The liability of radio stations for seditious speeches sent over their airwaves is limited, according to an unofficial opinion by the Department of Justice today.
There has been speculation in some quarters as to how radio stations might be affected if speeches broadcast over their facilities are found to have incited the 17 members of the Christian Front Just indicted by the Grand Jury and on charges of sedition.
For the station owners to be charged with aiding and abetting sedition, it was stated by the Department of Justice, it would have to be proved that the station conspired with the speaker to utter sedition. However, the Department gave as its opinion that the Federal Communications Commission would deal sternly with any station which allowed a person convicted of sedition to speak over its facilities.
“It would be an open and shut case of operation of a station contrary to the public interest and necessity,” a spokesman for the Department said, “if speeches definitely against the public interest were broadcast.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
