Washington D.C., Oct 16, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Broadcasters should be accountable to the public and allow local and religious programming in exchange for their free use of “tens of billions of dollars worth” of publicly owned airwaves, said the U.S. bishops in an Oct. 14 letter to a Congress committee.
The bishops have recommended that public interest obligations for broadcasters must be included in several bills that are scheduled for debate Oct. 19 and that would update the country’s communications laws.
“Today, even as the broadcasting industry continues to benefit from its subsidized use of the public airwaves, broadcasters’ observance of meaningful public interest obligations has declined,” wrote Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Communications Committee, in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK).
“We ask that, in exchange for the use of tens of billions of dollars worth of new spectrum rights, broadcasters be required to put forth a substantial effort to provide programming that better serves the public,” he wrote.