OC, Inc. Calls on FCC to Renew Support for CTA

OC INC MANAGING DIRECTOR CALLS ON FCC TO RENEW SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN'S TELEVISION ACT
[SOURCE: Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ press release]
Former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani on Tuesday joined with other members of the Children's Media Policy Coalition to call on the FCC to implement new Children's Television Act rules for digital television on Jan. 1, 2006, as scheduled. Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Children's Television Act, Tristani, now managing director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.), said that while she applauded "the legislation's original sponsors and their vision," today "many in the high reaches of the media industry have fired their guns at the FCC's children's educational rules." "The industry's recent battery of lawsuits and filings before the FCC and the federal courts seeking to dismantle the children's educational rules, and even the Children's Television Act, signal an abandonment of their obligation to serve the special needs of children," said Tristani. "It also signals industry's plans and desire to have a free hand in how and how much they advertise to children over the digital spectrum." Tristani listed a number of objectives that must be enacted to protect children, including: a ban on interactive advertising; better monitoring and enforcement of children's educational television rules; and stepped up efforts to assure that Spanish-language programming meets the needs of an increasing number of Latino children TV viewers in the United States.
http://www.ucc.org/ocinc/news/102505.htm