About MAP
Media Access Project (MAP) is a non-profit, public interest law firm and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the public’s First Amendment right to access a diverse marketplace of ideas in the mass media system.
For over 37 years, MAP has promoted the public interest before the FCC and the Courts, advocating for open and diverse media that protect the free flow of information, promote universal and equitable access to media outlets and telecommunications services, and encourage vibrant public discourse on critical issues facing our society. In the words of the Supreme Court:
“It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance monopolization of that market, whether it be by the Government itself or a private licensee…”
MAP is the only Washington-based organization devoted to representing listeners’ and speakers’ interests in communications and technology issues before the Federal Communications Commission, other policy-making bodies, and in the courts. MAP’s staff attorneys provide guidance and representation to scores of national and local non-profit groups annually. They appear frequently at academic, legislative, and professional meetings to ensure that the needs of the public are not forgotten as policies are established for the next generation.
MAP grew out of the movement that began with the landmark United Church of Christ litigation of the 1960s. Those cases, involving the failure of a Mississippi TV station to serve the African American community, established that members of the viewing and listening public have the legal right, derived from the First Amendment, to participate in FCC proceedings.
In 1972, lawyers concerned with promoting public accountability and social justice in the media formed the Media Access Project to advance the rights of the public to participate in the democratic process. In its early days, MAP’s work implementing the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine helped open TV networks to anti-war and civil rights activists.
MAP Today
According to the National Journal, MAP is “considered by some … dollar-for-dollar the best-run public interest group in Washington.”
MAP occupies a unique role as a Washington thought leader in communications and technology policy. From leading efforts to convince the FCC to create the Low Power FM radio service to being among the first to advocate for open access and network neutrality, MAP provides critical policy leadership and council to the public interest and media reform community. As new media and communication platforms have developed, MAP has fought to assure the public’s right to access is institutionalized and protected.
MAP is at the forefront of efforts to develop media policies which will, quite literally, govern the terms of voter participation and public discourse in the next generation. MAP works to ensure that current and future media and telecommunications technologies promote, and do not impede, democratic values.