Reclaim the Media is headed to Minneapolis this coming week for the fourth National Conference on Media Reform, and so are a bunch of other NW community media movers and shakers. Throughout the weekend, RTM will be working closely with our friends in the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), our nationwide coalition of regional, grassroots groups working together for media justice. We'll be sharing table space with MAG-Net, so come and see us! We'll be giving away RTM and MAG-Net stuff (including our cool media justice fans), and selling RTM t-shirts, DVDs and Media Heroes trading cards. Read on for Northwest and MAG-Net-related schedule details!

Tony Riddle, until recently Executive Director of the national Alliance for Community Media, has left that position and will be joining the staff of Pacifica station WBAI-FM in New York as Executive Director. RTM considers Tony an especially valued colleague (along with others who have recently changed jobs within the media democracy movement, including former Media Alliance ED Jeff Perlstein and former Future of Music Coalition ED Jenny Toomey).

During his work at the ACM, Tony did a great job of highlighting the media policy issues affecting public access, educational and government cable channels, and making sure that the media democracy movement understood how sustaining grassroots community media is a crucial issue alongside media ownership, net neutrality, etc. RTM hopes that new ACM leadership will pursue these connections as Tony did.

The Washington State Legislature will consider a handful of bills dealing with media and telecommunications issues during this year's short legislative session. Live issues include protecting freedom of speech for student journalists, a proposed initiative to expand high-speed broadband deployment statewide, and a resolution asking Congress to overrule the FCC's recent deregulation of media cross-ownership rules. Read on for details on specific bills!

Wading through the flood of news on Iran? Wondering what it all means? On Thurs, Jan. 31, Reclaim the Media joins the Seattle Iranian American Community Alliance to present an evening of short lectures and conversation. Featured speakers UW professors Arzoo Osanloo and David Domke will point the way to critical tools and knowledge we can use to make sense of news coverage on Iran and US-Iran relations. Click here for complete info or download a flyer.