THE FCC & ‘INDECENCY’

I have heard the fire bell rung in the night.

The Federal Communications Commission’s decision to have radio station KPFK prosecuted on obscenity charges smacks more of persecution than prosecution (“FCC Cracking Down on Radio ‘Indecency,’ ” by David Crook and Penny Pagano, April 17).

The FCC has asked for a Justice Department prosecution of the station for broadcasting a play about homosexual love and AIDS that contained explicit language. Is there anyone who would deny that perhaps more explicit discussion of this epidemic might not be in order? Is this a reason to take KPFK to court?

I think that it is only a ploy to intimidate the station.

KPFK has always been in the vanguard when it comes to examining issues of importance. Recently, much of its programming has brought to light much of the seamy doings of the Reagan Administration in foreign affairs, such as the contra involvement in dope smuggling.

Big money and government interests often like to keep the public in the dark as to which river they are polluting or whose government they are subverting. “Free Speech Radio” (KPFK’s motto) has often brought light to this festering garbage and offered varying alternatives. To silence this station would bring much satisfaction to many who feel the public should be kept in the dark.

Now, you can’t come right out and close a radio station for that in America. Too many people absorbed those ideals we teach them in school. But a radio station operating on the brink of financial disaster such as KPFK might be ruined by a court battle.

Our government must not be permitted to destroy a cornerstone of American freedom that easily. Voltaire, who said, “I disagree completely with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” said it all. . . .

HAROLD W. WARNER

Santa Monica