FCC Staff Suggest MMTC Come Up With Multilingual EAS Best Practice Proposals, Group Says

FCC Public Safety Bureau staff suggested the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council present new proposals in MMTC's 2005 petition with others for ways that broadcasters can transmit emergency alert system content in languages other than English when EAS outlets broadcasting in those languages go off air during disasters, the group said. The staff said that could "include best practices that could be reported as part of State EAS plans," MMTC said in a filing Thursday in docket 04-296. The group had asked the bureau to work with the agency "toward a workable solution that would achieve the primary goals" of what it calls the Katrina petition (see 1511170048), after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina that caused widespread loss of life and damage. "Perhaps broadcast stations might be willing to voluntarily provide multilingual emergency broadcasts," and the FCC would consider offering some regulatory relief for the “Good Samaritans,” said the group. "MMTC and FCC staff discussed the role of essential emergency personnel with language skills who could be called upon to provide multilingual radio programming during an emergency," it said of the meeting that included Chief David Simpson and others in the bureau. The FCC confirmed it invited suggestions from MMTC on further measures that EAS participants could take to support multilingual alerting, an agency spokeswoman emailed us Friday.