Media Advisory
November 10, 2006
|
Contact: MATT KOVARY
(212) 382-6713 |
Indecency,
Profanity, Free Speech and the
FCC
One Step
Back From the Battle Lines
When: Wednesday, November
29, 2006; at 6:30
p.m.
Where: New
York City Bar
Association, 42 West 44th Street
From Janet Jackson to Bono, from an off-the-mike
remark by President Bush (the “S-word”)
to the gritty language of World War II and 9/11
(multiple uses of “F-,” “S-” and
other profanities), broadcasters are finding themselves
caught up in a cultural, political and legal battle
over the limits of free expression. Other concerns
involve the power of Congress to substantially
increase fines for indecency and the discretion
of the Federal Communications Commission to impose
sanctions -- even for unintended broadcasts of
fleeting images or expletives, and even in the
course of live, serious news or documentary presentations.
The Association will bring together key players
from government, advocacy groups, and the broadcast
industry, to debate the FCC’s new crackdown
on indecency and the legal challenges it has engendered.
Panelists
- CONGRESSMAN GARY ACKERMAN (D-New York); spoke
out against legislation increasing indecency
fines ten-fold;
- MIGUEL ESTRADA, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher;
counsel for NBC in pending Second Circuit challenge
to recent FCC rulings on “fleeting expletives”;
- LOUIS WILEY, executive editor, PBS Frontline,
producer of “A Company of Soldiers” and
other serious programming raising concerns over
the inclusion of fleeting expletives in serious
documentaries and other public broadcast programming;
- DAVID SOLOMON, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP;
former Chief, FCC Enforcement Bureau (1999-2005);
- TIM WINTER, executive director, incoming President,
Parents Television Council.
Moderator
- HENRY R. KAUFMAN, Henry R. Kaufman , P.C.,
First Amendment and media attorney; former General
Counsel, Media Law Resource Center.
About the Association
The New York
City Bar Association (www.nycbar.org)
was founded in 1870, and since then has been
dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards
of the profession, promoting reform of the law,
and providing service to the profession and the
public. The Association continues to work for
political, legal and social reform, while implementing
innovative means to help the disadvantaged. Protecting
the public’s welfare remains one of the
Association’s highest priorities.
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