Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 92 Part 2.djvu/1133

 PUBLIC LAW 95-567—NOV. 2, 1978

92 STAT. 2413

" (B) contract with or make grants to public telecommunications entities, national, regional, and other systems of public telecommunications entities, and independent producers and production entities, for the production or acquisition of public telecommunications services to be made available for use by public telecommunications entities, except that— " (i) to the extent practicable, proposals for the provision of assistance by the Corporation in the production or acquisition of programs or series of programs shall be evaluated on the basis of comparative merit by panels of outside experts, ' representing diverse interests and perspectives, appointed by the Corporation; and "(ii) nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to prohibit the exercise by the Corporation of its prudent business judgment with respect to any contract or grant to assist in the production or acquisition of any program or series of programs recommended by any such panel; "(C) make payments to existing and new public telecommunica- Payments, tions entities to aid in financing the production or acquisition of public telecommunications services by such entities, particularly innovative approaches to such services, and other costs of operation of such entities; "(D) establish and maintain, or contribute to, a library and archives of noncommercial educational and cultural radio and television programs and related materials and develop public awareness of, and disseminate information about, public telecommunications services by various means, including the publication of a journal; " (E) arrange, by grant to or contract with appropriate public or private agencies, organizations, or institutions, for interconnection facilities suitable for distribution and transmission of public telecommunications services to public telecommunications entities; " (F) hire or accept the voluntary services of consultants, experts, advisory boards, and panels to aid the Corporation in carrying out the purposes of this subpart; "(G) conduct (directly or through grants or contracts) research, demonstrations, or training in matters related to public television or radio broadcasting and the use of nonbroadcast communications technologies for the dissemination of noncommercial educational and cultural television or radio programs; " (H) make grants or contracts for the use of nonbroadcast telecommunications technologies for the dissemination to the public of public telecommunications services; and " (I) take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes set forth in subsection (a). Nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to commit the Federal Government to provide any sums for the payment of any obligation of the Corporation which exceeds amounts provided in advance in appropriation Acts. "(3) To carry out the foregoing purposes and engage in the foregoing activities, the Corporation shall have the usual powers conferred upon a nonprofit corporation by the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act (D.C. Code, sec. 29-1001 et seq.), except that the Corporation is prohibited from— Prohibitions. "(A) owning or operating any television or radio broadcast station, system, or network, community antenna television system.

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