FCC Must First Define 'Indecent' for Spanish Broadcasters

[Commentary] In 2013, a Spanish-language broadcaster entered into a "consent decree" with the Federal Communications Commission to avoid breaking its indecency rules. The broadcaster, Liberman Broadcasting, agreed to make a hefty $110,000 “voluntary contribution” to the US Treasury and the settlement imposed on the broadcaster a three-year “comprehensive compliance plan.”

But the consent decree sheds no light on the broader question of how the FCC interprets and enforces its indecency policies with respect to Spanish-language programming. It does not itemize the programming that the FCC felt to be contrary to indecency policies. As a result, we still don’t know precisely what Spanish terms may be “indecent” in the FCC’s view, and we don’t know how the FCC might have made that determination here or how it will make it in the future.

[Francisco Montero is a lawyer with Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth]