SIVACRACY.NET: Should FCC Stand for "Federal Censorship Commission"?

From the newsobserver.com:
WUNC-FM sponsor can't say 'rights'
Station says underwriting announcement could be politically provocative
By DAVE HART, Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL -- The use of a single word in a sponsor's on-air underwriting announcement has thrown a spotlight on a local public radio station's effort to remain politically neutral. WUNC-FM recently informed Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based international women's rights and health organization, that the phrase "reproductive rights" in the group's on-air announcement could be interpreted as advocating a particular political position. The station required Ipas to use "reproductive health" instead.

WUNC made the change to avoid trouble with the Federal Communications Commission, general manager Joan Siefert Rose said. The FCC prohibits public radio stations from airing underwriting announcements that advocate political, social or religious causes. "We can accept sponsorships and make announcements from advocacy groups, but we can't use advocacy language," Rose said. "Unfortunately, the FCC doesn't specify what that is. There's no list of forbidden terms. The only way to find out if you've stepped over the line is if someone challenges it and the FCC issues a fine. So we are always pretty conservative in interpreting the announcements we make." [emphasis added]

Anu Kumar, executive vice president of Ipas, said she disagrees with WUNC's interpretation. She said the original phrase has an internationally understood meaning that better conveys the scope of the organization's work.

" 'Reproductive rights' is not a euphemism for abortion," Kumar said. "Among other things, it means the right to infertility treatments, the right to contraception, the right to information, the right to live free of rape and violence. In global forums, those meanings are universally understood. And 'reproductive health' doesn't convey all of that. It's important to say that our work is about rights as well as health."

Kumar said she is less upset about WUNC's decision than with the political climate that led to it. "What concerns me is the chilling effect of the world we're living in, which makes everybody super-cautious about what they say," she said. "The issue of reproductive rights, like many others, has been cast as an 'either you're with us or you're against us' issue, and so much of the language is assumed to be code for something else."

Rose said the red-flagging of the phrase in Ipas' announcement came as part of a routine review of underwriting announcements. She said she planned to meet with Kumar to discuss the issue and try to reach a resolution that would satisfy everyone involved.

"This really was not an unusual situation except in the attention it's drawn," Rose said. "I have a duty to be a good steward of our FCC license, and we go over the underwriting announcements with all of our sponsors. Almost always, there's some language that needs to be changed for various reasons. And in just about all the cases, we find a way to do that in a way that's mutually acceptable."