NEWS FROM
North Central Florida's Congressman
CLIFF STEARNS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 24, 2000CONTACT: PAUL FLUSCHE
(202) 225-5744
STEARNS BACKS LEGISLATION REVERSING FCC LIMITS ON RELIGIOUS SPEECH IN BROADCASTING
JOINS IN OFFERING RELIGIOUS BROADCASTING FREEDOM ACT
WASHINGTON, JAN. 24, 2000 -- Today Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), a member of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, joined 50 members in offering the Religious Broadcasting Freedom Act. The legislation would reverse a decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that limits religious speech in broadcasting. "The FCC decided that it wants to restrict access to religious messages in favor of what the commission determines to be educational;" said Stearns, "I am working to reverse this attack on religious broadcasting."
The legislation would nullify the "guidance" on this issue contained in FCC Order #99-393, made public December 29, 1999. Additionally, it would require the FCC to use its normal rulemaking procedures, which include taking public comment, if it chooses to regulate this area in the future.
The issue arose when the FCC approved a television license swap in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 15 and made its order public on December 29, 1999. In the order, the FCC instructed for the first time that traditional religious programming could no longer be counted as educational.
Non-commercial television licenses are intended to serve the educational and cultural needs of smaller audiences and under-represented populations. General education programming had previously been defined as having its primary purpose be to meet "educational, instructional or cultural needs of the community."
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