Multilingual Emergency Alert Players Optimistic on Deal
Participants in FCC-brokered talks on multilingual emergency alerts said they're optimistic a compromise can be reached between broadcasters and minority advocates on how radio and TV stations can inform foreign-language speakers of storms and other large-scale emergencies. The sides have been talking most of the time since commissioners voted May 31 to defer action on rules for how broadcasters should handle multilingual alerts, said Minority and Media Telecommunications Council (MMTC) Executive Director David Honig. In approving an order setting emergency alert rules for pay-TV providers, commissioners gave activists and industry time to work out an agreement on how English- language broadcasters should handle alerts when Spanish- language stations are knocked off the air during storms (CD Aug 16 p5).
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The Public Safety Bureau is overseeing the discussions, including at least one meeting held to date, Honig and other participants said. The FCC has said it would issue an order on how broadcasters should handle multilingual alerts six months after the pay-TV alert order was published in the Federal Register. The order was published Friday, said an FCC spokesman. Other participants are hopeful a deal can be reached.
“I'm still optimistic a compromise can be reached,” said Pat Roberts, president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. He took part in a meeting at the commission June 14 of bureau officials, broadcasters and minority advocates. Roberts said the industry seems willing to adapt MMTC’s proposal that it follow the “designated hitter” system of appointing a station in each market with a large Hispanic population to air alerts in Spanish when Spanish-language broadcasters are off the air. Voluntary participation is better than FCC rules, said Roberts. “As long as everyone does their best, I don’t think there will be any mandatory program,” he said. “I think we're getting very close to where everybody can live with it.”
MMTC understands that broadcasters want to work out a deal, said Roberts. Honig agreed. “This was something that all the parties had the same goal but different methods,” he said: “If Pat is optimistic, I'm optimistic, too.” The industry wants to come up with a plan, see how it works in the real world and make changes if needed, Roberts said. “If it doesn’t work, I think we'll have to review it again,” he said. “We're making some headway with other states and localities that have large percentages of Hispanics and other populations. I'm an eternal optimist and I hope it works out in the end.” Florida has been held out by MMTC as an example of how English and Spanish broadcasters can work together to ensure effective alerts.
Texas has since 1996 had a voluntary arrangement, said Texas Association of Broadcasters President Anne Arnold: Spanish broadcasters translate alerts into their language during emergencies. She hasn’t heard of any problems with the system. She said the Texas model could work elsewhere. “I think that the best plan would be something that leaves broadcasters with flexibility to work it out in ways that fit their communities,” Arnold said. “I think the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to take greater responsibility for providing alerts in languages as they're needed” because it’s not the job of radio or TV stations to translate emergency information. Roberts also said FEMA needs to do more: “They really need to quit dodging the bullet to step up and do what they need to do.”
MMTC gave broadcasters a designated hitter proposal several weeks ago, said Honig, who wouldn’t specify the plans. He expects the industry to take some time to review it and said it was hard to handicap the chances that a deal can be reached. “If they take a position that just doesn’t give us confidence that in practice you would get multilingual information out when there was an alert,” no deal would be possible, Honig said. “We think we've figured out a way to do it that’s efficient and fair, and maybe the response will be something that is even more efficient.” Jonathan Make