FCC Proposes Notification Requirements For Programming Provided By Foreign Governments, Agents

Notification Proposal

The FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing notification requirements for broadcast programming paid for or provided by a foreign government or its representative.

In proposing the disclosure rule, the Commission noted that while some failure to disclose the provenance of programming may be "for no nefarious reason," in some cases, the link between the content and foreign government "may be more attenuated in an effort to obfuscate the true source of the programming" and may not be disclosed through the current rules, which require the name of the program provider and which may not make the true source of the content clear.

Licensees will be charged with the duty to use "reasonable diligence" to determine the programming's source; entities covered by the rule change would be determined by use of the definitions in the Foreign Agents Registration Act or Foreign Missions Act. The NPRM also asks for comment on how the disclosure should be accomplished on radio, including length and prominence, and proposes that disclosures also be kept in stations' online public information files.

Commissioner JESSICA ROSENWORCEL called the proposal "the right thing to do," pointing to "reports that foreign actors are attempting to influence our political process and democratic elections" and citing "Russian government-sponsored programming right here our nation’s capital."  Pledging her "full support" for the proposal, ROSENWORCEL added that "it’s mindboggling that the FCC has yet to update its policies under Section 317 to ensure that the public knows when foreign actors who may wish to do us harm are paying to access our airwaves and influence our citizens."

Commissioner GEOFFREY STARKS agreed with ROSENWORCEL, saying that the lease of time by Russian state outlet SPUTNIK on a station in KANSAS CITY along with its lease of time in WASHINGTON alerted him to the problem; he labeled the current proposal "the right call... in the midst of known attacks on our political processes by foreign governments and their representatives.  Although free speech remains a bedrock of our democracy, we as Americans have a right to know when there is a foreign voice behind speech broadcast in the UNITED STATES."

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