The Senate Commerce Committee has passed a strict bill that would allow the FCC to penalize and/or fine a radio or television station for a single word or image found to violate the agency's indecency regulations.
The bill, titled the "Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act," was introduced by Democratic Senators John D. Rockefeller and Mark Pryor, and was cosponsored by Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye and Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens.
"I am pleased to see the Commerce Committee swiftly approve this bill," said Stevens. "It is important to give the FCC the tools it needs to continue to protect the American public from indecency on radio and broadcast television."
Reacting to the bill's passage, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin commented, "I appreciate the actions by the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation, which affirmed the commission’s ability to protect our children from indecent language and images on television and radio. Significantly, members of Congress stated once again what we on the Commission and every parent already knows; even a single word or image can indeed be indecent."
