MMTC Slams FCC Multilingual EAS Order
The Multicultural Media, Telecommunications and Internet Council panned the FCC order on multilingual emergency alert system warnings, in a statement Tuesday (see 1603300064). The order “does not move us even a step closer to ensuring that our nation’s 25 million…
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multilingual Americans, including children, the elderly, and the disabled, actually receive life-saving information before, during, and immediately after an emergency,” MMTC President Kim Keenan said: “If a broadcast license means anything at all, it should mean that broadcasters must deliver to their most vulnerable listeners the life-saving information they need when they need it the most. The penalty for an individual’s lack of English proficiency must never be death.” ​The FCC order requires state EAS officials to report their multilingual EAS offerings, but doesn't require that they provide an offering. MMTC and other public interest groups had pushed for an order that would offer incentives to broadcasters that provide EAS alerts in multiple languages.