-------- Original Message --------
Subject: New PFF report on Cable & Satellite Censorship
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 10:36:27 -0400
From: Adam Thierer <AThierer@private>
Friends:
In our continuing effort to shine light on recent
legislative and regulatory attempts to expand broadcast industry speech
controls to new media outlets, Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) has
just released an important new study by First Amendment guru Robert
Corn-Revere asking: "*Can Broadcast Indecency Regulations Be Extended to
Cable Television and Satellite Radio
<http://ga1.org/ct/hd_F5ZE1TPWJ/>*?" Bob’s answer is clear: “any effort
to extend indecency regulation to cable television or other
non-broadcast media would be almost certain to fail a constitutional
challenge." His thorough examination of case law leads him to conclude
that "The ability to regulate 'indecent' speech is a limited
constitutional exception, not the general rule, and the Supreme Court
has invalidated efforts to restrict indecency in virtually all other
media." Bob also addresses the "pervasiveness" rationale behind
broadcast TV and radio regulation found in the Supreme Court’s 1978
/Pacifica// /decision and debunks the argument that as
subscription-based programming becomes more popular it can also be
regulated under this standard. In short, he concludes, popularity does
not equal pervasiveness and cannot justify lesser First Amendment
protection for new media outlets such as cable TV or satellite radio.
Finally, Bob also addresses the constitutionality of proposed
legislative or regulatory efforts to control content through a la carte
regulation or “family-friendly” tiering mandates. Such regulatory
efforts cannot be disguised as rate regulation since they are motivated
by content-based considerations, he concludes. Under either a strict or
intermediate scrutiny test, these efforts also would be unconstitutional
under the First Amendment.
Bob’s new paper is attached above or can be found on the PFF website at:
*http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop12.8indecency.pdf *
Also, I’ve attached links below for a few other things we’ve released
recently on First Amendment issues:
(1) my recent paper on mandatory “family-friendly” tiers for cable and
satellite TV: “*Kid-Friendly” Tiering Mandates: More Government Nannyism
for Cable TV
<http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/ps/ps1.2familyfriendlytiering.pdf>*”
( http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/ps/ps1.2familyfriendlytiering.pdf* *)
(2) my previous PFF report on cable and satellite TV censorship,
“*Thinking Seriously about Cable and Satellite Censorship
<http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop12.6cablecensorship.pdf>: An
Informal Analysis of S. 616, The Rockefeller-Hutchinson Bill*”:
http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/pop12.6cablecensorship.pdf
(3) my recent appearance on NPR’s “On the Media
<http://www.onthemedia.org/>” discussing broadcast and cable censorship:
*http://www.onthemedia.org/stream/ram.py?file=raotm/otm050605d.mp3*
(Note: You will need Real Audio to listen).
(4) assorted recent PFF blog entries on Free Speech / First Amendment
<http://blog.pff.org/archives/free_speech/index.html>issues:
http://blog.pff.org/archives/free_speech/index.html
Cheers - - Adam Thierer
(If you’re not interested in these occassional updates on new PFF
research related to First Amendment issues, please feel free to let me
know and I’ll remove your e-mail from my personal mailing list).
_________________________________
Adam Thierer
Senior Fellow and Director,
Center for Digital Media Freedom <http://www.pff.org/cdmf/>
Progress & Freedom Foundation <http://www.pff.org/>
1401 H St., NW Suite 1075
Washington, DC 20005
202-289-8928
athierer@private <mailto:athierer@private>
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