| ashu |
Posted
on 08-May-02 05:21 AM
To be fair to my dear dai CK Lal and to be fair to to the issue under discussion,
I pursued the matter further, and got this response from the U.S. Department
of State.
Background:
The question was
"In the US, is there a law, [as CK Lal asserted in his Nepali Times article], that expressly prohibits cross ownership of a broadcast and media outlets in the
same territory?"
Apparently, the answer is NOT as unambiguously clear-cut as CK Lal made
it appear to be. The answer, if anything, is: Yes, BUT . . .
It turns out that he only chose to reveal what he wanted to reveal to strengthen his arguments against Kantipur's holding a TV license. That's called highly
selective use of evidence, and should be exposed as such as soft (as
opposed to hard) kind of intellectual dishonesty.
What CK Lal conveniently neglected to mention was such a rule in the US has
been under legal assaults in the last few years, resulting, among others,
News Corporation's -- see that Web link from the Columbia Journalism Review
in another thread -- holding two TV stations and one daily newspaper in New
York city alone.
Had CK Lal only mentioned these "however" ko facts and recent developments
in the US media-industry scene , he would have had no argument at all.
Enjoy,
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
***********************
Sorry for the delay in sending you a response. The answer is somewhat
complex. There is a rule, commonly referred to as the newspaper/broadcast
cross ownership rule, in the Code of Federal Regulations (Title 47, Section
73.3555(d)), which does prohibit such dual ownership, as stated below:
47 C.F.R. 73.3555 (d) Daily newspaper cross-ownership rule. No license for
an AM, FM or TV broadcast station shall be granted to any party (including
all parties under common control) if such party directly or indirectly owns,
operates or controls a daily newspaper and the grant of such license will
result in:
(1) The predicted or measured 2 mV contour of an AM station, computed in
accordance with § 73.183 or § 73.186, encompassing the entire community in
which such newspaper is published; or
(2) The predicted 1 mV contour for an FM station, computed in accordance
with § 73.313, encompassing the entire community in which such newspaper is
published; or
(3) The Grade A contour of a TV station, computed in accordance with §
73.684, encompassing the entire community in which such newspaper is
published.
However, there are other provisions of which limit the impact of this rule,
depending on issues of competitiveness and public interest. There have also
been recent legal challenges to similar rules of the Federal Communications
Commission, which is the federal agency most concerned with this area of
operations.
In fact, there is considerable controversy over the fact that a
relatively small number of companies own many of the media outlets in the
industry as a whole. A valuable resource in following the issue is the
website of the Columbia Journalism Review (www.cjr.org), but there are many
others.
Attached, you'll find documents reviewing some of the statutes, codes, and
case law relating to the issue of media ownership. Please review this
material, and let me know if you have further questions. I hope the
information will be helpful.
Sincere regards,
Lynne D. Scheib
U.S. Department of State
IIP/T/Global Issues & Communications
301 4th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20547
(202) 619-4877
|
| Durbin |
Posted
on 10-May-02 04:52 AM
Rakam, that's a nasty comment. Why should you come to the defence of CK Lal? Let Koirala's chamchas do that. CK Lal uses up thousands and thousands of words in licking the boot of Kangressis, so he deserves every thing that he gets from outraged readers. In any case, you can't make up with CK Lal by writing to places like these. Like Ashu, why don't you also call him up at home? I doubt if CK Lal reads/surfs sajha. Please be more considerate towards all these Boston Bahuns also. Most of the time, these fellows do not know what they are talking about. They write to pass time, not to say something new or important. Keep in touch. Are you really in Siliguri, or it is the usual kind of deception? If you are around, please call, you know who I am.
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