FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pre-recorded a message for the members of the National Religious Broadcasters at Proclaim 18, the organization’s Christian media convention, held at the beginning of this month.
Pai, the leader of the charge to repeal net neutrality, which critics say could negatively affect millions of people, spoke in his four-minute message about free speech and how it seems to be defended unfairly, as allegations of media conglomerates like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple censoring Christian and conservative publications continue.
He claimed that the United States’ commitment to freedom of speech “is beginning to unravel.” He mentioned a Pew Research study that said 40 percent of millennials think the government should be able to limit speech that is “potentially offensive.”
“Too often today, the mantra seems to be: ‘Free speech for me but not for thee,'” he said.
He continued: “At the FCC, we will not only defend the principles we all hold dear, we are also committed to removing or modernizing regulations that hold you back.”
The NRB was instrumental in the FCC deciding to change a rule that kept “noncommercial radio stations from interrupting their programming to raise funds for third-party charities without FCC approval,” according to Christian Post.
“This made it harder for NCE stations to raise money for worthy causes,” Pai said. “For years, the proposal to relax these restrictions sat on the shelf. But one of the first things I did when I became chairman was dust it off and ask my colleagues to vote for it. And vote for it they did.”
Pai ended the address with a reference to Scripture: “In closing, the Book of James tells us, ‘Be doers of the Word and not hearers only.’ The lesson I draw from this is that we should act in service of a larger purpose. So let’s do that. Let’s all work together to lift up others and to uphold the principles and freedoms that have made this the greatest nation in history.”
