of corporate trade secrets, putting journalists and whistleblowers at risk of lawsuits or even criminal prosecution for exposing corporate misdeeds.

• End anonymity online by forcing every domain name to be associated with a real name and address.

• Make it illegal to unlock, modify or generally tinker with a device you own.

• Export the United States’ broken copyright policies without expanding free-speech protections such as fair use.
These rules will become U.S. law if Congress ratifies participation in the TPP.

Date:
March 21
Time:
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Event Category:
Meeting
Event Tags:
TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Organizer

Richard Knee
Phone:
(415) 421-6833
Venue

Bernal Library Community Room
500 Cortland Street
San Francisco, CA United States+ Google Map