HUNDT TV CODE FALLS SHORT\FCC head urges added measures.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

As the television industry continued to seek consensus on a voluntary rating system, Federal Communications Commission chairman Reed Hundt told Hollywood executives Thursday that such a system is a "fine idea" but doesn't go far enough to protect children from sex and violence on the airwaves.

"That's why President Clinton has supported the 'V-chip,' " Hundt told a gathering at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, referring to a device capable of interpreting electronic ratings that would be placed in program signals and block any programs a person considers undesirable. The "V" stands for violence.

"We're not talking about politics as usual," Hundt said. "We're talking about the responsibility that goes with the freedom to be an artist." Hundt also said the Clinton administration backs a plan that would require broadcasters to provide at least three hours of children's educational programming a week. Such a requirement could work, he said, if the government found a way to "shield" broadcasters from market constraints such as poor ratings and lack of advertisers that typically doom such educational shows. He also said broadcasters unwilling to provide educational programming could fulfill the obligation instead by supporting public broadcasting networks. Hundt was the luncheon speaker at the Artists Rights Digital Technology Symposium, a two-day event aimed at airing issues surrounding the computer revolution in Hollywood. The TV industry has vehemently opposed the V-chip provisions of the Telecommunications Act that President Clinton signed into law a week ago.

The law requires every 13-inch and larger TV set sold in the United States to be equipped with the device. The law also would let the Federal Communications Commission appoint a standard-setting panel if, after a year, the industry failed to come up with its own.

Hundt urged the entertainment business to come up with its own standards for regulating the "digitization" of television, which will make it possible to increase the number of channels on the air. "Can't we let businesses instead of government decide these issues?" he said. "That's what relying on competition is all about." Although Hundt's comments met with a tepid response, discussions earlier in the day about the rights of film authors vs. the rights of film owners were often quite lively. In one session, producer Mace Neufeld defended film owners as responsible protectors of art, saying they know the value of keeping film intact. "If I was lucky enough to know Leonardo da Vinci and I bought the Mona Lisa, I wouldn't draw a mustache on her." At that, director/producer Irwin Winkler quipped: "But you could."

"Clear and Present Danger," which Neufeld produced, was "cannibalized," its footage used, last fall by the TV show "Jag" without director Phillip Noyce's approval. That incident has angered many directors in Hollywood.