Peter Franck
Public Interest
Overview
From his days as a student at UC Berkeley, Peter Franck has been concerned with helping to ensure and open an democratic society. In part Mr. Franck’s ongoing concern for free speech and democratic rights has been focused through the National Lawyer’s Guild’s Committee on Democratic Communications (CDC). The CDC was a key player in the low power (FM micro radio) movement, preparing legal defense for radio operators seeking to expand the bandwidth of democratic communication.
Mr. Franck is a former Board Member and past President of the Pacifica Foundation, and has been instrumental in the development and growth of the five station Pacifica Radio network (including KPFA in Berkeley).
More recently Peter was chair of Media Action Marin which was instrumental in the recent founding of the Community Media Center of Marin.
Student Days & Early Practice
Peter Franck was one of the lawyers for Mario Savio and other students involved in the Free Speech Movement (FSM) on the UC Berkeley campus in the 1960s.
As a graduate student at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School, Mr. Franck’s research into the constitutional rights of university students contributed to the intellectual and legal architecture of the FSM. Peter Franck was a founding member of SLATE, one of the first student political parties to emerge from the red-baiting days of the McCarthy period.
Peter Franck was the Founding Chair of the Berkeley/Albany chapter of the ACLU.
Through the Counsel For Justice (CFJ), Peter Franck helped organize legal defense for anti-war demonstrators during the Vietnam War. The CFJ also provided early counsel for Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers in Delano, California.
As an active member of the National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG) from the early days of his practice, Mr. Franck provided legal defense for student strikers at San Francisco State University and handled some high profile anti-war cases.
Peter Franck is a past Member of the Board of Convenors for the San Francisco Community Television Corporation and served as a delegate to the 1989 McBride Roundtable on Communications in Harare, Zimbabwe.
90s and Beyond
Peter Franck is a long-term member of the National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG) (http://www.nlg.org) and served as National Treasurer of the organization from 1992-1993.
Mr. Franck edited a special issue of The Guild Practitioner entitled “The Law, Peace, and the Mass Media”. As a member of the CDC Mr. Franck also edited a second special issue entitled “The Law, Peace, the Mass Media, and the First Amendment”.
Peter Franck served as President of the Pacifica Foundation from 1980-1984, helping to formalize the network of formerly separate Pacifica stations.
Mr. Franck was a Board Member of Media Alliance in San Francisco from 1989-1992.
Peter has served as the Chair and Legal Director of the NLG’s Center on Democratic Communications (CDC) since 1987. The CDC has campaigned upon the behalf of Low Power FM (LPFM) stations, pressuring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant licenses to community (formerly “pirate”) radio broadcasters.
Together with Luke Hiken, Mr. Franck filed an amicus curiae brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Dugan v. FCC arguing for the constitutional right to micro-broadcasting (aka Pirate Radio). Mr. Franck was Amicus Counsel in the U.S. vs. Dunnifer case, a key legal test of the first amendment rights of LPFM broadcasters.
Peter Franck has been a member of the Board of the Social Justice Center of Marin (SJCM) and chaired Media Action Marin (http://www.mediactionmarin.org), which successfully campaigned for community access and local programming in cable television in Marin county.
Currently Peter is active with the Alameda Peace Network, among other organizations.
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