Proposed FCC fines late Thursday against two TV stations for airing video news...
Proposed FCC fines late Thursday against two TV stations for airing video news releases (VNR) in 2006 without identifying the sponsors (CD March 25 p6) appear to have come now because a statute of limitations may soon run out, said…
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industry lawyers. In 2006, the commission sent letters of inquiry to 77 stations on the VNRs, Kathleen Kirby and Ari Meltzer of Wiley Rein wrote members of the Radio TV Digital News Association. “To enforce a civil forfeiture, the Commission must bring a lawsuit within five years of the date when the claim ‘accrued’ —- generally the date of the incident. With this deadline approaching, it would not be surprising for the Commission to address many of these dormant inquiries in the coming months.” At the time the complaints against the VNRs were made, Kirby and Meltzer noted that RTDNA met with commissioners and made filings “raising the significant First Amendment concerns associated with these investigations."