Sec. 73.1217  Broadcast hoaxes.

    No licensee or permittee of any broadcast station shall broadcast 
false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if:
    (a) The licensee knows this information is false;
    (b) It is forseeable that broadcast of the information will cause 
substantial public harm, and
    (c) Broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause 
substantial public harm.

Any programming accompanied by a disclaimer will be presumed not to pose 
foreseeable harm if the disclaimer clearly characterizes the program as 
a fiction and is presented in a way that is reasonable under the 
circumstances.

    Note: For purposes of this rule, ``public harm'' must begin 
immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the 
health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement 
or other public health and safety authorities from their duties. The 
public harm will be deemed foreseeable if the licensee could expect with 
a significant degree of certainty that public harm would occur. A 
``crime'' is any act or omission that makes the offender subject to 
criminal punishment by law. A ``catastrophe'' is a disaster or imminent 
disaster involving violent or sudden event affecting the public.


[ 57 FR 28640 , June 26, 1992]