Press Release from Senator Russ Feingold

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Matt Nikolay (202) 224-5323
Jennifer Francis (202) 224-5323

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold this morning applauded the Federal District Court decision giving computer network communications the same level of protection from government censorship enjoyed by print media.

"This is welcome news for all of us who not only support free speech, but who also want to see this new, dynamic communications technology develop safe from the threat of censorship," Feingold said.

"I have always argued that legislation attempting to restrict the content of computer transmissions is both unnecessary and unconstitutional."

Feingold said parents who are concerned about the content of computer communications reaching their children already have, or should be given, effective tools to prevent their children from gaining access to potentially offensive transmissions.

"This issue is larger than so-called `adult' expression or communications," Feingold said. "It is about whether the government will decide what we see, hear and write."

A 3-judge panel sitting in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia today granted a preliminary injunction preventing the federal government from enforcing the Communications Decency Act. The panel wrote in its decision that, "as the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest level of protection from government intrusion."

Feingold fought against the Communications Decency Act on the Senate floor, and he was part of the effort to strike the Act from the Telecommunications bill signed into law this year.

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Posted on June 12, 1996