Legal fight over anti-Kerry film

Democrats feel the TV show is illegal under electoral law

The Democratic Party is to launch a legal challenge to try to stop a major US television company airing a critique of presidential candidate John Kerry.

Figures within the party have branded the decision to show a 45-minute film about John Kerry's Vietnam war record as "blatantly partisan".

Democrats now plan to file a federal complaint against Sinclair TV, which owns or manages 62 television stations.

The company intends to show the film just two weeks before polling day.

The documentary - Stolen Honour: Wounds That Never Heal - highlights Mr Kerry's role as an anti-war activist upon his return from active service in Vietnam.

In the film former US prisoners of war allege that Mr Kerry's testimony to Congress in 1971 prompted their captors to delay their release.

Republican mouthpiece?

Sinclair TV has asked the 62 stations, many of which broadcast in key battleground states, to suspend regular programming and show the documentary.

The company insists the film is part of regular news coverage and said that John Kerry has been invited to debate the issues raised in the film.

The BBC's Jill McGivering in Washington says the issue has renewed debate about the control of the US media and the political influence of major broadcasting groups.

The family running Sinclair TV has a history of supporting the Republicans.

John Kerry was a Vietnam veteran who later turned against the war

Democrats have accused the company of acting as a mouthpiece for the campaign to re-elect President George W Bush.

The Democratic National Committee is to petition the Federal Election Committee to classify the film an "illegal in-kind contribution" to the Republican campaign.

In a letter to the Federal Communication Commission, 18 Democratic senators branded the documentary "blatantly partisan".

The Democrats are not thought likely to obtain a ruling in time to stop the broadcast.

Supporters of President Bush argue that film-maker Michael Moore used his hit cinema release Fahrenheit 9/11 to urge Americans to vote for Mr Kerry.