July 2010

According to one of the parties in the case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has asked both sides for supplemental briefs in the NYPD Blue indecency case, wanting to know what effect a recent ruling by a three-judge panel of that same court has on the Federal Communications Commission's fleeting nudity enforcement policy under challenge in the NYPD Blue case.

That case is the one in which the FCC proposed fining ABC affiliates more than a million dollars over a 2003 episode of the acclaimed police drama that featured seven seconds worth of the backside of a character (played by actress Charlotte Ross) accidently displayed to a child who happens into the bathroom while she is preparing to shower. The Second Circuit wants to know what impact its recent decision in the Fox case that the FCC's fleeting profanity policy is unconstitutionally vague and chilling has on the case against the FCC's fleeting nudity policy challenge in Blue. There is a deadline of Aug. 23 for briefs of no more than 15 pages

A media stalwart prompting a policy debate with an in-depth investigation ended with a vivid illustration of the perils of the rapid-fire nature of modern cable and the edges of Internet news. But even with that, the economy nevertheless dominated the week's news, edging out the Washington Post's two-year investigation of America's intelligence-gathering apparatus and the firing of an Agriculture Department employee named Shirley Sherrod. Economic news accounted for 17% of the newshole from July 19-25, its highest level in nearly three months, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Driving the story last week were partisan debates over a pair of Washington-centric items: the merits of extending unemployment insurance benefits and Wall Street regulatory reform. The No. 2 story of the week was the forced resignation of Sherrod after a conservative activist posted clips of a speech she gave to the NAACP in March.

The so-called "digital divide" between rural and urban areas in the UK is likely to widen further before it narrows, according to Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, as city dwellers benefit from a wider choice of broadband providers and Internet service providers are likely to invest in urban areas first. In a report published on Tuesday, Ofcom said that average download speeds in rural areas were half those in urban areas, at just 2.7 megabits per second compared to an average 5.8Mbit/s in urban areas.

The Honduran government's failure to investigate the killings of seven journalists this year has fostered "a climate of lawlessness that is allowing criminals to kill journalists with impunity," the Committee to Protect Journalists concluded in a report released July 27.

The seven killings all occurred against a backdrop of political unrest set off by the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya 13 months ago. The political conflict has continued since then, creating significant difficulties for the nation's current president, Porfirio Lobo, who was elected in November. He has been lobbying to gain international recognition, but has run up against resistance by his counterparts in South America, preventing his country's return to the Organization of American States, the main regional body. Under pressure from the United States, Mr. Lobo has established a truth commission to investigate the events surrounding the coup and appointed a human rights adviser. But human rights violations -- directed mostly against the coup's opponents, human rights defenders and activists -- continue, according to a report last month by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.