Decrying a "lack of information available in the record about Native American media ownership," an advocacy group for Native American broadcasters has asked the Federal Communications to put off any quick decisions about its media ownership rules.

Native Public Media, which represents 33 Native American radio stations, filed its comments on November 1st, a day before the FCC announced its last public hearing on its broadcast ownership limits, to take place in Seattle, Washington on November 9th.

"Because the Commission still has not sufficiently evaluated the current status of ownership of media outlets by Native nations or individual Native Americans," the group wrote, "NPM urges the Commission to further study Native station ownership and any barriers to such ownership before adopting final rules in these proceedings."

NPM's filing expressed disappointment that the FCC has not followed through on the coalition's requests for more focus on Native American media ownership patterns. According to the statement, the group

• asked the Commission to hold one of its six official hearings in "Indian Country and focus solely on media ownership issues facing Tribal nations, American Indians and Alaska Natives."
• requested that the "unique needs of Native Americans" be considered in any studies on its media ownership rules conducted by the agency
• petitioned for the creation of an "Indian desk" to "generate proposals to promote broadcasting on Native lands; propose ways for the Commission to set aside spectrum to meet the needs of Native Nations; help Native Nations hold mainstream broadcasters accountable;" and "study Native station ownership."

The filing charges that the "paucity of information in the record about Native American ownership demonstrates that NPM's call went unheeded."

Specifically, NPM says that no identifiable Native American advocate has appeared on an official FCC media ownership hearing panel so far, and none of the hearings were held "at a location proximate to multiple Native Nations." In addition, none of the ten media ownership studies commissioned by the FCC for its media ownership proceeding adequately deal with Native Americans, according to the NPM statement:

"For example, Study No. 3 attempts to analyze the presence of minority-targeted video programming and to correlate this to ownership, but divides its analysis into only three groups: Black, Latino, and "other." It is unclear whether this decision reflects a complete lack of video programming targeted to Native Americans, or a failure to analyze available data in sufficient detail for it to be useful to those concerned about Native American-targeted content. Similarly, Study No. 8 purports to study the effects of common ownership of television stations in the same market on "minority" owners, but it does not distinguish between various types of minorities, so it is unclear whether or how changes to the local television ownership rule have impacted Native American television station ownership. Study No. 7 identifies the percentages of three types of media outlets owned by Native Americans, but then lumps together all categories of “nonwhites” in its analysis of why various minorities are less likely to own these outlets. Study No. 2 contained data on the number and percentage of commercial radio and television stations owned by Native Americans over a four-year period. Though the Study makes an effort to analyze and present available data, it also notes a number of ways in which the underlying data may be unreliable or insufficient, which suggests that better and more frequent data-gathering is necessary."

The NPM filing asks the FCC to hold an official hearing on the potential impact that changing its media ownership rules will have on Native American broadcasters, and to "address deficiencies in the existing studies to ensure that Native American media ownership issues are evaluated."

Native Public Media's member stations include KYNR(AM) of Toppenish, Washington, which serves the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation, KCUW-LP, of Pendleton, Oregon, which broadcasts to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and Oregon's KWSO(FM) which represents the Confederated Tribes Warm Springs Reservation.

There is still no word from the FCC on who will appear on the panels of its public hearing in Seattle. The gathering will take place at Seattle's Great Hall this Friday, November 9th, will start at 4 pm, and will conclude at 11.

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