Jeff Chester and Steven Rosenfeld

In the following viewpoint Jeff Chester and Steven Rosenfeld argue that large media and telecommunications companies are trying to creating an Internet in which they can control content, monitor usage, and compel people to pay for Internet access and information. Public policy priorities such as free speech and the dissemination of views from nonprofit groups are not being given enough attention by policy makers, they conclude. Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, an organization that works to preserve the openness and diversity of the Internet and promote the development of noncommercial, public interest programming. Rosenfeld is a senior editor for Tom Paine.com, an electronic public interest journal.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why has the development of...