MAJOR CHURCH GROUP CALLS ON FCC TO BLOCK TRANSFER OF WORLDCOM LICENSES FOR LONG DISTANCE, WEB SERVICES

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (UCC) today urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block the Debtor-In-Possession (DIP) transfer of the licenses and authorizations to operate across state lines that scandal-plagued WorldCom uses to maintain its long-distance, Web and other key services in the U.S. and abroad. The church group also requested that the FCC establish "minimum corporate responsibility standards" for WorldCom and other current and future telecom licensees. The new FCC standards would be based on an investigation (also requested by UCC) into the root causes of the problems that are rocking the telecommunications industry.

Today's filings parallel events of nearly 40 years ago when UCC made broadcasting history by petitioning the FCC in 1963 to take action in relation to the license of another Jackson, Miss., communications firm on the same grounds: a demonstrated lack of fitness to use the public airwaves. In the historic WLBT-TV case, the FCC rejected the UCC petition for license renewal denial as groundless and then was overturned by a court which found sufficient "public interest" violations in the racist practices of the Jackson television station, which literally "blacked out" images of civil rights leaders, such as Thurgood Marshall, during its rebroadcast of network news shows.

Of its call for FCC action against WorldCom, UCC Office of Communication Director, The Rev. Robert Chase said: "Companies that manage our nation's telecommunications and Internet facilities must operate in the public interest, maintaining a corporate character that assures honest and effective stewardship. Only the Federal Communications Commission can send a clear signal to the rest of the telecommunications world that WorldCom was and is grossly unfit to serve as an Information Age steward."

UCC counsel Gregg Skall, of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, said: "Today, UCC filed an objection to WorldCom's applications to transfer its FCC authorizations from its pre-bankruptcy entity to itself as Debtor-In-Possession. Of course, WorldCom and WorldCom DIP are one and the same, which is exactly the point of our filing an objection against these assignment applications. The FCC has a well-established process for reviewing the character qualifications of those who seek FCC licenses and authorizations. UCC's objection demonstrates that WorldCom's business practices clearly violated FCC rules and make it unqualified to be a Commission licensee . Therefore, the Commission must reject the assignment applications and start the process for finding a qualified entity to which the authorizations `could' be assigned."

The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant denomination of 1.4 million members in more than 6,000 churches, 30 colleges and institutions of higher education, 15 seminaries and over 340 health and human services centers in every state and in Puerto Rico.

KEY PREVISIONS OF THE PETITIONS FILED AT THE FCC

The highlights of the UCC filings made today at the FCC are as follows:

*An objection to the disposition by the FCC of the transfer of licenses to WorldCom as the Debtor in Possession (DIP) in the company's bankruptcy proceeding. Noting that the board and management of the DIP remain substantially unchanged from WorldCom at the height of its deceit, UCC maintains that the FCC cannot possibly argue that the transfer of licenses to the WorldCom-controlled DIP is in the public interest. In highlighting the many acts of WorldCom's fraud and deception, the UCC objection also makes it clear that the company repeatedly violated FCC rules and disqualified itself from being a licensee under existing FCC character qualification policy.

*A separate petition in rulemaking and request for a FCC investigation determining the basis for prospective rules of corporate conduct for all telecommunications service providers subject to the FCC's jurisdiction. The goal here is to encourage a code of "minimum corporate responsibility" to help avoid future WorldCom-like scandals in the telecommunications industry.

Chase said: "In the digital age, stewardship of the facilities that are essential to modern e-commerce and must be handled by companies that are above reproach and that can be trusted to operate in the public interest. WorldCom and other companies use the public airwaves under public interest authorizations and, as such, must be held to the standard of behavior that is defined in the law. When the Commission undertakes its investigation, we are confident that it will find that WorldCom is unsuitable to ever again hold any of its operating licenses and authorizations and that its behavior provides instruction for what further measures need be adopted by the Commission to forestall new opportunities for deception."

He added: "I see parallels between the 1963 WLBT-TV case and WorldCom -- even though they are separated by four decades. The FCC told us in the 1960s that our first major petition entered in the public interest went beyond the scope of what the law permits and the court told them they were wrong. No doubt WorldCom and its defenders will try to block us again with the same kind of arguments. This time we are confident the FCC will agree with us. But we make no apology for taking the position that a fraud-riddled company be held to account for its many violations of the public trust."

ABOUT THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, INC

Founded in 1959, the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. achieved prominence in the 1960s as the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. After reviewing the civil rights performance of television stations in the South, the Office identified Jackson, Mississippi-based WLBT-TV as a frequent target of public complaints and FCC reprimands for "public interest" violations. In 1963, the Office filed a "petition to deny renewal" with the FCC, initiating a process that had far-reaching consequences in U.S. broadcasting. The FCC's initial response to the petition was to rule that neither the United Church of Christ nor local citizens had legal "standing" to participate in its renewal proceedings. The UCC appealed, and in 1966, Warren Burger, then a federal appeals court judge, wrote a decision granting such standing to the UCC and to citizens in general. After a hearing, the FCC renewed WLBT's license, resulting in another appeal by the UCC. Burger then wrote a second decision that declared the FCC's record "beyond repair" and revoked WLBT's license in 1969.

Based on this new right to participate in license proceedings, the Office of Communication of the UCC began to work with other reform and citizens' groups to monitor broadcast performance on a number of issues, including employment discrimination and fairness. In 1967, the Office's petition to the FCC dealing with employment issues led to the Commission's adoption of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules for broadcasting. In 1968, it participated as a "friend of the court" in the landmark Red Lion case, which confirmed and expanded the Fairness Doctrine. Beyond the world of broadcast television and radio, the Office of Communications of the UCC also has worked on such issues as the deregulation of telecommunications and cable rate setting.

A streaming audio replay of the UCC news event is available on the Web at http://www.hastingsgroup.com/FCCWorldCom.html.