http://freemediaonline.org/freemediaonlineblog/2008/09/12/model-voice-of-america-site-touted-as-replacement-for-radio-to-russia-attracted-no-comments-from-users/ Supporting free media worldwide Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:17:26 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://freemediaonline.org/freemediaonlineblog/2008/09/12/model-voice-of-america-site-touted-as-replacement-for-radio-to-russia-attracted-no-comments-from-users/comment-page-1/#comment-1516 » From 10.3% to 2.5% to O.2% in Just One Year — Voice of America Audience in Russia Obliterated by a Decision of U.S. Government Officials - Blogger News Network Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:54:52 +0000 http://freemediaonline.org/freemediaonlineblog/?p=29#comment-1516 [...] BBG officials justified their actions by claiming that VOA would be in a better position to overcome Russian government media censorship if it concentrated its programming efforts exclusively on the Internet. FreeMediaOnline.org and others repeatedly warned the BBG that this strategy was extremely naive and would reward Mr. Putin’s censorship of independent media. The same critics predicted a drastic drop in audience size for VOA if the BBG implemented its plan. They also pointed out that the BBG plan called for spending money on needless projects benefiting private Internet contractors while the Russian Service would be deprived of substantive Internet content previously generated from radio and TV programs.  Read FreeMediaOnline.org report “Model Interactive Website Touted As Replacement for Voice of America Radio to Russia Attracts No Com...” [...] [...] BBG officials justified their actions by claiming that VOA would be in a better position to overcome Russian government media censorship if it concentrated its programming efforts exclusively on the Internet. FreeMediaOnline.org and others repeatedly warned the BBG that this strategy was extremely naive and would reward Mr. Putin’s censorship of independent media. The same critics predicted a drastic drop in audience size for VOA if the BBG implemented its plan. They also pointed out that the BBG plan called for spending money on needless projects benefiting private Internet contractors while the Russian Service would be deprived of substantive Internet content previously generated from radio and TV programs.  Read FreeMediaOnline.org report “Model Interactive Website Touted As Replacement for Voice of America Radio to Russia Attracts No Com…” [...]

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