November 17, 2004

 

Ms. Joan Siefert Rose, General Manager, WUNC-FM

Ms. Nancy Davis, Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations

Members of the WUNC Community Advisory Board

WUNC-FM

120 Friday Center Drive

Chapel Hill, NC 27517

 

Cc:       James Moeser, Chancellor

Nancy Suttenfield, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration

 

Dear Ms. Rose, Ms. Davis and Members of the WUNC Community Advisory Board:

 

As members of WUNC’s listening and supporting audience, we are writing to express our profound disappointment in the station’s recent decision not to permit the phrase “reproductive rights” in Ipas’s on-air underwriting announcement.  This decision goes against fundamental values which we expect WUNC, as a public radio station, to uphold. As you are no doubt aware, it has led many of us, painfully, to reconsider our support for the station.

 

Despite your contentions to the contrary, “reproductive rights” is a mainstream concept encompassing a series of rights that are respected, promoted and enforced by the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court, laws throughout the United States and countries around the world, as well as in multiple international agreements endorsed by all but a few governments. The phrase accurately conveys a main thrust of Ipas’s work over the last 30 years; its omission results in an incomplete portrayal of the organization’s mission.

 

Our concern extends beyond the particular words in question, however, to the broader question of all underwriters’ right to describe themselves truthfully, accurately and completely, albeit briefly – a right we believe WUNC ought to defend and support. We feel that the extraordinary caution exhibited in this decision is undue and serves to perpetuate self-censorship, which is all too prevalent in the current political climate. We count on public radio to expose and resist such tendencies, not to reinforce them.

 

Accordingly, we ask that you reconsider your decision regarding the language of Ipas’s on-air announcement.