UCC OC, Inc.

Come visit OC Inc at General Synod 2013!

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:49:22 -0400

Attending the 2013 General Synod Conference in Long Beach, CA this year?

Come meet with OC Inc. at the United Church of Christ’s General Synod gathering at the Long Beach Convention Center this summer.

Leaders of the UCC’s media justice ministry are conducting a workshop, “The UCC and Media Justice: The Next 100 Years” at 2 p.m. Saturday June 29 in Room 201B of the convention center. We will be providing the latest information on key battles that are under way in the areas of media reform, media justice and media diversity, and how these issues impact so many other social justice concerns. We’ll be providing information on how you can support us, no matter where you live, and we also want to hear from you about the media issues that you care most about. The workshop will also give us another wonderful opportunity to celebrate the legacy of our founder, Rev. Dr. Everett Parker, as he celebrates his 100th birthday this year.

Among the topics the workshop will cover are:

economic justice means access to new technologies and basic phone service for everyone and how these are threatened;
how you can support the campaign to eliminate the predatory phone rates that are charged to prisoners and their families;
fight hate speech against the LGBT and immigrant communities;
how to create a media outlet for excluded voices through the one-time chance to apply for a community radio station in October 2013;
media violence fast in September 2013 during the week of prayers for peace.

If you will be able to join us, we’d love to know in advance. If you won’t be able to attend the workshop, but would like to connect with us at General Synod, please let us know. And if you are a member of the UCC and won’t be at General Synod, we’ll be glad to send you a post-Synod update. Let us know how we can best connect!

Social Justice Radio Webinar May 22, 2013

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:20:00 -0400

Social justice is often about working with allies, spreading information, and bearing witness to stories that no one else hears. People of faith are known for our involvement in our communities--as a powerful force for justice, compassion and the common good. And yet, all too often, the progressive faith community is not reflected in the media.

We now have a rare opportunity to take charge and change the conversation.

Thanks to a recent legislative victory, nonprofits, schools, churches, and labor unions will soon have a one-time chance to apply for thousands of new FM community radio licenses nationwide. The deadline to apply for these free low-power FM radio licenses is October 2013. We have much to do before then—both to assist community groups that are already working to obtain radio licenses and to develop faith-oriented radio stations ourselves.

To learn more, please join our webinar on

May 22nd, 2013, at 4 pm eastern time.

Sign up now!

Join this one-hour webinar co-sponsored by the Office of Communication, Inc., the United Church of Christ’s media justice ministry, Faith in Public Life, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Prometheus Radio project. Learn more about this rare opportunity to diversify our airwaves.

The event will feature:

Jennifer Butler, CEO, Faith in Public Life

Cheryl Leanza, UCC OC Inc.'s policy advisor

Jeff Rousset from Prometheus Radio Project

Three people using radio from the faith perspective:
- Doug Pagitt, author, founder Solomon’s Porch, a holistic missional Christian community in Minneapolis, MN and host of a weekly radio show
- Roger Parmenter, Founder, 89.1 FM, KHOI-FM, Ames, IA
- Greg Kintz, General Manager, Radio Baha'i, 90.9 FM, WLGI-FM, Hemingway, SC

Statement in response to Anticipated FCC Chair Announcement

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:59:37 -0400

In response to the widely-reported impending announcement of Tom Wheeler as nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission and Mignon Clyburn to lead the agency until Mr. Wheeler is confirmed, the United Church of Christ's media justice ministry made the following statement:

"I congratulate Chairman Clyburn on her historic appointment as the first woman chair of the Federal Communications Commission. She is the ideal person to safeguard the interests of the public at this time of transition," said Earl Williams, Chair of the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.

Cheryl Leanza, UCC OC Inc.'s policy advisor stated, "We are eager for Mr. Wheeler to rapidly learn more about civil rights and media justice very early in his tenure. We will be looking carefully at his key staff appointments with the expectation that he will select people with an in-depth understanding of the information needs of all communities to complement Mr. Wheeler's private sector resume."

We expect to work closely with Mr. Wheeler on the priorities of the public interest and civil rights communities, including diverse ownership of media and technology companies, universal and affordable high speed broadband Internet access, open Internet, and a rapid end to predatory prison phone rates.

Lifeline: Connecting People Now and in the Future

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:26:12 -0400

Today members of the House of Representatives held a hearing to consider the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program, which provides a financial subsidy to low-income people to help them afford telephone service. The United Church of Christ's media justice ministry, OC Inc., was pleased to collaborate with its civil rights and other allies in supporting this program, including the excellent testimony by UCC OC Inc.'s close ally, the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Since 1934, the United States has recognized the importance of ensuring that all people can communicate with each other through a policy of "universal service." For almost 30 years, federal communications policy has set funds aside to ensure that people would be connected to the telephone network even if their financial circumstances or remote location might otherwise prevent them from doing so. And in 1996, universal service was expanded by Congress to also assist schools and libraries and rural health care providers.

The low-income Lifeline program has recently come under attack, not for the important work that it does, but because a few bad actors have taken advantage of a program targeting the lowest income Americans and used it for their own gain. The attacks are all more upsetting because this program is not in need of curtailment -- rather it is in need of updating so that it can support the use of new technologies, such as high speed broadband Internet, rather than simple voice telephone service.

While voice phone service is a minimum service necessary for everything from reaching 9-1-1 to getting a job, the truth is that Americans who can afford it are rapidly moving to broadband Internet for most of their communications needs. For example, the Wall Street Journal recently ran a story describing high school students who routinely study and do their homework at McDonald's, which offers Internet access, because those students' families cannot afford to subscribe at home. Unfortunately, the advent of high speed broadband is making the "digital divide" worse, as the least connected fall farther behind.

Fortunately, Rep. Doris Matsui, joined by Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. Anna Eshoo, have introduced a bill that would ensure the Lifeline program is not only well-run, but that it aids the people who most need it. The proposed Broadband Adoption Act would go a long way toward ensuring that our nation remains competitive and fair. Broadband Internet important to ensure that people who seek to find a way out of poverty have the means to do so--through education, job searches, and access to benefits programs which offer support in a time of need. Universal access to broadband Internet is not only important to the individuals who need it, but also to our whole country--we cannot succeed in the world economy if we fail to utilizing the skills and talents of a significant proportion of our people.

Since 1997, the United Church of Christ has formally recognized we risk becoming a society of "information rich" and "information poor" -- with dramatic consequences for exacerbating inequities that already exist in our midst. Communications is a human right -- a tool that connects us to our communities, helps to disclose injustice, and facilitate innumerable aspects of modern life.

As such, we wholeheartedly express our support for the Lifeline program as it stands now, and for legislative proposals to ensure that it keeps pace with technological change by supporting high speed broadband Internet.

UCC OC Inc. and allies move to block expansion of Securus predatory phone rates

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:07:03 -0400

The United Church of Christ, OC Inc. was pleased to join with Public Knowledge, Free Press and Rainbow/PUSH to block the purchase of the telephone company Securus Technologies, Inc. by the Hedge Fund ABRY Partners. Securus provides phone services to prisons, and its business model relies on charging predatory rates to the families of prisoners, who have no choice but to pay high prices or forgo speaking to their loved ones. The groups jointly filed a petition at the Federal Communications Commission last night in response to a filing by Securus requesting FCC permission to complete the proposed transaction. Public Knowledge, Free Press, UCC OC Inc. and Rainbow/PUSH released a joint statement. Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor for UCC OC Inc., said, “Predatory prison phone rates are a moral issue for the faith community—these types of businesses should be stopped, not allowed to expand. Companies that invest in these predatory businesses risk endangering their public reputation.”

To learn more about predatory prison phone rates and UCC OC Inc.’s efforts to eliminate them, go to www.uccmediajustice.org/prisonphones