Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig recently pushed for the EAS handbook to be written in both English and Spanish (and the FCC recently released a Spanish-language version).
Now, Honig says there should be a coordinated effort to get multilingual emergency messages to listeners and viewers.
At an EAS summit this week in Washington, Honig announced a proposal formulated by the MMTC, Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ.
Stations ready to air emergency information in other languages would be “Designated Hitters” under the proposal, which calls for such stations to agree in advance to provide emergency alerts in whatever language the market needs, and each market coordinator, rather than a state government, would activate the emergency plan.
