THE JUST MEDIA PROJECT
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Just Media Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Andrew Jay Schwartzman is the President and CEO of Media Access Project (MAP). He has directed the organization since June, 1978. His address at the fourth annual Media That Matters Film Festival Awards Ceremony is available online.
Photo by Beverly Rezneck
MAP is a nonprofit public interest telecommunications law firm which represents the public in promoting the First Amendment rights to speak and to hear. It seeks to promote creation of a well-informed electorate by insuring vigorous debate in a free marketplace of ideas. MAP has been the chief legal strategist in efforts to oppose major media mergers and preserve policies promoting media diversity. In recent years, the firm has also led efforts to insure that broad and affordable public access is provided during the deployment of advanced telecommunications networks and the Internet.
Mr. Schwartzman has appeared on behalf of MAP before the Congress, the FCC and the courts on issues such as cable TV regulation, minority and female ownership and employment in the mass media, "equal time" laws and cable “open access.” He has served as chief counsel in the public interest community’s challenge to the FCC’s media ownership deregulation decision issued in June, 2003.
Mr. Schwartzman is a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, where he teaches in its Communication in Contemporary Society Program. His board memberships include the Advisory Board of the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Board of Directors of the Minority Media Telecommunications Council and the International Advisory Board of Southwestern Law School’s National Entertainment & Media Law Institute. He was co-founder and President of the Board of the Safe Energy Communications Counsel from 1991 through 2003.
Mr. Schwartzman was the Law and Regulation Contributor to Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television, and is the author of the telecommunications chapter in the Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement. His work has been published in major legal and general journals, including Variety, Electronic Media, The Washington Post, COMM/ENT Law Journal and The ABA Journal. He has been a frequent guest on television and radio programs such as The Today Show, Nightline, CNN's Reliable Sources, network evening newscasts, and All Things Considered.
Mr. Schwartzman is the 1994 recipient of the United Church of Christ Office of Communication's Everett C. Parker Award.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, and its law school in 1971, Schwartzman was staff counsel to the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ. From 1974 until he took his current position, Schwartzman worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and predecessor agencies. He is married to Linda Lazarus, an attorney/mediator practicing in Washington, DC.
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