The chairman of one of the entertainment industry's most important congressional committees says he wants to take the enforcement of broadcast decency standards into the realm of criminal prosecution, Reuters reported.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner III, R-Wis., told cable industry executives attending the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. conference on Monday that criminal prosecution would be a more efficient way to enforce the indecency regulations, according to the report.
"I'd prefer using the criminal process rather than the regulatory process," Sensenbrenner told the executives.
The current system – in which the FCC fines a licensee for violating the regulations – casts too wide a net, he said, trapping those who are attempting to reign in smut on TV and those who are not, the report said.
"People who are in flagrant disregard should face a criminal process rather than a regulator process," Sensenbrenner said. "That is the way to go. Aim the cannon specifically at the people committing the offenses, rather than the blunderbuss approach that gets the good actors.
"The people who are trying to do the right thing end up being penalized the same way as the people who are doing the wrong thing."
It was unclear exactly how he would go about criminalizing violations of the indecency statutes, according to Reuters. Typically, the Federal Communications Commission notifies the alleged offender and, if no settlement is reached, issues a fine.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation this year that directs the FCC to fine broadcasters and individuals up to $500,000 for airing smutty programming on TV and radio.
Obscene speech is not protected by the First Amendment and cannot be broadcast at any time, but indecent speech can be aired safely between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. because the courts and the FCC have determined that children are not a large part of the audience in those hours.
Although cable and satellite TV are not covered by the indecency statutes, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, have said they want to bring multi-channel programmers into the legal mix, Reuters reported.
