Author Archive | Andy Roberson

Faculty Affiliates Support Center’s Work

By on January 19, 2016 in Journalism

Faculty Affiliates Support Center's Work
The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is enjoying the support of 13 new faculty affiliates this year. The affiliates are scholars from across the UNC campus who are interested in the interdisciplinary exploration of issues related to media law and policy. Faculty affiliates play an active role in the life of the Center by participating in the Center’s activities and identifying opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations.

You can read about each of our faculty affiliates here: http://medialaw.unc.edu/affiliated-faculty/.

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Center Receives $150,000 Grant

By on January 12, 2016 in Journalism

UNC receives $150,000 grant
The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is pleased to announce it has received a $150,000 grant from the Hearst Foundations.

The money will be spent over three years to expand the Center’s schedule of public events and its research activities. This is the third grant the Center has received from Hearst.

The Hearst Foundations work in the fields of culture, education, health, and social services to fund nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive, and inspiring lives. You can read more about the Hearst Foundations here: http://www.hearstfdn.org/.

Thanks to Hearst for its very generous support!

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Required Drone Registration Coming

By on November 16, 2015 in First Amendment, Journalism

Required Drone Registration

Drone owners will be required to register their aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) soon. The FAA’s drone registration task force is expected to finalize its recommendations for drone registration guidelines by Friday, November 20, 2015.

The FAA announced the creation of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Registration Task Force on October 29, and said its goal was to establish recommended guidelines for drone registration. During the meetings, members discussed “how an operator might prove a UAS is registered, how the aircraft would be marked, and how to use the registration process to encourage or require UAS operators to become educated on basic safety rules,” according to a news update on the FAA’s website.

The task force’s last meeting occurred on November 5 and they will finalize their recommendations for FAA Administrator Michael Huerta to review by November 20.

Drone safety rules are increasingly disregarded and officials have trouble tracking down rule-breakers under the current system. Pilots have reported more than 650 sightings of drones from the start of the year to August 9, despite it being illegal and dangerous to fly drones by planes or helicopters.

For more on this subject, check out these articles:

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First Amendment Day Events

By on September 20, 2015 in First Amendment

FirstAmendmentDay

Carolina’s seventh-annual First Amendment Day celebration will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015. You can view the full schedule of events here. 

Organized by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, this year’s festivities will include a banned-book reading by Chancellor Carol Folt; a First Amendment trivia contest; and a keynote address by Danielle Keats Citron, a legal scholar who has written extensively about hate crimes in cyberspace — especially those targeting women. There also will be a panel discussion at which UNC student journalists will discuss their problems covering UNC athletics. Steve Kirschner, the senior associate athletic director for communications at UNC, will be on the panel to respond. At a second panel discussion, students and others will discuss the symbols of the South that have created a firestorm of opinion about their meaning and their impact on students. The panelists will explore the law regarding these controversial Southern symbols and the activism surrounding symbols of the South.

Generous funding for the day’s events is provided by Time Warner Cable.

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