*** PRESS CONFERENCE ***
Congressman Ronnie Shows Says NO to FCC's Move to Limit Religious Broadcasting, Sends Stinging Letter to FCC Chairman Kennard and Vows to Challenge New Ruling on House Floor

(Washington) Congressman Ronnie Shows has taken issue with a recent ruling from the Federal Communications Commission that appears to limit religious content on television stations operated by religious broadcasters. On December 29, 1999, while Congress was not in session, the FCC issued a new Order which requires television broadcasters operating on noncommercial educational licenses to devote as much as one-half of their programming hours to topics that serve the "educational, instructional or cultural needs of the community." To qualify, the Commission continued, that programming must not be "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing, or statement of personally-held religious views and beliefs."

"It is unthinkable that a Federal agency would seek to regulate religious freedom, place controls on the marketplace and set out to limit our right of expression," stated Congressman Shows. "Under their definition, a church service, First Baptist or Methodist or Church of God, would not qualify to run on a religious television station. That is absolutely arbitrary to who we are and the freedoms we hold dear. This decision is a direct challenge to our Constitutional rights and it must not be stood for."

Congressman Shows has sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kennard calling for an explanation and reversal of this new ruling. In the letter, Shows said, "We can never take our sites off the enduring values, not just in theory but practice as well, of the great freedoms our Constitution guarantees. In the final assessment, doesn't that really define America? You should reconsider the "Additional Guidance" section of FCC Order 99-393 today."

Congressman Shows, as of today, has received well over a hundred letters from concerned citizens throughout the 4th Congressional District of Mississippi. "I share all the concerns that are coming into my office," Shows continued. "As Congress returns at the end of January, I will join with many of my fellow colleagues in Congress to stop this FCC ruling from taking place."

-- ### --