FCC approves settlement in CBS case (06/20/99)

FCC approves settlement in CBS case

by Donna T. Pochoday

CHATHAM, N.J. - The Mass Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 7 approved the settlement agreement filed by CBS and Ukrainian petitioners in the case arising out of the October 1994 CBS broadcast of "The Ugly Face of Freedom."

The FCC granted the joint petition for approval of the settlement agreement between the "CBS parties" (CBS and Westinghouse) and the "UCCA parties" (Alexander Serafyn, Oleg Nikolyszyn and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America) under the terms of which the CBS parties will pay attorneys for the UCCA parties $328,000 to reimburse legal expenses incurred in prosecuting the various petitions, complaints and appeals. The joint petition had been filed on April 21. In addition, the FCC dismissed the UCCA parties to any further proceedings regarding those matters.

The June 7 decision also provides that when the FCC so directs, CBS will file comments with the FCC requesting approval of the WGPR-TV (Detroit) and the WPRI-TTV (Providence, R.I.) assignment applications and addressing any questions that remain to be resolved in light of the District of Columbia Circuit's remand of these proceedings. The UCCA parties will not object to such filings on any matters raised in the above-noted proceedings or occurring prior to June 7.

During the last four and a half years Mr. Serafyn, Mr. Nikolyszyn and the UCCA had been involved in various legal proceedings against CBS at the FCC level and a successful appeal at the U.S Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, filed in reaction to the controversial segment on "60 Minutes" that depicted Ukraine as a country where anti-Semitism was on the rise and Ukrainians as "genetically anti-Semitic."

Donna T. Pochoday is counsel for Oleg Nikolyszyn.

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