For Release: November 18                                                      

Contact: Brian Dixon

(202) 332-2200

 

Twenty-two National Organizations Decry North Carolina

Public Radio Station Policy on “Rights”

 

We are deeply disturbed by the decision by WUNC — the public radio station based at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill — to bar Ipas from using the term “reproductive rights” in their on-air underwriting announcement. The decision denies Ipas the ability to accurately describe their work and their mission.

 

Sadly, this misguided decision that threatens the very concept of free speech, is all too easy to understand.  WUNC fears retribution by the FCC, and that fear is not unreasonable.

 

Under the Bush administration, regulatory agencies have been used with an appalling frequency to punish those organizations that do not conform to its narrow ideological position:

 

Ø      the imposition of policies requiring international health care providers to sign a pledge (the global gag rule) to not discuss abortion with their patients 

 

Ø      consecutive government audits to harass organizations that oppose the administration’s “abstinence-only” agenda

 

Ø      the withdrawal of funding for a major global health conference because one of the featured speakers opposed some policies of the administration

 

Ø      the cutoff of funds to HIV/AIDS-prevention organizations that dare to discuss “men who have sex with men”

 

Ø      the IRS investigation of the NAACP

 

Each of these actions sends a clear message:  dissent at your peril.

 

And now Ipas, which has refused to allow the Bush administration to silence its support of reproductive rights around the world, is being denied the ability to tell the people of North Carolina of its work.

 

So we are both outraged and saddened by WUNC’s decision to cave in to the implicit threats of the Bush administration, and are hopeful that they will recognize that a free press has a duty to defend the right of free speech.

 

Cosigners:

 

Population Connection

Planned Parenthood^® Federation of America

Advocates for Youth

NARAL Pro-Choice America

Center for Women Policy Studies

International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region

Center for Health and Gender Equity

Women’s Edge Coalition

Association of Reproductive Health Professionals

NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina

National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association

Center for Reproductive Rights

SIECUS

American Humanist Association

National Abortion Federation

International Women’s Health Coalition

EngenderHealth

Communications Consortium Media Center

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health

National Council of Jewish Women

Americans for Democratic Action

Women’s Environment and Development Organization