Deadline approaches for online public inspection file
Television broadcasters have until midnight Eastern Standard Time, Monday, Feb. 4, to upload legacy documents in their public inspection file to the new FCC-administered online database, the agency said this week.
Since August, stations have had to upload new documents to the file. Next week’s deadline pertains to documents that already were in the public inspection file.
The requirement covers documents required by the FCC’s public file rules with a couple of exceptions. No station is required to upload political files placed in the public file before Aug. 2, 2012. Additionally, stations aren’t required to upload letters and emails from the public to their public file.
In the case of legacy political files, stations are required to maintain them for two years. Letters and emails from the public must be maintained in a correspondence file at the studio, the FCC said.
