There have been some encouraging signs in recent days that the Federal Communications Commission might be starting to take its consumer protection duties a bit more seriously.

On Monday the agency announced it was launching formal investigations of charges that communications giants Comcast and Verizon have been blocking content and applications on their Internet networks.

Late last year the Associated Press published an article revealing that Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company and second-largest Internet service provider, was actively interfering with its customers ability to access legal content. The company was found to be cutting off legal peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent and Gnutella, as well as business applications such as Lotus Notes. Comcast claimed its actions were nothing more than “reasonable network management.”

The FCC says it will be looking into whether Comcast has engaged in activities that go beyond what the agency considers "reasonable network management."

The Verizon investigation involves the company's refusal last year to allow NARAL Pro-Choice America to send text messages to its own members over the Verizon wireless network. Verizon quickly backed down after it's refusal to allow the text messages was written about by media outlets including the New York Times.

Just how the investigations will proceed and what actions the FCC might take against Comcast and Verizon -- if any -- remain unclear.

The investigations could very well lead to nothing more than an affirmation from the FCC that the companies have done nothing illegal. In fact, the current FCC regulations are sufficiently vague to allow communication giants such as Comcast and Verizon to engage in all manner of consumer-unfriendly activities without violating the agency's rules.

But the mere fact that the agency is choosing to conduct a formal probes of issue as complicated and thorny as content blocking is heartening, given the FCC's serial avoidance of such controversial topics in recent years.

Given the FCC's woeful record on all manner of consumer protection issues in recent years, we remain skeptical of whether these investigations will lead to any truly positive changes. Consumers need to watch the situation closely and hold the FCC's feet to the fire if it appears the agency is not conducting the investigations aggressively and in the best interest of the public.

Want to see some other viewpoints on this issue?

Martin Gets the Ball Rolling On “Blocking” Investigation: What Does It Mean And What Happens Next?

FCC Must Protect Free Speech Everywhere

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Media Crackdown in Kenya, Cell Phones in Remote Africa

We want to refer you to some very interesting articles involving media and communications issues in other parts of the world.

The first is an on-the-ground report about the crackdown on media outlets and communications networks in Kenya in the wake of that country's highly disputed presidential election last month. This timely report was written by Wilson Ugangu, a Kenyan journalist who was a Consumers Union media fellow last year.

You can read Wilson's troubling report by clicking here.

We came across this article in the Christian Science Monitor, which tells the fascinating tale of the burgeoning local cell phone industry in one of the remotest parts of Africa.

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Courts Block Comcast's Public Access Channel Shift, Cable in a Small Town

A little closer to home, we were buoyed by reports that courts in Michigan are ordering Comcast to delay controversial plans by the cable giant to move public, educational and local government channels from analog to digital.

Comcast wants to move those channels from analog to digital in order to free up bandwidth for other uses, such as high-definition programming and video on demand. Had the courts not stepped in, analog-only cable customers would have had to obtain digital set-top boxes in order to obtain the channels.

Comcast was offering to provide subscribers with a free converter box for one year, but after that customers would have to pay around $4 a month to rent the boxes.

The Detroit Free Press has a good article on the situation, which you can read by clicking here.

In issuing a temporary restraining order against Comcast, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said the public interest was better served to keep the channels available to all subscribers.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

And as long as we are talking about cable and local governments, we came across a great, in-the-trenches article about how officials in Medford have been trying -- unsuccessfully -- to bring in some competition for Comcast, which enjoys a monopoly in the small New England town.

Comcast raised cable television rates in Medford by 4 percent at the beginning of the year, which is similar to the annual rate hikes implemented by Comcast and other cable companies in communities all across the country in recent years.