FCC Should Take Up Katrina Petition, MMTC Says

The FCC should approve rules to facilitate multilingual emergency alerts as detailed in the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council's Katrina Petition (see 1511170048), MMTC said in a letter to the FCC posted online in docket 04-296 Friday. “A definitive ruling to ensure multilingual communications during and after emergencies would save many lives,” MMTC said. “It would serve as a defining, transformative, and lasting statement of compassion by the Commission in the 21st Century.” MMTC proposed that the FCC could create rules that allow broadcast professionals serving multilingual populations to be treated as “first responders” and give them “priority in accessing transportation to and from radio stations that are providing emergency information to the public.” MMTC also proposed the commission reduce or waive regulatory fees for broadcasters that provide multilingual emergency messages. “In this way, these stations can recover some of the un-budgeted out of pocket costs of multilingual emergency operations,” MMTC said.