PK Chief Gigi Sohn Takes Sabbatical

Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of fair use group Public Knowledge, has begun a three-month sabbatical, confirms spokesman Art Brodsky.

Brodsky said she is taking some time off to "slow down" for a while and take some personal time.

In the interim, COO Brook Rae Hunter will be in charge of operations, while Harold Feld, legal director, will handle policy issues.

The sabbatical began last Friday (Nov. 18), but Sohn remained engaged on the AT&T/T-Mobile issue -- the FCC chairman this week signaled he opposed the deal. PK listed that opposition in a Thanksgiving e-mail as one of the things it was thankful for, linking to a statement from Sohn .

PK was founded in 2001 and has been an active voice in key media policy issues, including network neutrality, mergers, and balancing intellectual property protecting and fair use. Sohn, as the site points out, has been the group's "chief strategist, fundraiser and public face."

That has included numerous trips to Capitol Hill to testify on those issues.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.