Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will testify before a congressional subcommittee Tuesday along with fellow industry leaders in support of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2019.
The bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, would allow news organizations to negotiate collectively with tech giants such as Google and Facebook regarding the terms on which their content may be distributed without breaking federal antitrust laws.
As The AJC previously reported, Riley is expected to discuss how local communities are impacted by the weakening or loss of local news outlets. Others testifying include News Media Alliance president David Chavern, Public Knowledge president Gene Kimmelman, Open Markets Institute director of enforcement strategy Sally Hubbard, Computer and Communications Industry Association vice president of law and policy Matthew Schruers and News Corp general counsel David Pitofsky.
The Tuesday hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Watch below:
> READ AJC Editor Kevin Riley's prepared remarks for the House Judiciary subcommittee
You can also find the official broadcast at judiciary.house.gov and on the House Judiciary Committee Hearings YouTube channel.
“We are the ones who are out there covering local communities, letting local communities know what is going on, really documenting the big moments that a community has,” Riley told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” over the weekend. “People in Atlanta, Georgia, people in Carrollton, Georgia, they are people all over the country who depend on their local newspaper to do its job. What I want is [for] people to be fully informed about this issue, what’s going on, and I really want people in Congress to understand what a local newspaper does and what could be lost.”
You can listen to the full "Reliable Sources" podcast at https://on-ajc.com/2wGGkrB.
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