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11 Comm. L. & Pol'y 1 (2006)

handle is hein.journals/comulp11 and id is 1 raw text is: COMMUNICATION LAW AND POLICY Volume 11 Winter 2006 Number 1 Copyright © 2006 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. THE SMITH-MUNDT ACT'S BAN ON DOMESTIC PROPAGANDA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE COLD WAR STATUTE LIMITING ACCESS TO PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ALLEN W. PALMER* EDWARD L. CARTER** For more than fifty years, the U.S. Code has authorized the federal government to disseminate messages about America to international audiences. For at least thirty years, federal law has also prohibited those international propaganda messages from being disseminated within the United States. Given the realities of the acceleration and dispersion of information flow across international borders in the twenty-first century, a ban on dissemination of information that is tied to geographic boundaries raises both practical and policy issues. The domestic dissemination ban may have outlived its usefulness and relevance. Further, futile enforcement of the statute contradicts general U.S. policy promoting transparency and encouraging the free and open flow of information. The communications revolution and the so-called death of dis- tance have challenged many of the domestic presumptions behind the intent and consequences of government information, including *Associate Professor and Director of International Media Studies, Depart- ment of Communications, Brigham Young University. **Assistant Professor, Department of Communications, Brigham Young University.