MMTC Presses Case At FCC For Multilingual EAS

The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council wants the Federal Communications Commission to act on its petition seeking multilingual emergency warnings.

In comments to the FCC, MMTC pointed out that Aug 29 marks the ninth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and said the commission should act on MMTC's petition before then.

"Despite the Petition for Immediate Relief, Independent Panel recommendations and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) support, the Commission has made no significant progress to ensure that non-English speaking residents will have access to lifesaving information before, during, and in the wake of an emergency," MMTC told the commission.

MMTC wants the FCC to require broadcasters to work with local governments and other stations to come with a plan for what each will do in an emergency to make sure that non-English speakers get timely emergency info, preferably relayed by a human being rather than a computer translation program, at least "until translation technologies are capable of capturing the nuances of language through which critical information is transmitted and received."