Critics of U.S. President Donald Trump and free speech advocates are denouncing a decision by his administration to review the broadcast licenses of several ABC channels, calling the move “unconstitutional.”
The probe by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), announced on Tuesday, followed Trump and his wife Melania calling for the firing of ABC host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he told last week.
“The FCC’s unconstitutional threats against ABC are the latest confirmation that Chairman Brendan Carr has weaponised what should be an independent agency in service of Donald Trump’s personal political agenda,” Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders in North America, said in a statement.
The FCC said it launched the investigation into eight local ABC channels, compelling them to file for early license renewal, over diversity measures that amount to possible “unlawful discrimination.” Critics have underscored the timing of the review amid the Kimmel controversy.
“Must be a total coincidence that the FCC launched this probe right after Jimmy Kimmel told another joke Trump didn’t like,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, wrote on X.
Amnesty International USA accused the FCC of using authoritarian tactics. “The agency must start taking its responsibility to respect freedom of the press and freedom of expression seriously,” the rights group said.
The FCC decision sparked rare Republican criticism of the Trump administration by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. “It is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police,” Cruz told Punchbowl News.
Kimmel had joked before the White House Correspondents’ Association gala that Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.” He later dismissed the outrage, saying it “obviously” was not a call to violence. Disney, ABC’s parent company, said its stations operate in full compliance with FCC rules.
Efforts to revoke broadcast licenses are likely to face legal and administrative challenges, turning into a years-long process. The last time the FCC succeeded in revoking a license over content was in 1969.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called the move “unprecedented,” “unlawful” and “bound to fail.” “This is the most egregious assault on the First Amendment that we have seen from this FCC,” Gomez told CNN.
The investigation coincided with federal prosecutors filing criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey over a social media post. Comey, a vocal Trump critic, had shared an image that prosecutors alleged was a threat against the president.
Trump vowed as a candidate to “restore free speech,” but since returning to the White House, critics have accused his administration of pushing to silence dissent, particularly Palestinian rights advocacy.
Source: www.aljazeera.com