Broadcasters Want DC Circuit to Nix Foreign-Content ID
Requiring broadcaster disclosures for foreign-sponsored content “attacks a problem that does not exist, and does so with a bludgeon,” said NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in a brief filed…
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in docket 21-1171 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday. The broadcast groups want the court to reject the FCC requirement for being too broad, and violating the Communications Act and the First Amendment. The order, approved in April, requires broadcasters to check entities against the Foreign Agents Registration Act and FCC databases on foreign agents before signing sponsored content leasing agreements with them. If the party is in the databases, the broadcasters must air disclosures that the content comes from a foreign agent. The vast majority of broadcast content lease agreements are with local and domestic entities, and the databases are vast and complicated to search, the broadcasters told the D.C. Circuit. The “enormous waste of resources” spent investigating domestic entities “that pose an infinitesimal risk” of being undisclosed foreign agents “burdens far more speech than warranted to serve the putative government interest.” It's unlikely a foreign entity seeking to hide its affiliation would register with FARA, the broadcasters said. “This non-existent problem cannot justify imposing onerous investigative burdens on every single lease, for any amount of airtime, entered into by thousands of local radio and television stations.” The FCC could have required stations to investigate only when there’s reason to believe a lessor is affiliated with a foreign government or when the programming addresses “matters of public controversy,” the filing said.