Letter to the Editor
It is imperative that our government assert in the upcoming UN treaty negotiations our Constitution's provision for a free press and free speech and object to the Chinese and Russian efforts to have votes of the UN control news and information on the Internet in this country. While such moves have been tried before and beaten back, this time such efforts look more likely to be successful as FCC Commissioner McDowell warns in his OpEd Feb. 20.
The Head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs appointed by President Obama has long urged that our government regulate the news to advance its political and social objectives but someone else could lead our opposition to UN control of news or news policies in this country to conduct an active and effective campaign against that control. Media owners and others as well as journalist organizations must participate in this and lend their weight as they have before. The State Department said on World Press Freedom day in 2011, quoted in my recent book, Government Control of News, A Constitutional Challenge, p.174, that not just journalists, but "each one of us who recognize the value of an informed citizenry must also stand up for this fundamental right." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the point in 2010 that "A free press is essential to an empowered citizenry, government accountability and responsible economic development. Wherever independent media are under threat, accountable governance and human freedom are undermined.
We have had some experience with government regulation of news when the FCC applied its Fairness Doctrine to television news and on its review of the facts revoked that doctrine in 1987. It found that the doctrine had suppressed news, chilled speech and had been used to drive opposing views off the air. The reviewing court agreed. But now some in government want to bring back that doctrine under a different name, Localism, Balance and Diversity. This proposed rule would also be enforced by a local board appointed for each station which would recommend a broadcast license not be renewed if the station did not comply with FCC and board views on localism. This proposal could have been dropped by the current Chair of the FCC in 2011 as staff recommended but it was not. This country does not need a repeat of the public misfortune of the Fairness Doctrine and the atmosphere of timidity and fear which the FCC found it created.
The fact is that the government should be kept at arms length from news content as it is from print news and as our constitution provides so that the public is informed and can govern.
Cory Dunham (former network executive and general counsel)
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