The word "rights"-- too controversial for the FCC?

Published November 12, 2004 9:32PM (EST)

We live in a time when a public radio station thinks the phrase "reproductive rights" will provoke the ire of the FCC: "WUNC-FM recently informed Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based international women's rights and health organization, that the phrase 'reproductive rights' in the group's on-air announcement could be interpreted as advocating a particular political position. The station required Ipas to use 'reproductive health' instead."

"... What concerns me is the chilling effect of the world we're living in, which makes everybody super-cautious about what they say," said [Anu Kumar, executive vice president of Ipas.] "The issue of reproductive rights, like many others, has been cast as an 'either you're with us or you're against us' issue, and so much of the language is assumed to be code for something else."


By Geraldine Sealey

Geraldine Sealey is senior news editor at Salon.com.

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