After alarming activists, FCC acknowledges lobbyist meeting

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a letter Tuesday disclosing that agency officials met with top corporate lobbyists on Internet access issues the previous day.

Consumer activists had raised an alarm Tuesday morning after a Wall Street Journal article shed light on the unannounced meetings. They accused the FCC of shutting them out of the process.

On Tuesday afternoon, FCC chief of staff Edward Lazarus posted a letter disclosing the meeting on the commission's blog. He wrote a post that said "senior Commission staff are making themselves available to meet with all interested parties on these issues."

He added that lobbying disclosure forms are not necessary for meetings that are not about official FCC proceedings.

Such meeting will be disclosed on the blog, he said, noting that his door is open to all stakeholders.