eFinland reports that “Ms Susanna Huovinen,Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland,has sent her European colleagues a letter concerning emergency alerts to the public by text message”saying “there is a window of opportunity for the European Union to strive in taking a leading position in this matter worldwide”.On the 6th of October “the Finnish Government issued a bill to Parliament on amending the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Electronic Communications,which would allow the authorities to issue emergency alerts to the public by text message.An alert message could be sent to mobile phones located in a specific region in cases of poisonous fallout or a natural disaster,for example.So far such alerts have been broadcast via radio and television”.

Minister Huovinen Encourages EU-Wide Use of Mass Emergency Communications