• Reuters, Thursday, August 26, 2010 11:06 PM

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday asked an appeals court to reconsider its ruling striking down the agency's indecency policy on "fleeting expletives" heard on broadcasts. A three-judge panel on July 13 called the policy unconstitutionally vague and said it could chill otherwise acceptable speech. News Corp's Fox Television, CBS Corp's CBS Broadcasting and others had challenged a 2004 FCC ruling that on-air expletives that were not bleeped out were indecent and their use could be penalized.

The case arose after Bono, the lead singer for the rock band U2, used an expletive often called the "F-word" during a live broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards. In a court filing, FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick said the three-judge panel's ruling against the FCC "threatens to have a wide-ranging adverse impact on the FCC's ability to enforce federal statutory restrictions on the broadcast of indecent material."

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