[EAS] MMTC Appeals to Seeks DC En-Banc

[Ed Czarnecki]

Yes, MMTC is asking for a "rehearing en banc" in which all the judge in the
Circuit review the decision of the original 3-judge panel. The MMTC request
leans on the opinion of the single dissenting judge from the original panel,
who noted the very long period that elapsed between the original MMTC
petition to the FCC, and that the FCC was being unreasonable since it had
twice indicated that it would look at ways to somehow implement multilingual
EAS alerts - but twice been unable to gather enough information to be able
to come to any decision. 

The full court has called for responsive briefs from the parties.  The FCC
could respond that (1) it ordered state EAS plans to provide info and (2)
that CAP supports multilingual alerting.  The FCC could explain to the court
that something indeed was being done, and cite the series of FEMA national
EAS tests that had multilingual support.  Of course the rebuttal would be
that because few broadcasters carried both languages, the FCC has been
unreasonable in mandating specific action by EAS Participants (as MMTC seeks
to obligate broadcasters to take action, regardless of their particular
listening/viewing audiences).

If the en banc hearing reverses the original decision, this could have much
larger implications for EAS Participants for potentially expanded
requirements, and potentially beyond broadcast media. 

-----Original Message-----
From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Mike McCarthy

A trade rag is reporting the MMTC is appealing the circuit's 3 panelist
ruling earlier this year on multi-lingual EAS to the full 9 member panel.

MM

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