CONTACT:
Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship: Aaron Glantz, (916) 705-7528 Strike Background: www.fsrn.org

FREE SPEECH RADIO DAILY CAST ANNOUNCES MONTH TWO
Cast Will Air Death-Row Journalist Abu-Jamal Commentary

NEW YORK: Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) said today that a second month of daily shows is in the works. Building on the overwhelming success of its first month of daily, half-hour news programming, FSRN will continue to provide over 30 community radio stations coast to coast with what many say is a hard-hitting, progressive alternative to Pacifica Network News (PNN). Critics say PNN has abandoned its progressive mission in tone and content. Most of the stations carrying FSRN are Pacifica affiliates, and most have cancelled PNN to run FSRN. (For a list of those stations, see www.savepacifica.net/strike.)

Former veteran PNN news anchor will continue to host the cast. Pro-motional carts recorded by Avery-Brown are available at www.fsrn.org.

A new commentary by death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal will also be featured on FSRN for Thursday, June 7, 2001. Abu-Jamal's work has been censored on National Public Radio, while the only other national news program to air his voice is Pacfica Radio's Democracy Now! with host Amy Goodman.

FSRN, which supporters say features the best of progressive reporting from around the country and around the world, was first created by dozens of freelance reporters who struck Pacifica Network News (PNN) last year over the issue of news censorship. FSRN's pool of reporters has grown considerably since the strike began, and the stringers now report from 20 American states and 6 continents. The show will continue to uplink to a satellite at 4:00 p.m., Eastern time, at coordinates A72.7M. MP3 files are also posted to the strikers' web site at www.fsrn.org.

In addition to airing on nearly three dozen community radio stations, the cast is also broadcast through the Independent Media Center and throughout the global shortwave world on Radio for Peace International. For 16 months, the cast had also aired weekly on 45 community stations nationally. FSRN says it began broadcasting daily last month to put maximum pressure on Pacifica's National Board during the network's recent Spring fund drive.

The extended run of the cast is made possible by financial support from enthusiastic listeners and community stations, including KBCS in Belleview, Washington and WMNF in Tampa, Florida. The program will now be heard through most of July, 2001. *The concept of a progressive, alternative news voice remains viable, and it's every bit as marketable as it every was. There are people in our audience who want to hear these stories and who want to hear these voices,* said Vicki Santa, WMNF's station manager.

FSRN is produced out of Washington D.C., San Francisco and Tampa. Aaron Glantz produces the cast, Randi Zimmerman is Headlines Editor. FSRN also receives critical production support from the Independent Media Center in New York (www.nyc.indymedia.org).

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