WASHINGTON, DC—Addressing the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, former FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani today (June 2) encouraged the Congress to require the Federal Communications Commission "to take advantage of the transition to digital to reestablish meaningful public interest obligations for America’s television broadcasters."

Tristani, Managing Director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.), stressed that clearly-defined public interest guidelines must be in place before the FCC makes decisions on the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.

Currently, the FCC’s Media Bureau has a proposal to speed up the conversion to digital, thus freeing up the valuable analog spectrum currently held by broadcasters. Portions of the freed-up analog spectrum will be used by communities and police departments for public safety and emergency communication.

"The public deserves to know what benefits it will get from the digital largesse that has been gifted to broadcasters," said Tristani. "That benefit should include reasonable minimums of local civic and electoral discourse … and for children, commensurate amounts of educational and informational programming, a prohibition of commercial website links embedded in children’s programming and incorporation of children’s privacy protections."

Click here to read the full press release from United Church News.

The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. is the media advocacy arm of the United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination of 1.4 million members worshipping in more than 6,000 churches who maintain or are affiliated with 30 colleges and institutions of higher education, 15 seminaries and more than 340 health and human service centers in every state and in Puerto Rico. The United Church of Christ was the first voice to demand that broadcasters who use the public airwaves have a responsibility to operate in the public interest. In the 1960s, the United Church of Christ earned its place in U.S. broadcasting history by successfully challenging the license of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss, for refusing to broadcast news and information about African Americans. This action was taken by the Office of Communication, Inc., established by the Rev. Everett C. Parker, to protect the denomination from legal action when it took prophetic risks in the name of justice. The United Church of Christ continues to fight for corporate responsibility and accountability to the public.