Newsgroups: rec.radio.noncomm,alt.censorship,alt.music.hardcore From: ae446@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nigel Allen) Subject: CRTC rules against hatred complaints at campus radio Message-ID: Sender: news@freenet.carleton.ca (Usenet News Admin) Reply-To: ae446@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nigel Allen) Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 22:58:31 GMT Lines: 95 The following article is reproduced with the permission of Canadian University Press, Canada's national student news co-operative. For more information about CUP, please contact the CUP national office at ao929@FreeNet.Carleton.CA. This article may not be reprinted except with CUP's permission. CENSORSHIP: CRTC RULES AGAINST HATRED COMPLAINTS AT CAMPUS RADIO (Source: The Charlatan, Carleton University and Trans FM) OTTAWA (CUP) -- A Carleton University community radio station did not propagate hatred against Catholics and will be allowed to operate, a recent Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruling said. Local conservative groups had asked for CKCU's broadcasting licence to be revoked for "abusing the public airwaves." The Canadian Christian Women's Organization for Life filed a complaint July 7, saying that a day of programming was "offensive" and "nauseating." CKCU had broadcast a six-and-a-half-hour program titled Stonewall 25 on June 26, which consisted of panel discussions with members of the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, poetry and short story readings, and live phone-in discussions on notions of community, diversity and the family. The event commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. The raid sparked five days of rioting and has since become a symbol of solidarity for the gay-, lesbian- and bisexual-rights movement. The radio station included disclaimers before and during the broadcast, warning listeners that the programming would be explicit and to turn their radios off if they didn't approve. Rita Curley, a member of the organization, said in the complaint that the program could have a negative influence on children. "If we could unintentionally tune in to this degrading, obscene program, our greatest concern is that children could have the same misfortune," she wrote. In her letter to the CRTC, Curley singled out the song, 'You Suck,' by the Yeastie Girls, which describes oral sex in detail. The song includes lyrics like: ". . . you tell me its gross to suck my yeast infection./How do you think I feel when I gag on your erection?" Robert Eady, a member of the Catholic Civil Rights League, says he also sent a complaint to the CRTC about Stonewall 25. Since 1992, Eady has launched several complaints against CKCU's gay, lesbian and bisexual program, Defiant Voices. "(`You Suck') is disgusting and has no place on the airwaves," Eady said. But CKCU station manager Max Wallace said the playing of the song was justified because it was "contextualized within the programming." Wallace said in a letter responding to the complaint: "The music which was played on the day, including the song, `You Suck,' which you refer to, certainly dealt with the issues being discussed and was not gratuitously offensive." Wallace insisted that the station's programming is within the limits of the Broadcasting Act, which regulates all Canadian broadcast media. The CRTC agreed. CRTC Secretary General Allan Darling wrote to Eady: "The Act clearly does not give the commission the power to censor programming . . . The commission will continue to take into account the guaranteed right of freedom of expression contained in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms." However, the CRTC renewed CKCU's licence for four years, not the usual seven, because a malfunction in the station's logger machine last winter meant that some shows were not taped, as required. -- 30 -- -- Nigel Allen ae446@freenet.carleton.ca