The U.S. government’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB)–the administrative arm of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) media agency for informing and influencing foreign audiences–censors selection of articles for its “Media Highlights” distributed mostly to Americans who pay the salaries of IBB officials.

While censorship by IBB public relations experts is not complete, articles by mainstream American reporters and scholars which are critical of the U.S. international broadcasting bureaucracy often don’t make it into the publicly distributed “Media Highlights.” IBB sends out these “Media Highlights” to subscribers by email. They can also be seen online on the BBG’s official website.

To add insult to injury, most of what is deemed not appropriate or safe for average Americans to read, can be viewed by top agency officials in secret emails. As in the former Soviet Union, IBB bureaucrats distribute some of these “less than desirable” articles only to a small group of IBB officials and members of the BBG board.

Such double standards in how government officials communicate with the public, common in totalitarian and authoritarian systems, are dangerous in a democracy. Most BBG board members are reported to be opposed to this practice, but they have been unable to force their executive staff to modify it, sources told BBG Watch.

Encouraged and protected by IBB Director Richard Lobo, these officials are becoming more and more defiant, ignore BBG members, and refuse demands for transparency. At this time, BBG members are powerless because they lack quorum due to unexplained and prolonged absence of BBG’s Interim Presiding Governor Michael Lynton. In his absence, IBB executive staff can do whatever they want if IBB Director agrees. At least for the federal entities managed by the BBG, the remaining five board members cannot force Director Lobo to do anything he does not want to do. He seems to be happy with what his staff is doing.

It should be pointed out that national security or privacy considerations have nothing to do with selecting articles for inclusion in the BBG “Media Highlights.” They are not considered classified, even in the version distributed to insiders. In fact, articles kept from wider distribution often show how actions and inaction of IBB officials are harmful to U.S. international broadcasting and may threaten U.S. national security.

Officials limit the distribution of such articles to a small inside group of top executives. Not even all rank and file BBG employees get to see them unless they find them online on their own, including on the BBG Watch website. But we have also learned that an agency official tried to influence an independent American blogger not to re-post articles from BBG Watch. The blogger refused the request. But the fact that it was made shows that top IBB executives have adopted a culture of censorship which is destroying the agency, its reputation and employee morale. Americans should be worried.

In the Soviet Union, such privileged groups of party officials were the executive staff of the Politburo. They were responsible for keeping Politburo members informed about what was going on. But the Broadcasting Board of Governors is a U.S. government agency set up by democratically elected representatives of the American people. Americans are entitled to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. This money should not be used to distribute censored and misleading information. Any deliberately censored information is misleading.

In fact, not even BBG members may be getting everything they need to know from their staff. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has a bipartisan board composed of nine individuals nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate (one of them, Secretary of State Kerry, is an ex officio member). They are entitled to accurate, unbiased and complete information from the agency’s permanent bureaucracy. But while they apparently do get the secret media list, it is not at all certain whether all critical articles make it into the secret emails to BBG members. We are told that board members are growing increasingly frustrated with IBB bureaucracy. It is a known fact that IBB senior staffers have been trying to keep BBG members in the dark about various issues and are ignoring some of their directives. Many believe that they are in an open rebellion against their bosses.

As incredible as it may sound, it appears that in some respects Soviet leaders may have been in fact kept somewhat better informed by their bureaucracy than Broadcasting Board of Governors members are by theirs. While Soviet citizens were also not deemed trustworthy enough to get the whole truth in Soviet newspaper articles, Politburo members did receive extensive secret transcripts of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Voice of America (VOA), BBC and other Western broadcasts which were highly critical of these self-appointed dictators. We do know for sure that the American public gets a shorter, “censored” version of media articles from these IBB officials charged with promoting media freedom abroad. We don’t know if BBG members get all the articles that they and all other Americans should see if taxpayers’ money is going to be used for this purpose.

Dangers of the Repeal of the Smith-Mundt Act If Current IBB Officials Remain in Charge

Ironically, the same IBB officials who censor information distributed to the American public are in charge of managing RFE/RL and VOA as these media outlets prepare programs for overseas audiences. But thanks to the recent repeal of some of the provisions of the Smith-Mundt Act, these government bureaucrats will soon be allowed to distribute Voice of America and other programs in the United States. It is more than likely that in addition to VOA news and other programs, these IBB officials will distribute to unsuspecting Americans their own propaganda.

Americans also have a good reason to worry about news and information being censored or manipulated by government officials charged with their distribution if these are the same officials who already censor such information.

BBG Watch has learned that to justify the censorship of their “Media Highlights,” IBB officials keep telling those who ask that they do not list articles which appear in blogs, even blogs of very respectable publications and institutions, such as National Review and The Heritage Foundation.

But the claim of not listing blog articles is patently untrue, as we have seen numerous articles in the public BBG “Media Highlights” taken from blogs rather than mainstream media publications. These were not surprisingly mostly those articles that made IBB bureaucrats look good, some of them clearly initiated by the agency’s public relations staff.

IBB officials certainly set a miserable example of how a media freedom agency ought to operate and open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy. While programs for overseas audiences are not subject to this kind of internal censorship by the Office of Communications and External Affairs and other IBB executives, some of these officials exercise enormous power which has been shown to stifle honest reporting by agency’s journalists. Coverage of the Radio Liberty crisis in Russia has been inadequate and biased. Top IBB officials have also failed to alert BBG members to the growing controversy over the firing of dozens of Radio Liberty journalists.

Reasons for reported self-censorship by some of the agency’s journalists have been traced to the fear of retaliation from the management. Top IBB officials have been known to eliminate programs they don’t like and phase out jobs of journalists they don’t like. Their desire for power and central control over information and budgets is insatiable, which explains their tendency to censor what American taxpayers and their Congressional representatives can see. It appears that they will do almost anything to avoid bad publicity.

What is even more dangerous is that the same officials are now writing regulations on how they plan to distribute their agency’s programs to the American public after previous legal restrictions on such domestic distribution have been lifted with the recent modification of the Smith-Mundt Act.

Americans should demand that these officials be required to apply the same Voice of America Charter requirements for accuracy and objectivity, not just to VOA news and other programs, but to all of their public relations output as well. IBB officials need to told that censorship of any kind is prohibited. This is critical now that restrictions on domestic U.S. distribution of programs have been lifted.

This continuation of Soviet media techniques by IBB officials is embarrassing for an agency claiming to be supporting media freedom abroad. It is also futile.

Those interested in U.S. international broadcasting have probably already seen these “inappropriate” or “dangerous” articles online or got them delivered to their email boxes using Goggle Search. They can easily see that IBB is manipulating access to information for those interested in U.S. international broadcasting issues, which includes American taxpayers who pay their salaries, members of Congress and Congressional staffers.

Examples

Two significant recent articles did not make the official BBG’s “Media Highlights” list. We are not talking here about articles by unknown bloggers, but well known and highly respected scholars and reporters who have previously written and published about U.S. international broadcasting.

The public relations office did not think this analysis by The Heritage Foundation scholar Dr. Helle Dale was worth sharing with the American public:

“Congress to Broadcasting Agency: Is Anyone Listening to Us?“, Helle Dale, The Foundry, The Heritage Foundation, April 18, 2013.

U.S. international broadcasting strategy again landed under congressional scrutiny in Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, a Heritage Foundation scholar Helle Dale reported.

“Representative Brad Sherman (D–CA) wanted to know why the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) ignored the congressional mandate to keep broadcasting to Pakistan in several local languages. In spite of a specific $1.5 million appropriation for broadcasting to Pakistan, everything has been cut except programming in Urdu. “You would not dream of broadcasting to Los Angeles in only one language,” said Sherman.”

It appears that the IBB Office of Communications and External Affairs does not want those interested in U.S. international broadcasting issues to know what Representative Brad Sherman and other members of Congress may think about agency officials.

The Office of Communications and External Affairs also did not include in the “Media Highlights” an article in the Foreign Affairs Journal blog, “Moscow on the Potomac” by Judy Bachrach, which described a bizarre attempt to ban a BBG member from an event honoring Masha Gessen.

Moscow on the Potomac, Judy Bachrach, World Affairs Journal, April 15, 2013.

Most BBG Members Appalled by Staff

Most of the remaining board members (only five out of nine are left, with the Interim Presiding Governor Michael Lynton being absent from board meetings for the past four months) are appalled by this double standard approach to public relations, but they appear incapable of changing it due to resistance from IBB Director Richard Lobo who is also opposing other reforms sought by BBG members, agency sources told BBG Watch.

These might be the same officials who tried to ban an independent American reporter from the UN. The same ones who for months issued press releases deceiving members of Congress, Congressional staffers, American public, and probably BBG members as well, into believing that “Parazit,” the popular Voice of America satirical television program to Iran, was still on the air when in fact they knew that it was discontinued. The same ones who ignored their own study by a respected Russian media scholar who pointed out that the VOA Russian Service had developed a “pro-Putin” bias. The same ones who ignored signs of crisis at Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and failed to alert BBG members. The same ones who in numerous Office of Personnel Management (OPM) employee surveys have been rated the worst managers in the federal government. The same ones responsible for the lowest employee morale among all similar federal agencies, according to the same OPM surveys. These are the same officials who wanted to end or reduce programs to China, Tibet, Russia, and to Chechnya, the homeland of the Boston terror bombings suspects.

Sources told us that board members have warned Director Lobo that he and his staff open the agency, which is charged with promoting media freedom abroad, to accusations of using double standards. These warnings, we are told, have been ignored. The latest news is that they failed to make a full audio recording of the last informal (Michael Lynton did not participate) BBG board meeting, as they were required to do. We are told that only a partial recording is available and that there is a gap or gaps in what was recorded. The apparently partial recording has not yet been released to the public and no reason was provided. Did one of the IBB officials say something that Americans would find appalling? Perhaps something on how to control information released to the American public or how to limit oversight by the BBG Board and Congress?

Americans have every reason to worry if these officials write and implement regulations on how the government will be distributing news content in the United States. Like former Soviet bureaucrats, they have tasted power and censorship and they like it. BBG members need to remove them from their decision-making positions if the U.S. international broadcasting agency is going to save its reputation, serve audiences in countries without free media, contribute to U.S. national security, and survive.

CUSIB Executive Director Ann Noonan at BBG's Feb. 2013 meeting

Ann Noonan, Executive Director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) gave an interview to Boxun.com, a Chinese website that covers international political news and human rights abuses in China, in which she condemned the targeting of dissidents’ children by the Chinese authorities. Noonan also defended Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) Chinese radio programs which are facing reductions due to U.S. budget cuts, but also due to arbitrary decisions by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the executive arm of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of these broadcasts.

“We believe that radio broadcast resources are invaluable, especially for the poorer people who live in China and for those who live in the countryside, and we will continue fight for these broadcasts to be maintained by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the US federal agency that has been trying to cut them, reduce them, and minimize their importance,” Ann Noonan told Boxun.com. “We will continue to appeal to the U.S. Congress to maintain and expand these radio broadcasts to China,” Noonan added.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting is a nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization working to strengthen free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries with restricted and developing media environments. CUSIB supports journalism in defense of media freedom and human rights by the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio and TV Marti, Radio Sawa, Alhurra TV and other U.S. taxpayer-funded media programs for international audiences produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

At a recent BBG meeting in Washington, Noonan made comments as a member of the public, in which she applauded members of the bipartisan BBG board, including Victor Ashe, Susan McCue and Michael Meehan, who are trying to reform the agency. She was at the same time critical of the IBB senior staff for resisting these reforms, mistreating employees, draining resources from programmers, cutting broadcasts and expanding its own bureaucracy. Speaking at the same meeting, Tim Shamble, president of the employee union, AFGE Local 1812, was also highly critical of senior IBB executives.

Another human rights activist interviewed by Boxun.com was a member of CUSIB’s Advisory Board, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers president Reggie Littlejohn. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is a broad-based, international coalition that opposes forced abortion and sexual slavery in China. Littlejohn is also a strong defender of U.S. radio broadcasting to China, as many of the women her organization tries to help live in the countryside, come from poor families, and cannot afford Internet access or buy and install devices designed to counter Internet censorship by the Chinese authorities.

Zhang Anni, Photo courtesy of Human Rights in China

In her comments for Boxun.com, Ann Noonan was reacting specifically to events in China on Feb. 27, when police arrived at the Hupo Primary school in Hefei city and took Zhang Anni, the daughter of activist Zhang Lin, out of class and brought her back home, sparking an online campaign to allow Zhang Anni to return to school.

The incident and the subsequent clashes between Zhang Anni supporters and unidentified assailants as the school officials refused to allow her to return to class were reported by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.

See: “Clashes as Activist’s Daughter Is Denied Schooling”, Radio Free Asia, April 8, 2013.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers website also reported on the plight of Zhang Anni, “China: Ten-Year-Old Girl Detained, Denied Food and Water.”

Photos of Zhang Anni and Zhang Lin were provided by another Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting Advisory Board member Jing Zhang, founder of Women’s Rights in China human rights NGO.

Ann Noonan’s comments were reported in English on Boxun.com, “China:Ten-Year-Old Girl Detained, Starved” and in Chinese, link. Boxun.com website has millions of visitors each month despite attempts by Chinese authorities to block it. They also block VOA and RFA websites. CUSIB supports Internet outreach and Internet censorship circumvention efforts by the BBG. CUSIB believes, however, that IBB’s attempts to reduce radio broadcasts are misguided and hurt Chinese human rights activists. According to CUSIB, these cuts are also unnecessary, as much greater savings could be achieved by shrinking and reforming the IBB bureaucracy.

Prior to founding the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting, Ann Noonan was President of the New York Chapter of the Visual Artists Guild. In 1999, she also founded Free Church for China, an NGO which researches and documents religious persecution in the PRC. Noonan was also a Senior Advisor at the Laogai Research Foundation, an NGO founded by another CUSIB member, Harry Wu, to gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai system of prison labor camps in China. Ann Noonan has been active in promoting women’s rights and religious freedom worldwide.

Comments for Boxun.com by Ann Noonan

Chinese dissident Zhang Lin, photo courtesy of Women's Rights in China

“My name is Ann Noonan and I am the Executive Director of the Committee for US International Broadcasting. I met Zhang Lin in 1998 in New York City. I remember that he was part of the Coalition for Pro-Democracy in China. On February 25, 1998, we held A Salute to Democracy in China and in New York Dinner.

New York City Former Mayor Ed Koch was the guest speaker, and many prestigious leaders attended. Among them were Laogai Research Foundation’s Harry Wu, and New York’s Central Labor Council former Secretary Ted Jacobsen.

Months later, we learned that Zhang Lin had returned to China and was arrested. In New York, we always refer to Zhang Lin as a tireless freedom fighter. When I served as the President of Free Church for China, we were sure to keep Zhang Lin’s profile in the public eye.

Most recently, we have learned that Zhang Lin’s daughter, Anni, has been singled out by China’s authorities. She has been humiliated by authorities who removed her from her school, detained her at the local police station for many hours, and have not allowed her to return to school.

Like many Americans, I am deeply concerned that any child should be denied an education because of the actions or inactions of their parents.

We at the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting have been fighting for media freedom for journalists who report on stories like these and stories about human rights abuse. When we recently learned that Voice of America radio broadcast services have been reduced using the excuse of sequestration, we raised our voices in Washington, DC and opposed any attempt to silence radio broadcasts to China.

We believe that radio broadcast resources are invaluable, especially for the poorer people who live in China and for those who live in the countryside, and we will continue fight for these broadcasts to be maintained by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the US federal agency that has been trying to cut them, reduce them, and minimize their importance. We will continue to appeal to the US Congress to maintain and expand these radio broadcasts to China.

I’d like to say “Hi!” to Zhang Lin’s daughter, Anni, and to let her and all of your listeners know that the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting hopes Anni’s story will be heard by girls and young women throughout the Untied States. We believe they will give you great support and friendship.

I hope they let you go back to school so you can study and learn as much as you want, and when you are an educated woman, I hope you will be able to use these experiences to make your country and our world a safer place for children and families to live.”

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Dinner in Washington

Judy Bachrach, Vanity Fair Photo

American journalist Judy Bachrach, who has previously reported on the firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Russia and the management crisis at the U.S. taxpayer-supported Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), published another article showing managerial mess at the media freedom institution even as its new acting president Kevin Klose is trying to reform it and restore its former prestige as a media freedom outlet for countries without free media. As Barchrach’s article, “Moscow on the Potomac” , World Affairs Journal, April 15, 2013, points out, Klose is facing a considerable managerial challenge in trying to do his job in Prague, the Czech Republic, where he is based, as do his bosses at the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a federal agency in Washington, DC.

In her latest article,  Bachrach reports how an American official in charge of U.S. government’s international broadcasts, BBG board member and former diplomat Victor Ashe, went to the Newseum in Washington, DC at 6:45 PM last Wednesday pursuant to his invitation for the Media for Liberty Award ceremony honoring Masha Gessen, was told he was not welcome and was asked to leave. The message apparently came from Masha Gessen herself.  In her official job, she works for him and American taxpayers as a mid-level manager at Radio Liberty. American taxpayers pay for her three figure salary and other job benefits, as they do for all of Radio Liberty’s programs, its journalists and other employees.

A contributing editor for Vanity Fair, former reporter for the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Star, The Washington Post and a professor of investigative journalism at John Cabot University, Judy Bachrach  had previously described  for World Affairs Journal the complete disintegration of  Radio Liberty in Russia, Kazakhstan and in other countries. BBG Watch was the first to report in the U.S. on the problems at RFE/RL. Judy Bachrach was the first mainstream U.S. media reporter to write about it. Ashe was the first BBG Governor to call attention to the crisis. With the eventual support from other board members, the board brought Kevin Klose in early 2013 to deal with a journalistic emergency, loss of audience, and a public diplomacy disaster. Klose, a former Washington Post correspondent in Moscow, had already been once RFE/RL president and later served as president of National Public Radio (NPR).

Victor Ashe

BBG Governor Victor Ashe (far left) presents an award to Voice of America Swahili Service, July 2012.

Victor Ashe is one of Masha Gessen’s bosses, not her immediate supervisor (Kevin Klose is), but a member of the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting which includes Radio Liberty. He received his invitation to the award event for Ms. Gessen not from her, but from Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media Corporation which gave the award to Gessen. But when he arrived with his invitation in hand, Judy Barchrach reported that he was stopped at the door and told that the guest of honor, Masha Gessen, did not want him to attend. “I’m sorry, but the guest of honor has requested that you not be admitted to the dinner,” Bachrach quotes one of the event’s organizers as telling Ambassador Ashe. The same message was repeated later by a Liberty Media Corporation employee.

Victor Ashe is a sixty-eight year old U.S. official who has spent most of his life in public service, including many years as a mayor of Knoxville, TN, and later as a U.S. Ambassador to Poland. A popular politician and respected diplomat, he has been honored many times for his service to his country and last year received the Bene Merito Award from Poland’s government for outstanding contributions to strengthening U.S.-Polish relations.

As one of the top officials in charge of U.S. international broadcasting, he has distinguished himself by his calls for greater transparency, demands for accountability from government managers and showing concern for improving poor employee morale at the Broadcasting Board of Governors. To the great discomfort of government bureaucrats running the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB)–the administrative arm of the agency–Ashe was instrumental in getting BBG open board meetings to be streamed online and published his email address and telephone number to invite comments from the public on how the U.S. could do a better job of communicating with audiences abroad. None of this made him popular with the agency’s executive staff, which launched an anonymous smear campaign against him, but other BBG members, BBG employees, their AFGE Local 1812 union, and media freedom NGOs came to his defense. Victor Ashe and two other board governors, Susan McCue and Michael Meehan, spearheaded major reforms at RFE/RL and at the BBG headquarters in Washington.

Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen is a Russian-American journalist and author of an English-language biography of Russia’s President Putin, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. She described and criticized him as a dictator, but her book also shows him as a strong leader and is the first one providing details of his personal life and presenting his human side to English readers.

In September 2012, President Putin had invited Gessen to a semi-private meeting at the Kremlin in an apparent effort to persuade her not to leave an editorial position at a geographic magazine, which he sponsors, over her refusal to cover one of his publicity stunts. Accounts vary, but Gessen apparently first accepted his request and then turned it down. There is no reliable account as to what else might have been discussed at that meeting, a point made by Judy Bachrach in her article. Shortly after her meeting with Putin, former RFE/RL president Steven Korn announced that Gessen will be working for Radio Liberty.

Since October 1, 2012, Gessen has been the director of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty. Her office is in Moscow, where she lives. Her housing allowance, as Judy Bachrach reports, is paid for by American taxpayers. While not technically employed by the U.S. government, Gessen is representing America to the Russian public. Her actions are closely watched by the Russians who are familiar with Radio Liberty, especially by independent journalists, human rights NGOs and anti-Putin political leaders. She is probably one of the most visible U.S. public diplomacy figures in Russia and the most controversial because of what happened to Radio Liberty. Mikhail Gorbachev, former reformist Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov are among many anti-Putin leaders who have criticized personnel and programming changes at Radio Liberty. Others, including the Moscow Helsinki Group Chairwoman Lyudmila Alexeeva, have sent protest letters to the Obama administration officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who was an ex officio BBG member, and to members of the U.S. Congress.

Problems Remain

Masha Gessen was being honored last Wednesday by a for-profit group of rich American investors, Liberty Media Corporation, not for her current work at Radio Liberty, but specifically for her article, “The Wrath of Putin,” which appeared in the April 2012 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. She was given a $50,000 prize.

It could have been also a nice publicity event for RFE/RL, her current employer, and for the BBG. Instead, the organizers restricted media coverage and the evening became yet another embarrassment for the U.S. government, as well as for the Liberty Media Corporation and its chairman John Malone.

This was a truly bizarre development, since Ashe is a presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) who has just been elected to be the co-chair of the corporate board of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, one of several U.S. taxpayer-supported media entities managed by the BBG. He was also just elected chairman of the  RFE/RL board’s Audit Committee. His job is to make sure that U.S. taxpayers’ money is well spent on Masha Gessen’s salary and the programs for Russia she produces.

As Ambassador Ashe was being told that he was a persona non grata at the event and that his invitation had been withdrawn, he was overheard saying that this sounded more like something which would happen in Moscow under Putin than here in the United States. Another BBG member who heard later about what happened to Victor Ashe reacted by describing the withdrawing of the invitation as bizarre and petty.

Several of his Washington friends, including former and current members of Congress who saw Ashe standing in the lobby, were asking why Masha Gessen would want to disinvite a distinguished American, a former U.S. Ambassador, and the vice chair of the public board she works for?

There are several possible answers to this question — none of them justifying the humiliating treatment of an outstanding public servant, but certainly raising serious doubts about Masha Gessen.

What Upset Masha Gessen?

Masha Gessen, RFERL website photo

While this does not justify what happened to Victor Ashe, he, Lyudmila Alexeeva and others may have upset Masha Gessen by defending the honor of dozens of Radio Liberty journalists who had been abruptly fired shortly before the previous management of RFE/RL gave Gessen her job and also hired some of her associates to fill some of the positions of the fired staff. Ashe, Alexeeva and others have also been highly critical of the man who had hired Gessen and later resigned, former RFE/RL president Steven Korn. Ashe had demanded his resignation and has been calling for returning the fired journalists to work at Radio Liberty. Many of them are well known and highly respected by pro-democracy Russians.

Their firing, which Ashe called a tragedy and apologized for it as an individual member of the BBG, has met with moral outrage in Russia. Nearly all leading human rights activists and anti-Putin politicians condemned it, but notably Masha Gessen failed to come to the journalists’ defense. She accused some of them of slandering her, a criminal offense in Putin’s Russia. Prior to accepting her permanent position, Gessen had worked as a private management consultant to former RFE/RL president Steven Korn who made the decision to fire the journalists, although he maintains that they all had resigned voluntarily and were treated with great respect. Afterwards, Masha Gessen made the following statement, which many Russians found incredulous.

”The firings of the staff and the change in its structure were planned quite some time ago. My arrival was only a part of that plan and not the reason for the firings.”

She also defended the decision to fire Radio Liberty journalists.

“I have no reason to doubt the correctness of decisions: everything I know about the process of decision-making, makes me think that the decisions are correct. The fact that they are taken not by me – is just a historical fact.”

According to Russian press reports, Masha Gessen has become alienated from most of the intellectual and independent media community which supports the fired group, now known as Radio Liberty in Exile and which now has its own Novaya Svoboda (New Liberty) website. Perhaps the most famous Russian human rights leader, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Lyudmila Alexeeva, said that Gessen does not understand the mission of Radio Liberty and should leave. The number of visitors to the Radio Liberty Russian website has dropped significantly, according to media reports. The station’s reputation and prestige evaporated.

All of these developments have become a big concern for Ashe and for some of his colleagues on the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Their response was the appointment of Kevin Klose, a distinguished journalist, media executive and professor of journalism, to deal with the crisis. As acting president of RFE/RL, Klose became Masha Gessen’s immediate boss. He had met in Moscow with representatives of the fired journalists and with Lyudmila Alexeeva and other Russian human rights leaders who support them. He invited Alexeeva to another meeting in Washington. He also received an invitation to participate the the Media for Liberty Award ceremony for Masha Gessen.

Detailed Account of What Happened at the Masha Gessen Event

This is an account of what happened pulled together from Judy Bachrach’s article, various other witnesses and sources, and Liberty Media Corporation statements.

Broadcasting Board of Governors member and vice-chair of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty corporate board Ambassador Victor Ashe arrived at the door of Newseum in Washington D.C. last Wednesday at about 6:45 PM, was stopped and told that his name is not on the list of invited guests. He had received the invitation for himself and one extra guest on March 15 from Greg Maffei, Liberty Media CEO. He had responded, accepted the invitation and informed Liberty Media that a journalist Judy Bachrach would accompany him. Bacharach had reported previously on the Radio Liberty crisis for the World Affairs Journal. While standing in the lobby, several people, including former Tennessee Congressman Bart Gordon and former assistant Defense Secretary Powell Moore, came by to greet Ashe and inquired what was the problem.

Ashe told them that he was not on the list and had to await a decision on his admittance from the event organizers. By this time, Kevin Klose, the new acting president and CEO of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty came by and stopped. He was surprised to see Ashe being barred from entering. Klose said he would wait with Ashe until the problem is resolved. He also said that would not attend the event if Ashe is not admitted. Klose is Gessen’s most immediate supervisor. He already knew that Victor Ashe has just been named the new vice chair of RFE/RL board and chair of its Audit Committee in addition to being a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors which has the ultimate authority over Radio Liberty.

Klose volunteered to the Liberty Media event organizers that he would give up his seat to allow Ashe to attend, but Ashe told Klose that he would not take his seat. (It turned out later that Klose was to be seated at the main table where the guest of honor Masha Gessen and Liberty Media Corporation president, billionaire John Malone, were also seated.)

Shortly thereafter, Heather Lipp of Liberty Media Corporation came back after apparently conferring with Masha Gessen and informed Victor Ashe that his invitation had been withdrawn and that the guest of honor Masha Gessen does not want him to attend. Ashe asked why he was not told much earlier about his invitation being rescinded as he had turned down other invitations to accept this one. Heather Lipp of Liberty Media said at that point that she had no record of Ashe responding. Ashe asked how Ms. Gessen could say she did not want him to attend if his name was not on the list. A guest asked whether Ms. Gessen was psychic.

By this time, Kevin Klose said he would go inside and speak directly to Masha Gessen, informing her that it was inappropriate to attempt to bar Ashe from attending when he had been invited by the event organizers and had a copy of the invitation with him. By this time, journalist Judy Bachrach had already arrived and was left standing with Ashe. She was also barred from entering.

Ashe commented that this sounded more like something that would happen in Moscow under Putin than here in the United States. Klose again indicated he would not attend if Ashe was barred.

Another 7 minutes went by and the total time spent at the front door awaiting for the powers to be to decide that to do with Ashe was about 20 minutes. While inside, Klose apparently did not talk to Gessen directly as she was in the company others and he was afraid that if he confronted her it could create a scene. He apparently asked one of the Liberty Media Corporation handlers to deliver his message to Gessen.

Klose (whose name on his handwritten name tag was misspelled as “Close”) then returned and informed Ashe that Gessen had relented and said she had no objection to his presence at the event. Ashe and Judy Bachrach finally got into the gala event where several VIPs, such as Senator Maria Cantwell (D – WA) and Senator Michael Bennett (D – CO) were attending along with Congressman James Clyburn (D – SC) of South Carolina and Congressman Mike Coffman (R – CO) of Colorado.

Ashe shrugged off the whole incident and the insult while Klose made fun of his name being misspelled as “Close.” Ashe later made fun of the incident with a comment “a funny thing happened to me on the way to dinner in Washington, DC.” Klose would not comment on the attempt to ban Ashe from the event, but said that Masha Gessen is a gifted reporter whose work is worthy of Vanity Fair, a statement that most people would not disagree with. Klose also said that he was glad that he and Ambassador Ashe were present at “a celebration of courageous personal journalism.”

Klose did not mention the award for Masha Gessen or the incident in his remarks later in the week at the open BBG board meeting in Washington. Normally, heads of BBG’s media entities brag to no end about such awards. Liberty Media Corporation has not yet posted anything on its website about the award for Masha Gessen. RFE/RL and BBG English-language websites also posted no press releases about the award for Gessen, but the RFE/RL English website had an announcement, “RFE/RL’s Gessen Honored For ‘Vanity Fair’ Putin-Khodorkovsky Profile,” slugged as “Communications / Kudos & Awards.” By calling it something else than a news story, editors apparently could justify not reporting on the incident with Ambassador Ashe or the ongoing controversy over the fired Radio Liberty journalists. The RFE/RL announcement quotes Kevin Klose:

“Masha Gessen’s detailed and enormously readable Vanity Fair article reveals a battleground where iron-willed men maneuver for advantage and retribution,” said RFE/RL’s Acting President and CEO Kevin Klose. “It’s a clear-eyed chronicle that informs and elucidates; it is both necessary and courageous.”

The RFE/RL announcement does not provide for readers to leave comments. (UPDATE: It appears that after we published this information, the article/announcement has been removed from the RFE/RL website.)

Gessen received a $50,000 check along with the Media for Liberty Award. About 70 persons were in attendance seated at 7 tables of 10 each.  The acoustics were not good and Gessen’s comments were barely audible along with John Stossel’s comments which lasted 20 minutes. Sources who had problems hearing her speech believe that Gessen did not mention the fired Radio Liberty journalists or they would have been told that she did.

Liberty Media Corporation Statements

Ms. Lipp of Liberty Media Corporation later said that “we apologized to Ambassador Ashe and his guest at the event. We regret this unfortunate situation and are pleased that they were able to attend the event.” Other sources told us that the only apology came for “a nice young man” working for an independent contractor who was responsible for setting up the event for Liberty Media.

Liberty Media issued the following explanation in response to media inquiries:

“Ms. Gessen is being honored for her article, “The Wrath of Putin,” which appeared in the April 2012 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, which we believe fit the criteria of the award — to explore the link between economic and political liberty – and was evaluated on specific criteria including relevance to the public discourse, educational value, mastery of the media format and thematic relevance.

We are aware, based on the reporting and opinion articles in public media, of the situation with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty in Russia, but it would be inappropriate for us to comment on those matters. To be clear, the focus of our panel was specifically and solely on Ms. Gessen’s article for Vanity Fair Magazine.

As it relates to the request for media credentials, we hope you will understand that this event is invitation only to persons in the media, political and other related fields.  There will be no working media in attendance at the event.  Therefore, we must decline your request for media accreditation to attend and cover the event.”

What Does This All Mean?

Ambassador Ashe’s comment that “this sounded more like something that would happen in Moscow under Putin than here in the United States” strikes us as being right on the mark, as does the tile of Ms. Bachrach’s article, “Moscow on the Potomac.”

An additional irony is that when Elena Vlasenko, one of the Radio Liberty journalists who had resigned in protest, received the Andrei Sakharov Award for Human Right Journalism, specifically for her online reporting, Gessen apparently justified not covering the ceremony by describing it as unfortunately a low profile news event in Russia.

At least prior to the publication of Bachrach’s article, Gessen apparently did not respond to any media requests for her comment about the incident at her award ceremony in Washington.

Ambassador Ashe is not the only person showing concern over the firing of Radio Liberty journalists. Other BBG members, including RFE/RL board chair Susan McCue, are also deeply alarmed and are working with Kevin Klose to solve the crisis.

Ann Noonan, Executive Director of the independent, volunteer Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) has repeatedly called for the reinstatement of the fired journalists, making several appeals at open BBG meetings. In a Russian media interview, Gessen lashed against Noonan, describing her activities and those of other American NGO’s members as “a trick with mirrors: they serve themselves, illuminate themselves, inflate scandal.” She reportedly also told Russian media after her patron Steven Korn had resigned that she will stay at Radio Liberty no matter what.

In commenting on the RFE/RL leaders who had dismissed Radio Liberty journalists, Freedom House president David Kramer said that “nothing short of major change is required, meaning a complete housecleaning of the top leadership.” “The damage they have done is immeasurable,” Kramer added.

Pussy Riot type protest poster in defense of fired Radio Liberty journalists.

Supporters of media freedom in Russia published a Pussy Riot type protest poster, calling on Liberty Media not to forget 40 fired Radio Liberty journalists as the American investment company honors Masha Gessen. The poster shows a naked young woman covering her chest with her arms and a sign: “Liberty Media, Don’t Forget 40 Fired RFE/RL Journalists in Russia.” Many of Radio Liberty journalists, except those hired by Masha Gessen, feel the same way and are not longer afraid to express these views in public.

But it appears that it was a comment like the one below from Ambassador Ashe in support of the fired Radio Liberty journalists that apparently got him in trouble with Masha Gessen.

Being a good reporter is not enough. Many of the fired Radio Liberty staffers are also outstanding, award-winning reporters, some of them far better known and certainly more respected in Russia for their independent journalistic work than Masha Gessen whose account of her meeting with President Putin was far from complete or well presented.

After years of dedicated service to America and democracy in Russia, these journalists were thrown on the street by the former American management of RFE/RL, not even allowed to say good bye to their radio and online audiences of many years. They are gifted and brave, but most of them have no chance to make a living as independent reporters under President Putin’s rule unless they are allowed to return to Radio Liberty.

The question to be asked is not who is a good reporter but who has good judgement, good managerial and people skills, trust and support of the pro-democracy public in Russia and ability to lead the Russian Service of Radio Liberty as president Putin continues to clamp down on media freedom. The bizarre and embarrassing incident last Wednesday, it seems to us, provides at least part of the answer to this question. As suggested by Lyudmila Alexeeva and others, Masha Gessen should leave as a manager at Radio Liberty and use her talents as a writer and reporter elsewhere. Practically every independent Russian journalist, human rights activist and opposition leader agrees that this is the only way to save Radio Liberty’s important role an alternative source of news and commentary in Putin’s Russia.

BBG Governor Victor Ashe Commenting on the Fired Radio Liberty Journalists

“We cannot let the tragic events at the Moscow Bureau over the past six months go unmentioned. As one Board member, As one individual Governor, I want to apologize for what happened. I can assure you the Board was never informed in any significant way as to what happened. That does not lessen the scope or the manner in which decisions were made and implemented. I feel with Kevin Klose, RFE/RL has a new leader who generates confidence and deserves our support as he works to deal with the situation.” — Victor Ashe, BBG Governor

Get to Know Some of the Fired Radio Liberty Journalists and Their Colleagues Who Resigned in Protest

Watch this Radio Liberty in Exile’s “US CONGRESS HELP US” video on YouTube.

by Ted Lipien

CNO2 album by the Polish rap group Slums Attack and guest European musicians includes a tribute to Radio Free Europe.

Truckee - Led by Peja of the Polish rap group Slums Attack, Europe’s rappers recorded a multilingual tribute to political and cultural freedom message of the American-funded station Radio Free Europe.

Using historical film footage of Radio Free Europe broadcasters, rappers from several European countries make statements similar to dissident voices heard on the station before the fall of the Iron Curtain. During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe broadcast both news commentary and music, which communists in Poland and other Soviet-dominated nations tried unsuccessfully to silence through jamming of radio signals.

But in today’s unusable and not much freer world, the station’s important message of freedom to nations which continue to suffer under authoritarian regimes is becoming unfortunately much weaker due to decreased U.S. funding and growing indifference in America to showing solidarity with dissidents who fight for their rights in countries like China, Iran and Russia. The song recorded by Slums Attack and other European rappers serves above all as a reminder that the struggle against political oppression and against banality of popular culture which ignores this struggle, is both timeless and universal.

“Radio Wolna Europa” (Radio Free Europe) is the first single of the Slums Attack latest album “CNO2” released in mid-September 2012. The video for the song was recorded in Poland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy. It includes guest appearances by DeFuckTo (Czech Republic), Azyl (Germany), Sniper (Lithuania), Clementino (Italy), R-MC and Loo (Belgium), Shazaam (Sweden), Hijack (UK) and Gandzior (Poland).

(…)

Americans have forgotten how effective dissident voices from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Voice of America (VOA) were in peacefully transforming unfree societies at a minimal cost. But as powerful as it is, the message of dissent, human rights and freedom cannot be delivered completely for free and without upsetting foreign powers like Russia and China, or even the White House and the State Department. Europe’s rappers’ tribute to RFE serves as a reminder that while Central and Eastern Europe are now largely democratic, many less fortunate nations still need a platform for uncensored, dissident voices and a show of solidarity from America.

Ted Lipien listened to Radio Free Europe while growing up in communist-ruled Poland and later served as Voice of America (VOA) acting associate director. He is a co-founder of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB).

READ MORE of the original Digital Journal article: “Op-Ed: America could learn from rappers’ tribute to Radio Free Europe” by Ted Lipien.

Lidove Noviny, a daily Czech newspaper, published a commentary wondering whether the new acting Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Kevin Klose is taking steps to end discrimination against foreign journalists working at the U.S. taxpayer-supported media freedom institution.

A Lidove Noviny commentator, Leonid Panov, wrote that BBG Watch, an American NGO, expects Kevin Klose to address concerns raised by such human rights organization as the Czech Helsinki Committee. BBG Watch reported that new personnel and policy decisions are expected at RFE/RL under the new leadership.

RFE/RL announced this week that two of its top executives, who played a key management role before the arrival of Kevin Klose, have resigned. Klose also announced the appointment of an Interim Management Council to advise him and facilitate the operations of RFE/RL.

In his article in Lidove Noviny, “New President, Old Problems,” the commentator summarized what the Czech Helsinki Committee wrote in an open letter to Kevin Klose:

“In February, you came to Prague as RFE/RL interim Acting President with the task to save moral and political reputation of the radio station. … We would like to ask you to promote the ending of the court cases brought by Mrs. Karapetian and Mrs. Pelivan with an amicable settlement and to promote the change of discriminatory labor policies damaging, in our opinion, the reputation of RFE/RL.

The case of an Armenian citizen Anna Karapetian, mother of three minor children, is presently in the Czech Supreme Court. A Croatian national, Snjezana Pelivan, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, accusing the Czech Republic of failing to protect her rights against violations by American RFE/RL. Hundreds of foreigners employed at the RFE/RL Prague headquarters, are working in a legal vacuum. Neither American nor Czech labor laws are applicable to them. Standard employment agreements provided to them by RFE/RL, the Czech Helsinki Committee calls ‘immoral’ and representing ‘an act of fraud’.

The Lidove Noviny commentator noted that foreign media reported on the letter signed by the Czech Helsinki Committee Chairperson Anna Sabatova who is a winner of the United Nations Human Rights Award. A Zagreb daily The Croatian Times called the letter “sharply-worded.” Groog, an Armenian information portal, noted that “Radio Free Europe violates the same rights it proclaims.”

Deprived of any legal defense in the Czech Republic, RFE/RL’s foreign employees can be fired at any time without being told why, without any prior warning, without any preliminary disciplinary measures if such are called for, and even without any severance pay for years of service should they disagree with such an arbitrary treatment and refuse to give up in writing their right of appeal. It is exactly in that fashion that Anna Karapetian and Snjezana Pelivan were fired, the commentator wrote in Lidove Noviny. They were not the first or the last ones, Leonid Panov pointed out.

“In a short time, it shall become clear if that situation is going to change during the tenure of Kevin Klose, RFE/RL new president. For now, everything at RFE/RL remains the same,” the Lidove Noviny commentator concluded.

BBG Watch reported, quoting inside sources within Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees RFE/RL, that Kevin Klose is woking on resolving the issue of the second class legal status of RFE/RL foreign employees in the Czech Republic. BBG Watch also reported quoting the same sources that Klose is working on re-hiring Radio Liberty journalists who were fired by the former RFE/RL management in Russia.

Kevin Klose is a distinguished journalist and media executive who had already served as RFE/RL president in the 1990s. He was also a top executive at the National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States. The BBG appointed him to resolve the Radio Liberty crisis in Russia and to reform the management structure. He has met in Moscow with representatives of fired journalists and with human rights leaders who defend them, including Nobel Peace Prize nominee Lyudmila Alexeeva. Most of them came from the meeting convinced that Kevin Klose will put a stop to rights violations at RFE/RL and will invite fired journalists to return to Radio Liberty.

Writing about the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Robert Schadler, a senior fellow for Public Diplomacy at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC, noted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the BBG despite having been a board member in charge of U.S. International broadcasting throughout her tenure at the State Department:

“Yet one can’t help but wonder if her tenure would have been far better had she exercised a bit more attention to a board she sat on—and which has been excoriated recently by Mrs. Clinton’s own department as dysfunctional and badly damaging to key foreign policy interests of the United States.”

Schadler focuses on the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report, which while grossly inaccurate and biased–it was essentially written by bureaucrats wanting to take control and authority away from the BBG broad–it does note that some BBG members fail “to prepare for and attend Board meetings,” and that at their meetings there has been a lack of “any discussion of overall U.S. Government policy priorities in relation to the world media.”

Schadler did not note that despite the OIG’s scathing criticism of absentee BBG members, the board’s interim presiding governor Michael Lynton was once again absent during the board’s last meeting in Washington on February 22. Because of Lynton’s absence and the fact that the meeting was not announced in the Federal Register, the last week’s session was not an official board meeting. But the alternative presiding chair Dennis Mulhaupt did an excellent job of leading the discussion.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine, who now represents Secretary Kerry at BBG meetings, asked astute broadcasting policy questions. BBG members also welcomed Kevin Klose as the new acting president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The board gave him a mandate to repair the damage to RFE/RL’s reputation as a serious journalistic institution caused by the former management team in Prague and BBG’s own bureaucratic staff in the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) in Washington.

Despite Michael Lynton’s absences, it appears that the rest of the BBG board is finally taking steps to bring the BBG/IBB bureaucracy to account for its past spectacular failures and to provide new direction and oversight for U.S. international broadcasting. BBG members are also looking for a new permanent General Counsel in an attempt to help them change the culture of top management’s hostility toward employees and their unions and to put a stop to discrimination against foreign born journalists and contractors. Some BBG members want to find a lawyer who is familiar with human rights and public diplomacy issues, sources told BBG Watch.

In the U.S. News & World Report blog, Robert Schadler expressed hope that Secretary of State Kerry will do a better job than Hillary Clinton as an ex offico member of the BBG:

“Yet during her tenure as secretary of state, it was Mrs. Clinton herself who lacked the vision, and the perseverance, to correct this state of affairs. Let’s hope that her successor at the State Department, former Massachusetts senator John Kerry, does better. Because, as the past decade of conflict in the Middle East has demonstrated convincingly, allowing the jihadist narrative to fill the void costs lives.”

“Hillary Clinton’s Unfinished Business at the Broadcasting Board of Governors,” Robert Schadler, U.S. News & World Report (blog)

BBG Watch fully agrees. Specialized reporting by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and other surrogate broadcasters to countries facing severe state censorship and human rights abuses is too important to be undermined by attempts of Washington bureaucrats to centrally control such U.S. government-funded broadcasting organizations and to deny them adequate funding.

Surrogate broadcasters like Radio Free Asia (RFA) provide local news content and specialization that other broadcasters, including the Voice of America (VOA), which is important for other reasons, simply cannot offer. Voice of America is important because it offers an authoritative presentation of American policies and opinions, which is critical for countries like North Korea, whose regime is both unpredictable and controls nuclear weapons. Radio Free Asia has a much more focused mission of in reporting on and analyzing internal political, social and economic developments in North Korea. Both missions are important in keeping the population of North Korea informed about both external and internal developments that affect the lives and security of both North Korea and the United States. For countries like North Korea, with no internal free media or political freedoms, Radio Free Asia plays a very important role, as noted in The New York Times editorial.

Lívia Pontes Fialho, a policy researcher intern at the American Security Project, analyzes in the ASP FLASHPOINT BLOG recent changes in distribution and content of U.S. taxpayer-funded Radio Liberty programs for Russia.

She correctly points out that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has been “traditionally associated with good journalism by producing objective news.” She then observes:

“In the wake of recent measures taken by Vladimir Putin’s government, such as the ban on USAID’s operations in the country, and the enforcement of a media law restricting foreign ownership of broadcast outlets, Radio Liberty has shifted its strategy significantly. In the Moscow office, staff was reduced to almost half as RL has begun to emphasize digital platforms instead of air-waves to spread its content.”

Lívia Pontes Fialho’s analysis focuses largely on changes in program delivery and distribution of Radio Liberty. She also briefly alludes to the resulting changes in program profile and content, which–as BBG Watch has often pointed out–are even more significant and damaging for Radio Liberty. There is a completely erroneous impression created by the former RFE/RL management team that the Russian Service was not doing or was not capable of doing digital media. Not only the fired team had a highly successful multimedia platform with outstanding news content, it also had some of the best, award-winning multimedia professionals in Russia. Even after they were forced out of Radio Liberty, they received awards for their previous online Radio Liberty reporting.

In her article, Lívia Pontes Fialho does not address personnel changes after the mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. BBG Watch has pointed out before that by replacing much of the serious political and civic journalism with the lowest common denominator journalism, the previous RFE/RL management team and the current Russian Service director Masha Gessen have nearly destroyed Radio Liberty’s brand and reputation in Russia and in other countries.

It is also important to point out that this happened before the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency overseeing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, named Kevin Klose, a distinguished journalist, to be acting president of RFE/RL. He will no doubt try to repair the damage and was directed to do so by the BBG.

Also in her short but insightful article, Lívia Pontes Fialho writes about the damage to Radio Liberty’s reputation and effectiveness in Russia, but she does not focus specifically how the damage is compounded by the current boycott of Radio Liberty by nearly all leading Russian human rights and political opposition leaders. BBG Watch has been reporting that these prominent Russian democrats do not want to have anything to do with Radio Liberty after the mass dismissal of journalists and the transformation of programming since Masha Gessen took over in October 2012. Radio Liberty, also known now in Russia as Radio Gessen, has lost online visitors to its website and counts among its critics Mikhail Gorbachev and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Lyudmila Alexeeva.

Lívia Pontes Fialho points to the change in program delivery platforms as perhaps the main cause of damage to Radio Liberty’s brand. Her observation is correct if seen in the larger context of the new programming philosophy adopted by the previous RFE/RL top management and Masha Gessen.

“the firing of journalists by the radio’s management has been met with protest and hurt the station’s credibility. The attempt to regain relevance is legitimate but doing so, using online tools, without taking into account the effects on a well-regarded brand and on the actual audience may backfire instead.”

BBG Watch has been reporting that while there was a change in program delivery of Radio Liberty (the loss of the AM frequency in Moscow and the loss of outstanding programs produced by the fired journalists), the dismissed Radio Liberty team already had a highly successful website and was using all digital formats far better than the new team, which–according to Russian media article–lacks substantive experience in both news reporting and using multimedia platforms.

Illustration for Radio Liberty Russian Service story on topless bars and online romance

Lívia Pontes Fialho does note the negative fallout form the dismissal of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. What in fact also destroyed Radio Liberty’s brand and reputation was not only the loss of these multimedia professionals but the loss of reports and analyses they produced not only for radio but also for the web and replacing them and their well-regarded content with soft stories and even some that can only be described as tabloid journalism.

It is important to note that the new RFE/RL acting president Kevin Klose, who assumed his position on January 26, said that he supports “fact-based, quality, reliable, independent, verifiable journalism.” Hopefully, he will soon address some of the problems highlighted in Lívia Pontes Fialho’s excellent analysis.

BBG Watch would like to point out that it is refreshing and encouraging at the same time to see a young foreign journalist from Brazil, working for a prestigious Washington think tank, which has John Kerry, the new Secretary of State and the newest BBG member, on its board of directors, correctly identifying and analyzing U.S. international broadcasting and public diplomacy issues in Russia far better than some of the BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) senior managers.

These high-level government bureaucrats had allowed the Radio Liberty crisis to develop and ignored it for months until they were forced to act by concerned BBG governors. Not only did they not warn BBG members that there was something fundamentally wrong with the situation of Russia, but some of them even tried to get these presidential appointees to publicly endorse discredited RFE/RL managers. Fortunately, BBG members did not take their advice and instead took note of protests and appeals from Gorbachev, Alexeeva, other Russian democratic politicians and human rights leaders, as well as heads of U.S. human rights and media freedom NGOs.

READ MORE: Public Diplomacy and Online Platforms: Radio Liberty’s Case – By Lívia Pontes Fialho – FLASHPOINT BLOG, American Security Project, February 6, 2013

Lívia Pontes Fialho, the author of the article for American Security Project’s FLASHPOINT BLOG, is an ASP intern and an M.A. candidate in International Communication at American University’s School of International Service. Her research interests are primarily public diplomacy, discourse and intercultural relations. Originally from Brazil, she holds a B.A. in Communication and Journalism. She has worked in public relations and as a reporter for Portuguese and English-language publications.

The American Security Project (ASP) is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization based in Washington, D.C. Its board of directors is chaired by former Senator Gary Hart and includes Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense nominee Senator Chuck Hagel.

The Huffington Post, ranked #1 on the 15 Most Popular Political Sites list in the United States, has published an article by its Senior Media Reporter Michael Calderone on the Radio Liberty crisis, “Kevin Klose, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President, Hopes To Repair Russia Rift.”

The article includes quotes from Kevin Klose, former RFE/RL president and current CEO and president of the Legatum Institute Jeffrey Gedmin, former RFE/RL executive editor John O’Sullivan, and from the BBG Watch site published by former and current Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employees and other supporters of U.S. international broadcasting.

Radio Liberty in Exile Facebook Page and New Liberty SvobodaNew.com Photo

Michael Calderone quotes Kevin Klose as saying that he takes recent criticism and concerns from former Radio Liberty employees who were fired by his predecessor Steven Korn seriously, plans to look at ‘every issue and every piece’ of the Radio Liberty Russian Service before deciding the best way to move forward, but isn’t wiling to speak yet about how he’ll mend fences in Moscow.

Calderone quotes Jeffrey Gedmin as saying about Kevin Klose, “He’s going to have to develop his own strategy to fix it, and I don’t want be melodramatic, but it will take years for wounds to heal…People feel very damaged and very betrayed.”

Calderone quotes John O’Sullivan as saying, “like to see him [Kevin Klose] hire as many of the former RFE/RL people who have not got other good jobs and who want to come back.” That would include journalists who’ve since formed Radio Liberty in Exile. O’Sullivan said he’s “all in favor of competition,” but “these are people who’d be working with us, not in a position of opposition to us.”

The article also mentions BBG Watch.

We should point out that this is not just BBG Watch’s position but also that of nearly all leading Russian human rights activists and opposition political leaders, including Lyudmila Alexeeva (Alekseyeva) and Mikhail Gorbachev. Alexeeva, who has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, wrote recently to Kevin Klose.

Lyudmila Alexeeva, the head of the human rights Moscow Helsinki Group, strongly urged Kevin Klose to bring back the fired journalists and to restore their political and human rights programs.

In his article in The Huffington Post, Michael Calderone does not focus on the Russian human rights and democratic opposition movement’s views on the new leadership of Radio Liberty’s Russian Service installed by former RFE/RL president Steven Korn and his deputy Julia Ragona. He quotes, however, from World Affairs Journal article by Judy Bachrach who recently wrote that Korn, top aide Julia Ragona, and director of the Russian Service Masha Gessen had “wrecked an outfit that for decades has provided, as its name suggests, liberty.”

Korn who had left his RFE/RL post and Ragona who is still there insist that all Radio Liberty journalists resigned voluntarily and were treated with utmost respect. RFE/RL security guards had escorted the journalists out of their Moscow office and prevented them from saying good bye to their radio and online audiences of many years.

READ MORE: Kevin Klose, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President, Hopes To Repair Russia Rift – By Michael Calderone – The Huffington Post – February 5, 2013.

When one hears of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comment that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is “defunct” or the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report that the BBG is “dysfunctional,” it is important to know that while presidentially appointed bipartisan BBG members may have allowed it to happen, those who brought United States international broadcasting to this sorry state are permanent bureaucrats working for the BBG’s administrative and technical arm, the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB). They are the ones to bear most of the blame for the crisis at the agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting and at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), one of its several entities.

If anything, members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (Hillary Clinton was an ex officio BBG member.) acted, albeit late, to solve the Radio Liberty crisis by forcing former RFE/RL president Steven Korn to resign (Korn claims he left on his own.) and appointing a distinguished journalist Kevin Klose to take his place.

The removal of Korn, who fired dozens of outstanding Radio Liberty journalists in Russia in a swift operation that involved using security guards (Korn claims all journalists resigned voluntarily and were treated with utmost respect.), would not have happened without having the presidentially appointed Board reasserting its authority over the IBB staff. This made IBB bureaucrats very angry. They failed to alert the Board to the growing crisis at RFE/RL and later tried to defend RFE/RL managers who ruined Radio Liberty’s effectiveness and reputation in Russia and in a few other countries, including Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Three recent articles in U.S. media make some of these point. They appeared in both liberal and conservative media outlets. U.S. international broadcasting has always enjoyed strong bipartisan support.

Just as BBG members began to take their duties seriously after some of the less engaged and absentee governors had resigned last year, IBB bureaucrats — the worst managers in the federal govrnment according to OPM surveys — have launched an unprecedented attack on the authority of the Board and on individual members who dared to question them. As some of these U.S. media articles explain, IBB executives did it in a typical Washington bureaucratic fashion by stealth and surrogate character assassination aimed at some of the most active and effective BBG members and media critics of IBB bureaucracy. It appears, however, that the bureaucrats have overreached and their attacks have backfired. They are being increasingly seen as the ones responsible for creating one of the greatest public relations and public diplomacy crises in the history of U.S. international broadcasting.

A Very Washington Scandal – By John O’Sullivan – The Corner – National Review Online, February 5, 2013

Static at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – Jackson Diehl – The Washington Post – February 3, 2013

Subdued by the tube – By Martha Bayles – The Boston Globe – January 20, 2013

The appointment of Kevin Klose to lead Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a more active and assertive BBG Board offer some hope for further reforms. But the IBB senior bureaucracy doesn’t like it. BBG Watch reported that in one of the most bizarre displays of Washington bureaucratic arrogance, The Washington Post‘s deputy editorial page editor and one of the newspaper’s most experienced foreign correspondents Jackson Diehl was immediately attacked in a private blog by an IBB staffer who is known to be close to some of his bosses.

The idea that an obscure IBB staffer would accuse Jackson Diehl, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 2011 and recipient of the Overseas Press Association award for his coverage of the Solidarity movement’s struggle for democracy in Poland, of being easily deceived and “swallowing whole the story that was given to him” is nothing short of incredible and shows a true nature and quality of the IBB bureaucracy. By the way, Kevin Klose was for many years associated with The Washington Post and worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in Moscow before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

As for IBB executives, they continue to withhold critical information from BBG members and refuse to carry out the Board’s orders with which they don’t agree, a well-informed source told BBG Watch. But BBG members are no longer taking it lying down. Rather than a CEO, who would become part of the bureaucracy, what the Board needs is a strong Chief of Staff who would enforce the Board’s decisions.

The Board should also work to abolish the International Broadcasting Bureau with its numerous high-paying positions and turn the combined BBG/IBB into a lean, non-bureaucratic agency which would be responsive directly to presidentially-appointed members and the U.S. Congress. U.S. taxpayers would save a lot of money and U.S. international broadcasting would emerge stronger and more effective without the bureaucrats who have made parts of it defunct and dysfunctional.

But it is also important to point out positive signs. The dysfunction at the IBB level is beginning to be addressed, or so we hope. Despite all odds and despite being micromanaged by IBB–the worst managers in the federal government–in many areas of the world U.S. international broadcasters and individual USIB journalists are doing a tremendous job of overcoming censorship and strengthening media freedom. They need all the support they can get from BBG members.

Jackson Diehl

Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Post, whose extensive experience in reporting on foreign affairs includes work as the paper’s correspondent in Poland during Solidarity’s struggle for democracy, concluded in today’s op-ed article that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting, has “drastically reduced the audience and credibility of U.S. broadcaster Radio Liberty, driving a wedge between it and some of Russia’s most renowned human rights activists and journalists.”

Diehl points out, however, that the BBG took steps to remedy the situation by selecting Kevin Klose to run Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), “though the damage will be hard to undo.”

Diehl also commented on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks in her final appearance before Congress as secretary of state that “we have abdicated the broadcasting arena. . . . Our Broadcasting Board of Governors is practically defunct in terms of its capacity to be able to tell a message around the world.”

Diehl agrees with many critics of the recent State Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report that the BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executive staffers persuaded gullible inspectors that a BBG member who actually tried to make IBB officials accountable for their failures and substandard performance should be blamed for the problems at the agency.

Diehl observed that the Russians, whose freedoms are being more and more restricted under President Putin, “don’t need or want another Internet site pushing a mix of fluff and social commentary.”

READ MORE: Static at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The Washington Post, February 3, 2013

Shakirov is receiving media attention for taking with him to the Auschwitz concentration camp two young Russian women who had become famous in Russia for admitting in a television show that they knew nothing about the World War II Jewish Holocaust.

The Russian media is reporting on this story, pointing out that Shakirov was fired from Radio Liberty last September along with dozens of experienced journalists. Shakirov had proposed the Holocaust video project to the previous Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) management team, but his request was ignored. New president of RFE/RL Kevin Klose was appointed a few days ago, but most members of the previous management team are still working at the U.S.-funded media freedom broadcaster.

Mumin Shakirov, Kholokost, klei dlia oboev? Sovershenno sekretno, January 28, 2013

Zhurnalist otvez ne znavshikh pro Kholokost devushek v Osvencim, Sinagoga, January 31, 2013

“Sovershenno sekretno” i zhurnalist Mumin Shakirov ne davali soglasiia Radio Svoboda, Sovershenno
sekretno, Novaia Svoboda, January 31, 2013

Mumin Shakirov: “Bez uvolennykh sotrudnikov ‘Svobody’ sokhranit’ vysokii uroven’ nevozmozhno,” Colta, Novaia Svoboda, February 1, 2013

Robert Coalson, After Aushwitz Visit, Russian Sisters Know What “Holocaust” Means, Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, January 30, 2013

In Which Two Russian Sisters Find Out About the Holocaust, The Atlantic, January 31, 2013

RFER/RL Coverage of Holocaust Video Project Raises Questions, BBG Watch, February 1, 2013

Ne znavshie pro Kholokost devushki popali v Osventsim, DELFI, February 1, 2013

Youth in Moscow Learn True Value of Education on Jewish Holocaust, Women News Network, February 1,
2013

Gessen Website Ignores Story on Holocaust Video, BBG Watch, February 2, 2013

Russian media reports also focused recently on the appointment of Kevin Klose to become RFE/RL acting president. He has replaced Steven Korn who was responsible for the mass firings of Radio Liberty journalists. Korn resigned on December 31, 2013.

Last September, Steven Korn assured members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting, that the controversy over his decision to fire Radio Liberty journalists and to appoint Masha Gessen as the Russian Service director will blow over in two weeks. The far from complete BBG Watch list of Russian and international media reports on the Radio Liberty crisis has now 470 items.

BBG Watch List of Russian and International Media on Radio Liberty Crisis, Feb. 02, 2013, PDF

Mumin Shakirov

The Russian Service website of Radio Liberty has ignored the widely reported story of a new video in Russia showing a recent visit to the Nazi concentration camp by two young women who were previously ignorant about the World War II Jewish Holocaust.

The video was shot by an award-winning filmmaker Mumin Shakirov who had been fired from Radio Liberty last September.

Despite great interest shown in the story by independent media in Russia, Masha Gessen, the new director of the Russian Service, has not reported on the Holocaust video project in any of the articles on the service’s redesigned website, based on a site search conducted by BBG Watch Saturday morning Moscow time. BBG Watch was not able to check audio reports on the site.

Gessen’s associates have replaced Shakirov and dozens of other experienced Radio Liberty journalists fired last September. Their firing produced an outrage among human rights activists and opposition leaders in Russia.

The English-language website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) had a report on the Holocaust video story, but it failed to mention that Mumin Shakirov had been fired by the previous RFE/RL management team which had also ignored his requests to film the project in Auschwitz for Radio Liberty.

The Russian news magazine Sovershenno secretno, which published some images and a video trailer from the visit to Auschwitz, reported that RFE/RL did not have permission to use their copyrighted material. This, however, would not have prevented Masha Gessen from simply reporting on the story, as it did not stop the RFE/RL English website from reporting on it.

Women News Network had the details of how the story originated from the RFE/RL English-language website:

“It was something of a wake-up call for many in Russia. In December 2011, a pair of pretty, articulate, 20-year-old twins from Vladimir Oblast were asked on a television game show, ‘What is the Holocaust?’ The two consulted together for a few awkward moments. One of them admitted frankly that the term ‘says nothing to them.’ Finally, with time running short, Yevgenia Karatygina turns to the camera and says, ‘We think that the Holocaust is wallpaper paste.’”

While still employed by RFE/RL, Mumin Shakirov brought the two young women to Radio Liberty for interviews after their famous TV appearance. He also suggested to the RFE/RL management taking them to the site of the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz and doing a video project about the visit for Radio Liberty. His request was ignored. After he was fired a short time later, Shakirov obtained support for the project from a Polish foundation and a Russian independent news magazine.

Masha Gessen's Radio Liberty website tries to attract a young audience in Russia with such images

“That Masha Gessen would not devote a website article on Radio Liberty’s Russian Service to this very important story for the young generation of Russians who are growing up ignorant of the Jewish Holocaust is simply incredible,” said one former U.S. international broadcaster. “This kind of news coverage and analysis is exactly what Radio Liberty has always been doing and what American taxpayers still expect it to do,” he added.

“Let’s not forget that Radio Liberty is fully funded by U.S. taxpayers. Also keep in mind that the website of “Radio Gessen,” as Radio Liberty is now derisively called in Russia, has enough space for stories of romantic online adventures and dangers of a meat-heavy diet, which are illustrated with images of semi-nude women, but Masha Gessen says that, for example, the Andrei Sakharov human rights journalism awards are a low profile event in Russia and not worth of coverage by this American-funded station. We have to assume that she also considers the Holocaust video project a low profile media event,” a former broadcaster commented.

Mumin Shakirov told the Russian news platform Colta.ru that without bringing back the fired journalists, Radio Liberty cannot regain its former high journalistic standards.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting, has appointed a distinguished journalist Kevin Klose as acting president of RFE/RL. He replaces Steven Korn who ordered the firing of Shakirov and dozens of other Radio Liberty journalists.

Russian-language media reports on Mumin Shakirov Auschwitz Holocaust video project:

Mumin Shakirov, Kholokost, klei dlia oboev? Sovershenno sekretno, January 28, 2013

Zhurnalist otvez ne znavshikh pro Kholokost devushek v Osvencim, Sinagoga, January 31, 2013

“Sovershenno sekretno” i zhurnalist Mumin Shakirov ne davali soglasiia Radio Svoboda, Sovershenno
sekretno, Novaia Svoboda, January 31, 2013

Mumin Shakirov: “Bez uvolennykh sotrudnikov ‘Svobody’ sokhranit’ vysokii uroven’ nevozmozhno,” Colta, Novaia Svoboda, February 1, 2013

Korn and Gessen dismissed protests from famous Russian human rights and political opposition leaders like Lyudmila Alexeeva and Mikhail Gorbachev, but the controversy only intensified and attracted even more media attention, first mostly in Russia and in some of the former Soviet republics, and then in the United States.

The BBG Watch’s far from complete List of Russian and International Media Reports on the Radio Liberty Crisis has now well over 400 items.

One of the more interesting recent reports is from the state-run Voice of Russia.

No ‘soft journalism’ for Radio Liberty, Voice of Russia, Jan. 22, 2013.

The Voice of Russia report describes the appeal to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the designated interim RFE/RL president Kevin Klose from fired and current Radio Liberty Russian Service journalists who are defending their reputation.

BBG Watch List of Russian and International Media Reports on the Radio Liberty Crisis, January 23, 2013.

The outgoing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president and CEO Steven Korn, whose resignation becomes effective January 25, blasted his media critics in an interview with the English-language Czech newspaper The Prague Post. See: “Battle of words: RFE/RL chief’s controversial resignation reverberates in Russia and beyond,” Andrew Greene, The Prague Post, Jan. 23, 2013.

Korn claims that he is resigning purely for personal reasons to be with his family in Atlanta, but media reports suggest that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) members who had hired him in 2011 have asked him to leave.

Korn denies that he has been forced out and the BBG is not commenting. He will be replaced by former RFE/RL president and former NPR executive Kevin Klose, whom the BBG named the interim president and CEO. Klose will assume his duties on January 26 after Korn leaves the day before.

As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president, Korn’s primary responsibility was to defend media freedom in countries like Russia and to counter attempts to silence journalists criticizing local regimes by reporting on their persecution and giving them a forum in RFE/RL programs.

Korn, however, was not shy in lashing out against media critics of his own actions at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Numerous media outlets and bloggers in Russia, the U.S., Great Britain and in other countries have been highly critical of his management of RFE/RL. A BBG Watch list includes over 400 articles.

Korn was also criticized by heads of some U.S. human rights and media NGOs, including Freedom House president David Kramer and the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) executive director Ann Noonan.

“Some former employees at the embattled international broadcasting service have accused Steve Korn of gross mismanagement and say his tenure was ‘disastrous.’ In an exclusive interview with The Prague Post, the former lawyer has hit back at his critics and says he may even take legal action against them,” the Czech newspaper reported.

“He was feared and disliked by most employees. His self-serving letter of resignation sets a new standard for arrogance and delusion,” said BBG member Ambassador Victor Ashe. “His hiring was a terrible mistake we will spend years recovering from,” The Prague Post reported

His time in the job has been marred by controversy after he dismissed dozens of Moscow-based staff working for Radio Liberty’s Russian-language service, Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty), the Czech English-language newspaper also reported.

“This dismissal wasn’t voluntary — neither for me nor for my colleagues,” wrote Veronika Bode, one of the sacked reporters. “We were treated by these RFE/RL American executives like common thieves. … The whole old team of the Moscow bureau was fired — brave people, real human rights activists who for many years led the fight for human dignity. … We suffered a huge moral[e] damage.”

Korn told The Prague Post that his managers acted fairly and generously, and argues that after RFE/RL’s license was not renewed, there was no other choice but to shut down the radio signal and lay off employees.

“We didn’t have an option. We looked long and hard over a nine-month period with several law firms trying to figure out if there was a way around it — we found that we couldn’t; we feel like we have to obey the laws in the countries in which we exist and so we did that,” he told The Prague Post.

The Czech newspaper quoted several of Korn’s Russian critics, including former President Mikhail Gorbachev:

“In times of tight censorship in the USSR, Radio Liberty made appeals for democratization and openness,” Gorbachev wrote. “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s management decision to dismiss almost all of the Russian service staff looks especially strange in [the] context [of recent attacks on glasnost]. It is hard to get rid of an impression that RFE/RL’s American management is prepared to make an about-turn,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner added.

Lyudmila Alexeeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, joined the criticism of Korn’s actions, writing that the re-organization of Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty) was carried out in a form of “special operation” that was “shameful and abusive for its employees.”

“The KGB could not harm the image of the radio and the United States in Russia as did U.S. managers — the president of Radio Liberty, Steven Korn, and the vice president, Julia Ragona,” Lyudmila Alexeeva said.

Korn insists the digital shift represents a growing investment in Russia, but one of the former Radio Liberty reporters Elena Vlasenko told The Prague Post that “first of all they fired the Internet team, which consisted of people who know exactly how to do it.” Vlasenko has received one of the prestigious Andrei Sakharov human right journalism awards for her online reporting, including her video reports. Vlasenko resigned from Radio Liberty in protest after her colleagues were fired.

Link to Radio Liberty Kazakh Service sexually suggestive video 'Agent'

One RFE/RL broadcaster, who spoke to The Prague Post on the condition of anonymity, said that “despite the problems in Russia the organization’s 26 other language services are all working well, and insisted Korn’s leadership has not harmed the organization.”

But according to information received by BBG Watch, many other current RFE/RL journalists and former broadcasters disagree. Korn and his management team fired experienced journalists in Ukrainian, Turkmen, and Kazakh services.

After experienced web editors were forced out, the Kazakh Service produced and posted online offensive videos with sexually suggestive content which led to protests from website visitors in Kazakhstan, a largely Muslim country. The Kazakh videos were later removed from RFE/RL websites. Smiling Steven Korn was photographed with the freelance producers of the controversial videos.

BBG Watch also reported that despite an atmosphere of fear at RFE/RL, a number of currently-employed Russian Service journalists in Prague and in Moscow supported a call for a reinstatement of fired journalists and protested against “soft journalism” supported by Steven Korn, Julia Ragona, and Masha Gessen.

Steven Korn with producers of sexually suggestive videos.

The Prague Post is right, however, that many RFE/RL journalists and services continue to produce outstanding news programs to countries without free media.

The Prague Post reported that BBG Watch, which has campaigned heavily against Korn, claims that questions about “unauthorized expenses, waste and mismanagement” have marred his last days as president.

The Prague Post quotes Korn adamantly disagreeing and condemning his critics:

“People who say that have no idea what they’re talking about and it’s irresponsible and reprehensible that they would say that,” Korn responds passionately. “The budget of this company has been managed quite well and quite effectively. Indeed, we went through and took out a lot of fat in the budget and redeployed all of those monies to our core mission of journalism.”

In one of the best investigative journalism reports on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a contributing editor for Vanity Fair Judy Bachrach described in an article for World Affairs journal some of the extravagant spending.

“Why did Korn purchase,” Bachrach asks, “in order to enhance his apartment on Prague’s elegant Parizska Street, furniture and furnishings amounting to $36,000—a sum that constitutes, according to those who know, 40 percent more than his RFE/RL allotment?”

Bachrach also wrote in her World Affairs article:

“Korn basically didn’t set up shop in Prague until a few months after his June 2011 appointment (he delayed his permanent arrival for reasons no one can understand). Yet within short order, the new president wants (a) a Prague housing allowance of $4,200, which was about $1,000 more than the allowance of his predecessor, (b) costly furnishings, (c) to spend an inordinate amount of time in Atlanta, and (d) to leave?”

READ MORE: Steven Korn’s Wasteful Personal Spending at RFE/RL, Judy Bachrach, World Affairs, January 7, 2012.

Korn likes, however, to present himself as an executive who brought good management and financial austerity to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The Prague Post reported that “online posts, and in the article by some critics have even suggested Korn has wasted funds by spending thousands of dollars furnishing his Prague flat, a claim he angrily rejects. ‘That’s absurd, absolutely absurd. Will I take legal action? I have no idea. These people are beneath contempt frankly,’” he said.

According to BBG Watch sources, Korn has refused to provide some financial records requested by the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee. The RFE/RL Audit Committee is scheduled to meet on January 29 to look into allegations of mismanagement.

BBG Watch comments:

“Steven Korn knows best. “Will I take legal action? I have no idea. These people are beneath contempt frankly” is an interesting comment coming from the outgoing president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who is presumed to be a defender of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the countries to which RFE/RL directs it broadcasts. Korn’s choice to run Radio Liberty’s Russian Service, Masha Gessen, has accused some independent Russian journalists and commentators of slandering her. President Putin recently signed a law making slander a criminal offense in Russia. It is designed to silence media critics of the Kremlin.

We wonder what members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency which promotes freedom and democracy abroad by funding RFE/RL, think about such comments? Do they help or harm media freedom?”

For a full version of The Prague Post article: “Battle of words – RFE/RL chief’s controversial resignation reverberates in Russia and beyond” By ANDREW GREENE, Staff Writer, The Prague Post, January 23-29, 2013, click on the title or check the newspaper’s website and its Facebook Page.

“Still greatly respected in many former Soviet republics, Radio Liberty is also admired in Russia. Rebuilding it as a model of journalistic freedom would much serve U.S. interests there.” Gregory Feifer

Moscow Times Image for Rebuilding Radio Liberty article by Gregory Feifer.

“Radio Liberty’s reputation has been seriously damaged during the past year — less by obstruction from hostile governments than by the station’s own leadership,” wrote Gregory Feifer in The Moscow Times in an op-ed article. Feifer was senior correspondent at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from 2009 to 2011. His new book “Russians” will be published in June.

Feifer describes in his article how the outgoing RFE/RL president Steven Korn has destroyed Radio Liberty’s Russian Service by firing its best journalists:

“In 2011, Steven Korn was appointed president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty partly to help shepherd a merger with other U.S. international broadcasting networks whose budgets were also shrinking. He used the pressing need to build the radio’s competitiveness in the global media marketplace as justification to do the opposite by firing some of Radio Liberty’s most qualified journalists.”

Feifer wrote in his Moscow Times article that Korn also damaged RFE/RL’s central news gathering operation. To justify its existence, RFE/RL must raise newsroom standards by appointing experienced journalists, Feifer advised.

“Therefore Radio Liberty’s new president must be not only a media veteran who knows those needs but also someone who understands the radio’s potential and problems. That’s essential for navigating the old internal politics that have helped bring it so low.”

READ MORE: Rebuilding Radio Liberty, Gregory Feifer, The Moscow Times, January 13, 2013.

After the outgoing president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Steven Korn fired last September dozens of some of the best and most respected independent journalists in Russia and replaced them with Masha Gessen and her team of largely unknown feature magazine writers, he assured the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) that the controversy he created and the public diplomacy crisis in Russia would blow over in two weeks.

Korn and Gessen dismissed protests from famous Russian human rights and political opposition leaders like Lyudmila Alexeeva and Mikhail Gorbachev, but the controversy only intensified and attracted even more media attention, first mostly in Russia and in some of the former Soviet republics, and then in the United States.

Image from Masha Gessen's redesigned Radio Liberty Russian website.

It also became clear that Korn and his top RFE/RL executives in Prague, Julia Ragona and Dale Cohen, mislead the BBG, the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting, with false claims that the journalists they fired, including the award-winning Internet team, did not know how to do digital media, and the new team did.

The fired journalists continued to win awards for their website and online human rights reporting even after being forced to leave Radio Liberty in Moscow.

The new team, lacking sufficient experience in news and multimedia reporting, lost more than half of site visitors after turning it into a strange mix of light news features and images of questionable taste, more fit for tabloid press than for a U.S. taxpayer supported media freedom news outlet.

Leading independent journalists in Russia, Ukraine and in other countries are refusing to collaborate with Radio Liberty, now mockingly called “Gessen Radio,” as do many human rights and democratic political leaders.

Our List of Russian and International Media Reports on the Radio Liberty Crisis, updated Jan. 12, 2013, is far from complete, but it now has 375 items since late September 2012.

In December alone, we have listed 152 media reports. There have been 44 reports in January so far despite New Year and Orthodox Christmas holiday season in Russia which runs through the early part of the month.

One of the latest significant news reports is on one of Ukraine’s most famous journalists and influential television executives Vitaly Portnikov. He welcomed the resignation of Steven Korn and said that both Korn and the new Russian Service director bear the blame for the destruction of Radio Liberty and its reputation in Russia and in other parts of the former Soviet Union.

The report first appeared on the Radio Liberty in Exile website, SvobodaNew.com, which is published by the fired journalists and their colleagues who resigned in protest.

Vitalii Portnikov, Reshenie prezidenta RS/RSE ob otstavke mozhno shchest’ vozvrashcheniem korporatsii,
Novaia Svoboda/SvobodaNew.com, January 12, 2013.

The story was later reported by BBGWatch

One of Ukraine’s Most Famous Journalists Welcomes Resignation of RFE/RL President, BBG Watch, January
12, 2013.

One of the latest stories on our list is John O’Sullivan’s Newsmax TV interview: John O’Sullivan: Mass Firings at Radio Liberty Help Putin; Hurt Press Freedom, Newsmax TV, January 10, 2013. John O’Sullivan, a well known British journalist and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, was the executive editor at Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty from 2008 until 2011 and was forced out by Steve Korn who replaced him with a former marketing specialist without any journalistic experience.

See the complete PDF List with links to articles: Russian and International Media on Radio Liberty Crisis, January 12, 2013.

The former editorial chief of Radio Free Europe says the mass firings of top radio journalists from its Moscow affiliate, Radio Liberty, will weaken press criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

John O’Sullivan, who served as executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from 2008 until 2011, tells Newsmax TV that U.S. changes at the radio station will embolden Putin, who has been limiting press freedoms and stifling independent news reporting.

“This is not just a question of soft power,” O’Sullivan, the magazine’s editor-at-large, tells Newsmax. “It’s not just a question of cutting back on soft power.

John O’Sullivan argues that both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress have supported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty over the years and both are appalled by the meltdown caused by RFE/RL president Steven Korn who is now resigning.

BBG Watch notes that opposition to Korn is also bipartisan on the Broadcasting Board of Governors. According to sources inside the BBG administration in Washington, Democrats joined Republican member Victor Ashe to demand earlier Korn’s resignation and are working now on ways to rehabilitate the journalists he had fired at RFE/RL.

Link to Video: http://youtu.be/blGy2NIIqQw

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com: John O’Sullivan: Mass Firings at Radio Liberty Help Putin; Hurt Press Freedom

One of Ukraine’s most famous independent journalists Vitali Portnikov welcomed the resignation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Steven Korn as signaling a possible return to the station’s original mission, which Portnikov said was “cruelly interrupted by (Korn’s) adventurous personnel decisions in recent months.”

See: Wikipedia English entry for Vitaly Portnikov.

Korn announced that he was resigning on January 25 for personal reasons, but Russian and U.S. media reported that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in Washington which oversees U.S. international broadcasting, had asked him to resign. According to media reports, the BBG became alarmed by widespread protests against Korn’s decision to fire dozens of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow and his other management actions at RFE/RL.

Vitaly Portnikov, is the president of TVi (Ukrainian: ТВі) which is now Ukraine’s only independent TV channel. His station is known for its critical coverage of the Ukrainian government. Until recently, Portnikov also participated in Radio Liberty programs.

See: Portnikov emerges as one of nation’s top journalists, offering fearless commentary, Kyiv Post, Nov. 12, 2010.

See: Portnikov becomes TVi president, Kiyv Post, Nov. 27, 2012.

See: Wikipedia English entry for TVi.

Vitaly Portnikov’s commentary on the Radio Liberty crisis was published by Radio Liberty in Exile website SvobodaNew.com: Решение президента РС/РСЕ об отставке можно счесть возвращением корпорации. The website is published by former Radio Liberty journalists who were fired by Korn or resigned in protest against the brutal treatment of their colleagues and programming changes imposed by the new management.

“The decision of the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to resign can be considered a return of the media outlet, with which I have had the honor to cooperate for 22 years, to the execution of its mission, cruelly interrupted by adventurous personnel decisions in recent months. This mission – to promote the democratization of the former Soviet empire – requires responsibility and mutual respect. And the mission is far from over, as, again, it is still being demonstrated by the latest decisions of the Russian government,” Vitaly Portnikov wrote in a commentary published by SvobodaNew.com, the website of fired Radio Liberty Russian Service journalists.

 
Modern journalism is not so much about the forms, as it is about personalities, Portnikov also wrote. He accused both Steven Korn and Masha Gessen, Korn’s choice for the director of the Russian Service, of bearing the blame for the mass firing of some of the best and most famous Russian journalists working at the Radio Liberty bureau in Moscow. Portnikov also said that Gessen is trying to hide her involvement in this tragic event.

Gessen denies any involvement in the firings in Moscow, but her denials have been widely questioned by Russian media.

Gessen worked as an independent consultant for Korn on restructuring the Russian Service before she was hired to be the Russian Service director. The dismissals in Moscow happened shortly after the announcement of her appointment but a few days before she officially came on board.

Gessen brought with her to the Moscow bureau her own team of mostly feature magazine writers and editors. Without much multimedia and news reporting experience, they have turned the Russian website into a strange mix of light political features and tabloid journalism and have lost much of its former audience.

“The expulsion of the Moscow bureau of Radio Liberty, its senior staff, will remain an indelible stain on the reputation of the outgoing (RFE/RL) president and the current director of the Russian service, who did nothing to remedy the failure and is trying to hide her involvement in the venture,” Portnikov wrote.

The Russian Service and its core cadre in Moscow has been destroyed, Portnikov concluded. He stressed that without the return of Mikhail Sokolov, Marina Timasheva, Anna Kachkaeva, Elena Rykovtseva, Elena Fanailova, Kristina Gorelik, Victor Rezunkov, Vladimir Abarbanell and other distinguished colleagues there is no chance the broadcaster can survive and save its reputation.
 
Portnikov expressed hope that the new head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty will act more responsibly in selecting the new leadership of the Russian Service and be more aware of the challenges imposed by the service’s important work.

Vitaly Portnikov is one of many leading independent journalists in the region who find it impossible to cooperate with Radio Liberty under the current management, which in addition to Masha Gessen also includes RFE/RL vice president of content Julia Ragona and vice president of administration Dale Cohen. Ragona and Cohen oversaw the mass firing of journalists in Moscow.

Portnikov was a longtime contributor not only for the Radio Liberty Ukrainian Service but also the Russian Service. According to Ukrainian media watchdog Telekrytyka, TVi, run by Portnikov, and 5 Kanal were the only remaining TV channels in mid-May 2010 with independent and fair TV news coverage. In July 2011, it became Ukraine’s only channel offering independent news coverage.

Many still currently employed Russian Service journalists are appalled by the destruction of the station’s reputation in Russia and the recent programming changes but are still afraid to speak out fearing retaliation from Gessen, Ragona and Cohen. One Russian Service journalist who broke the silence is famous Radio Liberty Chechnya war correspondent Andrei Babitsky. He called on Korn to take his managers with him when he leaves on January 25.

A younger journalist and in the past one of the most active Radio Liberty freelance correspondents in Western Europe Sophia Kornienko said in a letter to the Broadcasting Board of Governors that working for the station under the current leadership would go against her personal and professional ethics. “The only way to help Radio Svoboda (Liberty) escape clinical death is by removing the malicious tumour of its management installed there by Steven Korn,” Kornienko wrote.

Vitaly Portnikov is one of several famous journalists and intellectuals formerly associated with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who have become major media personalities, top politicians, or political opposition leaders in their countries. Nearly all of them, including the legendary human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeeva, have condemned the firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow and the programming changes introduced by Korn, Ragona, and Gessen. The RFE/RL management team in Prague has also fired experienced journalists in RFE/RL’s Kazakh, Turkmen, Ukrainian and other broadcasting services.

Masha Gessen

“The Untouchable” – Masha Gessen

In an attempt to hold on to her job as the director of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, Masha Gessen is trying to box the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) into a corner with comments to Russian media that changes initiated by her and her patron, the outgoing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Steven Korn, will continue and that she will not be removed from her current position.

In earlier comments to Russian media, Gessen had discounted the importance of a review of Radio Liberty ordered by the BBG. The review, which Gessen said is not the same as an “inspection” or “evaluation” is being conducted by the Deputy Director of the BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Jeff Trimble who used to hold executive positions at RFE/RL in the past.

In her latest comments for Lenizdat.ru, Gessen also refuted a statement by BBG member Victor Ashe that Steven Korn has destroyed the Russian Service of Radio Liberty by firing dozens of outstanding journalists. Protests against their harsh dismissal without any warning and calls for their immediate reinstatement have come from nearly all major Russian human rights and political opposition leaders, including Lyudmila Alexeeva and Mikhail Gorbachev, and heads of American human rights and media freedom NGOs, including Freedom House president David Kramer, who has called for radical change at the top.

Gessen’s statements to Russian media appear to be designed to make it more difficult for the Broadcasting Board of Governors to rehabilitate the fired journalists by rejecting the accusations of incompetence leveled against them by Korn and Gessen and allowing them to return to work. According to many critics in Russia and in the U.S., Gessen and her new Radio Liberty operation, mockingly referred to in Russia as “Radio Gessen,” has no credibility or support and has lost much of its former online and radio audience.

The fired journalists and their colleagues who resigned in protest have recently received several prestigious journalism awards, some specifically for the old multimedia website and online reporting, which was acknowledged even in a BBG-issued press release.

Operating with no budget, they now run their own news website, SvobodaNew.com, interviewing prominent Russian opposition leaders like former reformist deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov who are boycotting and ignoring Gessen’s website.

Image from Masha Gessen's redesigned Radio Liberty Russian website.

Gessen is trying to gain audience with feature stories and provocative images, which only seem to turn away visitors from the Radio Liberty Russian website, as reported by Russian media citing statistics available online.

BBG Watch has learned from sources within the BBG administration in Washington that some BBG members are actively discussing options for rehabilitating the fired journalists, which they see as the only way of saving Radio Liberty and averting a complete public relations and public diplomacy disaster for the U.S. in Russia and among American supporters of RFE/RL.

According to sources, some BBG members were both disturbed and impressed with an open letter to Korn from still employed Radio Liberty’s famous Chechnya war correspondent Andrei Babitsky and a letter addressed to them from a RFE/RL West European freelance reporter Sophia Kornienko. Both journalists said that Radio Liberty is dying under Korn’s new Russian Service director Masha Gessen and called for all of his top managers to resign as soon as possible.

Lenizdat.ru reported that Masha Gessen had told earlier other media that no matter who will hold the post of the president of RFE/RL, she will not lose her position. See: My dismissal – not possible, Izvestia quotes Radio Liberty Russian head Masha Gessen

Is she really untouchable having destroyed Radio Liberty’s and her own reputation in Russia and among many supporters of U.S. international broadcasting?

Clearly, her comments are designed to intimidate the Broadcasting Board of Governors and any future RFE/RL president into believing that she is untouchable and that removing her from her current position would neither be easy nor wise. We’ll see.

The alternative is the complete destruction of Radio Liberty in Russia and continued crisis and embarrassment for the United States and the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

###

Source: Lenizdat.ru

Masha Gessen: “No Changes Planned in How Moscow Bureau Works in Connection with Korn’s Departure”

09.01.2013 17:26

Director of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty Masha Gessen told Lenizdat.ru, that no changes in the work of the Moscow bureau are expected. In his  December 31 announcement of his resignation, President of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty Steven Korn said that the Russian Service of Radio Liberty will continue to develop according to the plan adopted last fall.

“There may be changes in the work, but they will not be connected with the Korn reforms,” Gessen explained. According to the Director of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, the departure of Steve Korn did not come to her as a surprise. “Even before the New Year holidays, I knew that he will stop working,” said Masha Gessen. In earlier comments of some media outlets, Gessen said that she had no information on the departure of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president. She also told other media that no matter who will hold the post of the president of RFE/RL, she will not lose her position.

In a comment for Lenizdat.ru, Gessen also refuted a statement by Victor Ashe, the member of the Board of Directors for US international broadcasting (Broadcasting Board of Governors),  who had earlier claimed that Korn “has destroyed the Moscow Bureau” (of Radio Liberty). We note that in the framework of the reforms, Masha Gessen was appointed to the position of Director of the Russian Service of the radio station, after which most of the members of  Radio Liberty were dismissed. Gessen then declared that she had nothing to do with the dismissal of the radio station’s staff.

“Changes in any editorial office is an inevitable process,” explained the Director of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty. “We are currently working on projects launched in September and we are not going to stop here.” According to Gessen, the new website of Radio Liberty will start functioning in the spring and soon the office will move to  a new location, which will allow to create rich multimedia content. “In addition, this does not stop the work on reforming  the correspondent network of Radio Liberty,” said Masha Gessen, “we recruit new stringers, and train the old.”

Steve Korn announced his resignation as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on December 31. He will leave the post officially at the end of January. According to Korn, he had personal reasons for leaving: he promised to be home in February for the 16th birthday of his son and he needs to be with his critically ill father. Much of the letter is devoted to the explanation of  the changes that have taken place at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, including the Moscow bureau. In his farewell letter, Korn wrote that many of the staffers of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty had forgotten that they were primarily news-journalists, and as a result were losing the competitive battle in the information arena.  He also promised that when the dust settles after his departure, “all will recognize the need for reforms.” Previously, mass media reports on December 25 announced that Steven Korn was fired from RFE/RL, and, according to media reports, Korn had to step down from the presidency by February 2013.

Signature: Nina Somina

LINK to the original article Lenizdat.ru Маша Гессен: “В связи с уходом Корна изменений в работе московской редакции не планируется”.

The article has links and quotes to several media reports, including those by The Washington Post and BBG Watch.

Quoting from The Washington Post reporter Kathy Lally’s recent article, Democracy Digest notes that former President Mikhail Gorbachev has joined many Russian democrats and civil society activists in criticizing the changes at Radio Liberty.

Gorbachev, who inadvertently helped bring about the demise of the Soviet Union by opening up access to information, said that in light of the recent clampdown by Putin’s government — including laws forcing activists who get grants from abroad to register as foreign agents and the expulsion fromRussia of the U.S. Agency for International Development — it looked as if the United States was making “an about-turn.”

Two Russian dissidents, Lyudmila Alexeyeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group and Sergei Kovalyov of the Sakharov Foundation, wrote to Congress demanding an investigation. Radio Liberty’s management,  Alexeyeva said, had harmed the U.S. image here more than the KGB ever could.

“The fired journalists are in fact some of the most respected independent reporters and new media specialists in Russia,” said Ted Lipien, a former Voice of America acting Associate Director and former BBG regional Marketing Director:

That is why the whole human rights and democratic opposition movement, including Alexeeva, Gorbachev, former Prime Minister Kasyanov, former Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov and countless others, have defended them and turned against Korn, Julia Ragona, Masha Gessen and their new team, whose members have no name recognition in Russia and have lost online audience, more than 50% by some Russian media accounts citing open statistics. These Russian leaders all concluded that Radio Liberty’s reputation in Russia has been ruined and asked for the fired journalists to be rehabilitated and brought back.

Freedom House President David Kramer said that nothing short of a complete housecleaning of the RFE/RL top leadership is required. “The damage they have done is immeasurable,” Kramer said.

“Seven relatively small steps can make a big difference in realizing U.S. international broadcasting’s full potential,” former RFE/RL chief Jeffrey Gedmin,  now president of the London-based Legatum Institute, wrote in a recent issue of The American Interest .

READ MORE: ”RFE/RL Russia dispute damaging US image ‘more than KGB’ ever did,” Democracy Digest, National Endowment for Democracy, January 4, 2013.

An op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by Sohrab Ahmari, “At Voice of America, Complaints About Its Iranian Coverage,” focuses on claims that the VOA Persian-language service is accused of tailoring its programs to avoid offending the regime. The VOA denies it.

Ahmari, an assistant books editor at The Wall Street Journal, quotes Rob Sobhani, a former Georgetown University lecturer in U.S. foreign policy, who says that VOA is uneasy with criticism of the Islamic Republic. Until a few years ago, Mr. Sobhani, a staunch critic of the regime, appeared weekly as a commentator on the Persian-language network. He found himself appearing far less frequently after 2009. “I was told I was too negative toward the regime,” he said. Mr. Kyle King, the VOA spokesman, said Mr. Sobhani “has appeared on several VOA programs since 2009.” He added that the network doesn’t coach guests “to be negative or positive,” nor does it “cherry-pick guests to promote a particular point of view.”

READ MORE: “At Voice of America, Complaints About Its Iranian Coverage,” Sohrab Ahmari, The Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2013.

Ted Lipien, a former Voice of America associate director, told BBG Watch that Mr. King, the VOA spokesman, was no doubt told that the VOA Persian Service does not coach guests “to be negative or positive” and, being unable to verify this information independently, which would not be possible without knowing Farsi, repeated in good faith what he was told to The Wall Street Journal. Lipien said that he is not familiar with the current editorial practices of the VOA Persian Service. He said, however, that when he did a television interview with the Persian Service a few years ago (2007) from San Francisco about the Solidarity labor movement in the 1980s in Poland, he was advised by a VOA staffer not to be too bold in pointing out that just as Polish workers overthrew the communist regime in Poland, Iranian workers could do the same in Iran. It was a subtle but clear suggestion not to advocate a regime change through strikes or similar protests, but it was not made a condition of using the interview, which aired live, Lipien explained.

Lipien told us that he ignored the suggestion from a VOA Persian Service staffer and talked at length about the overthrow of the communist regime in Poland while pointing out that the regime change was peaceful and happened because both Polish workers and Polish intellectuals, assisted by the Catholic clergy and Pope John Paul II — which raised ironic comparisons with the role of Islamic clerics in Iran — were united in their opposition to the government.

Lipien stressed that he does not know whether suggestions against bold statements are still being made to guests interviewed for the VOA television program to Iran. He said that after the 2007 interview he was invited once more to record another interview for the VOA Persian Service in 2008 on the persecution by the Iranian regime of Mansour Onsanloo and other independent trade union leaders. No suggestions on what he should say were made during the second interview, Lipien said. VOA should have a clear editorial policy, communicated to all staffers, that coaching guests to avoid making controversial or critical statements is not allowed, he added.

In the past, surrogate U.S.-funded broadcasters served a very useful function of being able to attract controversial guests and raise controversial issues more easily than VOA, but the current International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) leadership, which runs U.S. international broadcasting on behalf of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), wants either to merge the surrogate broadcasters with VOA or to turn them into producers of light feature materials, as is the case with Radio Liberty in Russia, Lipien pointed out. IBB executives should not only strive to make VOA bolder in its reporting, but they should also leave the surrogate broadcasters alone and allow them to do programs that VOA may be unable to produce because it is based in Washington and it lacks enough local experts and closer links with the target countries, Lipien explained.

In an National Review article, “How to Listen to the Radio: The ill-covered crisis at an American institution,” former Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty executive editor John O’Sullivan gives BBG Watch credit for exposing crisis and corruption at the American taxpayer-funded station broadcasting uncensored news to Russia and other nations without free media.

John O’Sullivan was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty executive editor from 2008 until 2011 and vice president (2011). He is the author of “The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister” (Regnery, 2006), and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher.

O’Sullivan published an earlier op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal critical of RFE/RL president Steven Korn’s mass dismissal of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow and programming changes introduced by Masha Gessen, Korn’s pick to run the Russian Service.

O’Sullivan, a British conservative political commentator and journalist who during the 1980s was a senior policywriter and speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister, was one of former top RFE/RL managers whom Steven Korn derisively called “old white guys” and forced to leave.

Before leaving, O’Sullivan told Korn that what he was planning to do with Radio Liberty in Russia was insane from a journalistic and political perspective. His warning was ignored and Korn appointed Julia Ragona, who has no record of journalistic experience, to be the vice-president of content and marketing. She assisted Korn in firing Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. Dale Cohen, the vide-president of administration, whom Korn brought on board to replace another “old white guy,” who was also forced to leave, organized the firings in such a way that it created a moral outrage among Russians. Some of those fired were fully qualified employees with disabilities.

Dedicated, loyal and experienced longtime and younger Radio Liberty journalists, many of whom well known and highly respected in Russia, were without any warning barred by RFE/RL-hired security guards from entering their news bureau in Moscow, directed to a law firm and forced to resign. They were later prevented by RFE/EL executives from saying good bye to their radio and online audiences of many years. In a letter to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal in response to O’Sullivan article, Korn claimed that “suggestions that any staffers were treated harshly in this process are patently false.”

BBG Watch has published accounts from the fired journalists that clearly contradict Korn’s assertions. If 80 percent of NPR’s best anchors and reporters found one day their building blocked by guards, were sent to a Washington law firm, forced to resign, given a few months of severance pay, and prevented from saying good bye on the air to NPR listeners, would Steven Korn still claim that they were treated “not harshly” but with “great respect?,” one former BBG executive asked. The same former BBG executive pointed out that Mr. Korn made a big deal in his resignation letter about wanting to be with his family, but he didn’t seem too concerned earlier what would happen to the families of dozens of journalists whom he had fired. There are not too many media outlets left in Putin’s Russia that would risk hiring journalists previously associated with an American-funded station. Read ‘Special operation’ at Radio Liberty Moscow – Part One

“Even without the style of the firings,” John O’Sullivan wrote in his article in The Wall Street Journal, “Russians would have been upset by the purge of a rare news outlet outside the control of the Kremlin and its compliant oligarchs.” “Mikhail Gorbachev was among the first to protest, saying that the dismissals looked ‘especially strange’ given Mr. Putin’s moves against independent journalism in Russia,” O’Sullivan pointed out.

The mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists prompted protests by human-rights activists in Russia. They wrote protest letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an ex officio BBG member, and to members of the U.S. Congress.

In his latest National Review article, O’Sullivan points out that the critical events took place in mid-September, but the mainstream U.S. media began reporting them only last week.

“This first report was an article on the Wall Street Journal editorial page (by me, as it happens) arguing that the decision of RFERL’s president, Steve Korn, and senior managers to fire the journalists and replace them with a new Russian staff — under a well-known Moscow journalist, Masha Gessen, who wanted to pursue a more “normal” and less “opposition” kind of journalism — was a major mistake on several grounds, notably that it let down the growing opposition to Putin’s growing authoritarianism.”

O’Sullivan wrote that until his op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, the sole U.S. coverage of the upheavals at Radio Liberty in Moscow had appeared in journals of opinion and blogs. He noted that the first account appeared on National Review Online on October 23. “Entitled ‘Silenced by Washington,’ the piece, written by Mario Corti, a former director of Radio Liberty (Russian Service), and Ted Lipien, a former acting associate director of VOA, was the case for the prosecution: a lively, argumentative feature critiquing the justifications of RFERL’s management but also laying out the main facts clearly,” O’Sullivan wrote.

“Following the NRO article, nothing much happened in the U.S. But in Moscow the crisis continued to metastasize. Masha Gessen took over, and she gradually began to change the character of RL’s broadcasts. But she did so against a background of mute resistance within RL and outright hostility outside it. A group of Russian intellectuals wrote a second letter to Congress protesting the decision. RL audience figures began to fall. The station disappeared from a list of Internet news sites that were most frequently cited by other news outlets — an indication of declining influence. The fired Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow established their own organization with the ironic title, “Radio Liberty in Exile.” Four of them were honored with prestigious professional awards. Liudmila Telen, the much-respected former editor of RL’s website, for instance, received a citation for her professionalism and integrity from the Russian Union of Journalists; reporter Kristina Gorelik for her human-rights journalism from the Moscow Helsinki Committee; and so on. These awards may have had an element of solidarity about them; but there’s no doubt that they also represented the collective admiration of the journalistic profession and human-rights groups for strong professional performances.

All these things were reported, not on RL’s website, nor in the U.S. media, but by the watchdog BBG Watch, co-founded and directed by Ted Lipien, on its website.

BBG Watch is strongly in favor of U.S. international broadcasting — which it regards as an excellent investment for America — but highly critical of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency appointed to exercise oversight of the USIB entities. Its commentaries are written from this acknowledged standpoint, but it claims that the facts in them are accurate and that the opinions expressed are legitimate comments on matters of public controversy.”

READ MORE: “How to Listen to the Radio: The ill-covered crisis at an American institution,” John O’Sullivan, National Review Online, January 7, 2013.

In one of the best investigative journalism reports on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a contributing editor for Vanity Fair Judy Bachrach describes in a new article for World Affairs journal the complete disintegration of the taxpayer-funded Radio Liberty combined with wasteful spending of U.S. taxpayers’ money by RFE/RL executives.

Judy Bachrach points out in her article that much of the fault for the meltdown and wasteful spending at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty falls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of all U.S. civilian international broadcasting, including RFE/RL, whose president and CEO, Steven Korn, has announced his resignation effective January 25. RFE/RL is based in Prague, the Czech Republic. Korn claims that he resigned for purely personal reasons to be with his family in the U.S. Bachrach refers to reports that he was in fact asked to resign by the BBG.

“As those of you who have been following this twisted tale already know, in reality (and despite his denials) Korn was asked to leave his post by the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The BBG is a group of political appointees who nominally watch over the doings of the organization that is supposed provide superb news and commentary to those in parts of the world where unbiased journalism is often rare.

In practice, however, most board members don’t appear to know what’s going on. They not only handpicked the disastrous Korn, but allowed both him and his top subordinates—the incompetent, clueless, but fiercely ambitious Julia Ragona (who has never been a journalist) and Masha Gessen (a self-serving, richly rewarded journalist of sorts)—untrammeled liberty to wreck a valuable organization, turning it into pit of rage and retribution from which it may never recover.”

“Why did Korn purchase,” Bachrach asks, “in order to enhance his apartment on Prague’s elegant Parizska Street, furniture and furnishings amounting to $36,000—a sum that constitutes, according to those who know, 40 percent more than his RFE/RL allotment?”

Some of the most expensive apartments in Prague are on Parziska Street (Parisian Street), located in the Old Town, the most expensive part of Prague. Parziska is the poshest street there, filled with the most exclusive shops, restaurants and beautiful art nouveau buildings. Korn likes to present himself as an executive who brought austerity to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Bachrach then writes:

“Korn basically didn’t set up shop in Prague until a few months after his June 2011 appointment (he delayed his permanent arrival for reasons no one can understand). Yet within short order, the new president wants (a) a Prague housing allowance of $4,200, which was about $1,000 more than the allowance of his predecessor, (b) costly furnishings, (c) to spend an inordinate amount of time in Atlanta, and (d) to leave?”

READ MORE: Steven Korn’s Wasteful Personal Spending at RFE/RL, Judy Bachrach, World Affairs, January 7, 2012

ALSO READ: “Steven Korn’s Disastrous Tenure at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: A Postmortem” by Judy Bachrach, World Affairs, December 31, 2012.

ALSO READ: “Korn Fired: Meltdown at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” by Judy Bachrach, World Affairs, December 24, 2012.

Dzieciolowski also called for the departure of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) vice-president of content Julia Ragona and the Russian Service director Masha Gessen for causing the crisis at Radio Liberty and showing “unlikely moral blindness and political ignorance.”

In a comment for The Washington Post article about the resignation of RFE/RL president Steven Korn, Dzieciolowski wrote that American mainstream media should have paid more attention to the scandal at Radio Liberty caused by the mass firing of many of its best Russian journalists last September.

“I was really surprised to see The Washington Post and The New York Times ignoring for months Mikhail Gorbachev or Russia’s legendary human rights activists commenting on the situation at the Liberty Radio,” Dzieciolowski wrote.

“It was shocking to watch how American media ignored for months the destruction of the leading world human rights media organisation, created and developed in their own country,” he added. “This allowed the gang of three Korn-Ragona-Gessen to continue their bakhanalia. In their actions they showed unlikely moral blindness and political ignorance.”

Zygmunt Dzieciolowski’s comment for The Washington Post article Radio Liberty loses its license in Moscow, and Russians raise voices in dismay by Kathy Lally, The Washington Post, January 3, 2013:

Zygmunt Dzieciolowski is a joint editor of openDemocracy/Russia published by openDemocracy.net, a UK-based NGO which supports public interest journalism, human rights and democracy. Dzieciolowski has covered Russia and other post Soviet republics for European media since 1989 and in 2005 published Planet Russia, a study of Russian society and politics. He is also co-author with Mumin Schakirov of the award winning documentary film “Contest” on the beauty pageant in a Russian labor camp. Mumin Shakirov, who reported for Radio Liberty on abuses of power, corruption, human rights, and the wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan, was among dozens of journalists who were suddenly and unexpectedly summoned by telephone to the Moscow office of an international law firm representing RFE/RL and fired.

A number of fired Radio Liberty journalists have published articles in English on openDemocracy.net website.

The end of ‘Liberty’ by Mumin Shakirov, openDemocracy.net, September 26, 2012.

The death of Radio Liberty by Anastasia Kirilenko, openDemocracy.net, November 5, 2012.

Talented, experienced and tested Radio Liberty’s multimedia journalists were replaced by Masha Gessen’s friends and associates who are almost completely unknown in Russia and, unlike the fired staffers, are not frequent guests on major independent media outlets. Since the mass firing of Radio Liberty employees without any protest from Gessen, and her accusations of slander against independent reporters and writers, her team has been widely criticized in the media and by human rights and opposition leaders.

Since it was founded in May 2001, openDemocracy.net has published almost 20,000 articles, analyses, podcasts, videos and exchanges by 5,000 authors. It is read weekly in almost every country of the world (openDemocracy is currently blocked in China, Iran and Vietnam) and publishes an average of 53 articles a week. Monthly readership of over 200,000 (unique hits).

Steven Korn, RFE/RL

In an interview with The Washington Post, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President and CEO Steven Korn continues to promote his fictitious account of events surrounding his disastrous tenure at RFE/RL. Despite numerous and credible reports that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) had in fact asked him to resign, given him 45 days to leave, and stripped him of his authority to fire employees, Korn insists that he left for purely personal reasons. He also presents himself as an agent of change and continues to defame experienced, talented and award-winning Radio Liberty journalists, whom he had fired or who resigned in protest, by implying that they were not capable of doing digital media.

Critics blame Korn for creating the worst crisis in U.S. international broadcasting history.

Korn’s claims to the contrary have been countered by numerous RFE/RL journalists, U.S. government officials, and outside experts.

• Open letter of Radio Liberty Chechnya war reporter Andrei Babitsky to RFE/RL president Steven Korn
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist responds to RFE/RL president Steven Korn’s resignation letter
• Still in fear of Steven Korn and his deputies, RFE/RL journalists continue to ignore controversy and need for balance
• Victor Ashe welcomes resignation of Steven Korn as necessary for RFE/RL to survive
• Steven Korn’s Disastrous Tenure at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: A Postmortem by Judy Bachrach
• “Turmoil Over America’s Radio Voice in Russia,” former RFE/RL executive editor writes in Wall Street Journal
• Anna Politkovskaya journalism student award goes to Irina Chevtayeva, another reporter who left Radio Liberty in protest
• BBG Recognizes Achievements of Fired Radio Liberty Journalists
• Fired Radio Liberty chief web editor receives prestigious journalism prize in Russia
• Korn Fired: Meltdown at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty by Judy Bachrach in World Affairs
• Helsinki human rights leaders appeal to Lech Walesa for help in defending RFE/RL employees
• Video of CUSIB’s Ann Noonan asking BBG to protect Radio Liberty journalists
• BBG member counters Masha Gessen’s spin on Radio Liberty in Russian media
• Freedom House President refutes statements from RFE/RL officials

Former Voice of America acting Associate Director and former BBG regional Marketing Director Ted Lipien posted a comment for The Washington Post article:

“Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Steven Korn continues to defame talented and courageous Radio Liberty journalists, whom he had fired in a most brutal fashion, by suggesting that they are backward and deficient. Nothing could be further from the truth, with which Mr. Korn seems to have major problems.

The fired journalists are in fact some of the most respected independent reporters and new media specialists in Russia. Many of them have received prestigious journalism awards, specifically for their old website and online human rights reporting.

That is why the whole human rights and democratic opposition movement, including Alexeeva, Gorbachev, former Prime Minister Kasyanov, former Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov and countless others, have defended them and turned against Korn, Julia Ragona, Masha Gessen and their new team, whose members have no name recognition in Russia and have lost online audience, more than 50% by some Russian media accounts citing open statistics.

These Russian leaders all concluded that Radio Liberty’s reputation in Russia has been ruined and asked for the fired journalists to be rehabilitated and brought back.

Freedom House President David Kramer said that nothing short of a complete housecleaning of the RFE/RL top leadership is required. “The damage they have done is immeasurable,” Kramer concluded.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors member Ambassador Victor Ashe welcomed the resignation of Steven Korn as necessary for RFE/RL to survive. He told reporters: “Korn’s departure was necessary for the survival of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). He was feared and disliked by most employees. His self serving letter of resignation sets a new standard for arrogance and delusion. His hiring was a terrible mistake we will spend years recovering from.”

Ted Lipien
Former Voice of America acting Associate Director and former BBG regional Marketing Director for Eurasia

READ MORE: Radio Liberty loses its license in Moscow, and Russians raise voices in dismay by Kathy Lally, The Washington Post, January 3, 2013.

John O'Sullivan

John O’Sullivan, former Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty executive editor (2008-11) and vice president (2011), the author of “The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister” (Regnery, 2006), and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, published an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal critical of RFE/RL president Steven Korn’s mass dismissal of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow and programming changes introduced by Masha Gessen, Korn’s pick to run the Russian Service.

O’Sullivan, a British conservative political commentator and journalist who during the 1980s was a senior policywriter and speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister, was one of former top RFE/RL managers whom Steven Korn derisively called “old white guys” and forced to leave.

Before leaving, O’Sullivan told Korn that what he was planning to do with Radio Liberty in Russia was insane from a journalistic and political perspective. His warning was ignored and Korn appointed Julia Ragona, who has no record of journalistic experience, to be the vice-president for content and marketing. She assisted Korn in firing Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. Dale Cohen, the vide-president for administration, whom Korn brought on board to replace another “old white guy,” who was also forced to leave, organized the firings in such a way that it created a moral outrage among Russians. Some of those fired were fully qualified employees with disabilities.

Dedicated, loyal and experienced longtime and younger Radio Liberty journalists, many of whom are well known and highly respected in Russia, were barred by RFE/RL-hired security guards from entering their news bureau in Moscow, directed to a law firm and forced to resign. They were later prevented by RFE/EL executives from saying good bye to their radio and online audiences of many years.

“Even without the style of the firings,” John O’Sullivan wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “Russians would have been upset by the purge of a rare news outlet outside the control of the Kremlin and its compliant oligarchs.” “Mikhail Gorbachev was among the first to protest, saying that the dismissals looked ‘especially strange’ given Mr. Putin’s moves against independent journalism in Russia,” O’Sullivan pointed out.

The mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists prompted protests by human-rights activists in Russia. They wrote protest letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an ex officio BBG member, and to members of the U.S. Congress.

O’Sullivan notes in his article that having radio as an in-house partner gave Radio Liberty’s website an advantage in Russia’s competitive digital environment. He also asked “if strengthening Radio Liberty’s digital presence was the strategy, why jettison Radio Liberty’s successful website team?”

O’Sullivan reported that two external critics invited to critique Radio Liberty Russian programs–a BBC World Service veteran and a Daily Telegraph Internet pioneer–concluded that the service was doing the right things.

“The outsiders’ verdict annoyed those managers who wanted more popular fare. But the managers were bureaucrats, not program-makers. They needed a simpatico editorial vision. They found it in Masha Gessen, the Radio Liberty director appointed by RFE/RL President Korn after the September housecleaning.

‘I want to do a kind of journalism that no one is doing at the moment. I would describe it as normal journalism,’ she told the Moscow Times shortly after her appointment. ‘Something that’s not polemical, like opposition media, and something that’s not controlled by the Kremlin.’ In practice this journalism has turned out to be softer news features in which liberty is likely to mean sexual liberation (with illustrations) rather than ‘political’ aspects of human rights.”

O’Sullivan wrote that Mr. Korn did not respond to an email request to comment for The Wall Street Journal article, and his telephone was not accepting messages.

O’Sullivan reported that in mid-December, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the official agency overseeing U.S. international broadcasting, “took action—thanks in large part to the terrier-like insistence of one governor, Victor Ashe, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland knowledgeable about Eastern Europe. The governors announced an investigation to be completed in six months, but according to multiple sources they also asked Mr. Korn to resign, perhaps as early as Dec. 31.”

Gessen was in fact appointed by Korn before the September housecleaning but did not come officially on board until October 1, which allowed her to claim that she had nothing to do with the firings and accuse independent Russian journalists who made such suggestions of slandering her, a criminal offense in Russia according to a new law, which was signed by President Putin and designed to stifle free speech and investigative journalism.

BBG Watch has learned that the RFE/RL corporate Board, which is composed of BBG members, was scheduled to have an official meeting on Monday, but at the last moment RFE/RL Board chair, BBG Governor Dennis Mulhaupt, a Republican, changed the meeting to an informal one, which would prevent board members from voting. Mulhaupt is believed to be possibly the only remaining supporter of Steven Korn among BBG members. According to inside sources, Mulhaupt had strongly protested earlier when other BBG members wanted to discipline and even fire Korn for his “old white guys” remark. According to our sources, other BBG members are actively looking for a replacement of Mr. Korn as RFE/RL president, with former BBG members, former RFE/RL presidents, and heads of human rights NGOs being discussed as candidates for an interim or permanent position.

John O’Sullivan offered his suggestion in The Wall Street Journal article on how the Radio Liberty crisis could be resolved:

“If he does depart, any investigation should be handled by the new or interim head of RFE/RL. That person, someone experienced editorially and internationally but detached from recent BBG politics (former NPR president Kevin Klose would be ideal), can determine what went wrong in the course of putting it right. The board’s sole advice should be: Rehire the journalists dismissed in Moscow to such loud effect.”

READ MORE: “Turmoil Over America’s Radio Voice in Russia,” John O’Sullivan, The Wall Street Journal, December 30, 2012.

President of Radio Liberty Dismissed for Destroying Editorial Office - Russia Today, Dec. 25, 2012

Radio Liberty President Steven Korn Fired After Destroying Moscow Editorial Team – ITAR-TASS, Dec. 25, 2012

President of Radio Liberty Will Lose His Post After Destroying the Russian Service – Forbes.ru, Dec. 25, 2012

 

 
Masha Gessen Expertly Ruined Washington’s Propaganda Horn: President of Radio Liberty Dismissed – Moskovskie Vedomosti, Dec. 25, 2012

Masha Gessen Destroyed Moscow Team of Radio Liberty – RBK, Dec. 25, 2012

For more see: Russian and International Media on Radio Liberty Crisis – PDF, Updated Dec. 25, 2012, PM

Dozens of Russian media outlets have reported that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. federal agency in charge of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has asked RFE/RL president and CEO Steven Korn to leave his post, but Korn’s closest aides, the Russian Service director Masha Gessen and RFE/RL vice president for content Julia Ragona claim these are only rumors.

Komersant newspaper in Russia quotes Gessen as saying that “there is no talk of resignation, it’s just a rumor.”

Gessen told Izvestia, another Russian newspaper, that she spoke Tuesday with Julia Ragona in Prague who told her that these are just rumors and that Steven Korn will be returning to work after the New Year.

Korn sent a happy holidays email message to RFE/RL staff and announced that he will be back after the New Year.

In her latest Russian media interview, Gessen again downplayed reports that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) had ordered a complete re-evaluation of what was done at Radio Liberty, suggesting that such reviews are routine, but her denials of the significance of the proposed review were not as categorical as before.

“The different interpretations revolve around whether to call it an inspection or a review. In English it is called a review. There are also different interpretations concerning what this group will do in Russia. Whether the study of what has been done at the radio including the consequences of the reforms that have been introduced or the study of the situation in Russia. As I understand myself, the inspection will be devoted to the situation in Russia and the [search of a] strategy for developing the radio in the future. Somebody assumes that it will be devoted to the reforms carried out. The future will tell. Probably the group will do whatever it deems necessary.”

Despite denials from Ragona and Gessen, sources tell BBG Watch that BBG members have indeed asked Steven Korn to resign and stripped him of  authority to fire any more RFE/RL employees.

BBG member Victor Ashe described Gessen’s earlier comments downplaying the significance of the review of Radio Liberty as “stunning” and “totally untrue.” He also questioned suggestions by RFE/RL executives, including comments from RFE/RL vice president for administration Dale Cohen, that BBG members were greatly impressed with Gessen’s presentation at the last week’s BBG panel discussion on Russia.

BBG insiders tell BBG Watch that there is no doubt that Korn is on his way out. They see attacks by Gessen, Ragona, and Cohen on American NGO leaders and former Radio Liberty journalists as attempts to divert attention from themselves for creating the greatest crisis in the history of U.S. international broadcasting and to present their critics to BBG members as being misinformed opponents of progress, which has been their strategy for discrediting their critics all along.

Freedom House President David Kramer specifically refuted Ragona’s statements to RFE/RL staff that he had been misinformed earlier and that after participating in the panel discussion in Washington he has modified his  criticism of the station’s management.

Kramer said in response: “Not only have I not changed my views on how bad the situation is at RFE/RL, I came away from the BBG panel more worried than I went in and more convinced than ever that it needs radical change at the top.”  “The comments I heard suggest to me that nothing short of major change is required, meaning a complete housecleaning of the top leadership. The damage they have done is immeasurable,” Kramer concluded.

Ragona has not responded to a BBG Watch request for a comment about her remarks on Kramer and the fate of Steven Korn.

In earlier, much more confident sounding Russian media interviews, Gessen attacked heads of American NGOs, including Ann Noonan, executive director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusub.org), who at an open BBG meeting in Washington last week defended the fired Radio Liberty journalists and specifically criticized Korn for dismissing fully qualified employees with disabilities. Gessen also said that Freedom House president David Kramer was not criticizing Steven Korn  but only the loss of the station’s reputation in Russia, which, according to her, was inevitable because of  ”reforms.”

In her latest Russian media interviews, Gessen sounded less confident, but she continued to use the word “reform” to describe her role, as do Julia Ragona and Dale Cohen while accusing anyone who disagrees with them as being enemies of digital media — a useful accusation totally unsupported by facts.

Korn, Gessen, and Ragona also continue to accuse the old Radio Liberty team of being unqualified to do digital media despite clear evidence that  the fired journalists are far more experienced in  digital media than Gessen’s new team. The old team, which included many multimedia specialists, had greatly increased the number of site visitors and won awards for their online reporting.

 OLD RADIO LIBERTY INTERNET TEAM GETS SAKHAROV AWARD

Old Radio Liberty - Fired Internet team and its reporter Elena Vlasenko receive Andrei Sakharov human rights journalism award for online reporting.

Many headlines in Russian media on December 25 suggest that Korn was fired or asked to resign for destroying Radio Liberty’s Russian Service team in Moscow. The old Internet team has recently won a Sakharov human rights journalism award for online reporting done by  its members before their dismissal in September. They were replaced by Gessen and her associates, many of whom — according to Russian media reports — lack political news reporting skills and multimedia experience.

Gessen declared the Sakharov human rights journalism awards to be “a low-profile event in Russia” and refused to cover it while continuing to fill the Radio Liberty home page with feature stories, such as romantic escapades of a university professor from the United States who traveled to Argentina to meet an attractive woman he got acquainted with online. The story, which was already weeks old when it was posted by Radio Liberty, stayed on the home page for many days, while some current important political news stories were not covered or reported on with considerable delays.

Ms. Gessen should truly be ashamed of herself for saying that a journalistic award named after Dr. Andrei Sakharov, one of the greatest fighters for human rights in the Soviet Union, is a low-profile event in a country where independent journalists are routinely murdered, arrested, intimidated, and threatened with libel lawsuits. By refusing to cover these awards, Ms. Gessen helped President Putin and his state-controlled media to marginalize the Sakharov awards even further. Indeed, she helped Putin to make it a lower-profile event that it otherwise would have been. This, no doubt, made Putin happy, but BBG members and American taxpayers, who pay Gessen’s $200,000 salary and housing allowance in Moscow, perhaps less so. What a shame that Ms. Gessen believes that sexual adventures of a university professor from America are more important for the Russians to know about than journalism in defense of human rights.

NEW RADIO LIBERTY OFFERS SEXY STORIES AND IMAGES, SITE VISITS DECLINE

New Radio Liberty - Masha Gessen's redesigned website puts more emphasis on soft stories and sexy images but site visits decline.

Many headlines point out that Korn was fired or asked to resign for destroying the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, but some also blame Masha Gessen.

Many reports also note that Gessen’s redesigned Radio Liberty has lost a large number of visitors. Gessen has also lost  website visitors for her previous employer and had a spotty employment record, but Korn assured BBG members that she was by far the best qualified and the best language-service director in the entire history of RFE/RL — a completely false and misleading claim.

Moskovskie Vedomosti headline says: Masha Gessen expertly ruined Washington’s propaganda horn: President of Radio Liberty dismissed. Маша Гессен мастерски развалила пропагандитский рупор Вашингтона: уволен президент радиостанции «Свобода».

RBK headline says: Masha Gessen destroyed Moscow team of Radio Liberty. Маша Гессен развалила московскую редакцию радио “Свобода”.

Gessen continues to deny that she had anything to do with the mass firings, which happened late September 2012 after her appointment was announced but before she officially came on board on October 1, 2012. She told Izvestia that while she worked for Korn as a consultant in 2012, her “consultancy was not related to personnel matters.” She had previously accused independent Russian journalists of slander for suggesting that she may have had a role in the dismissals to allow her to bring on board her own friends and associates. Among those fired by RFE/RL were fully qualified employees with disabilities. Slander was made a criminal offense in Putin’s Russia and the law is seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to silence free media.

Anybody who had known about Steven Korn’s mad plan to fire most of Radio Liberty Moscow staff and went along with it — and Gessen had to know about it beforehand if she had not actually suggested or demanded it herself, something she denies — makes such a person just as dangerous as a manager at a public U.S. institution like RFE/RL as Mr. Korn, Ms. Ragona, and Mr. Cohen have turned out to be. The idea that Gessen did not know in advance about the firing plan and had nothing to do with it just does not sound plausible to Russian media or anybody else despite her accusations of slander against independent Russian journalists. And of course, Steven Korn, Julia Ragona, and Dale Cohen defend their actions in Moscow even now.

Latest Russian Media Reports on Radio Liberty Crisis, December 25

U.S. Media Reports on Radio Liberty Crisis, Dec. 24-25, 2012

Russian and International Media on Radio Liberty Crisis, Updated Dec. 25, 2012

September

October

November

December

In one of the best investigative journalism reports on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a contributing editor for Vanity Fair Judy Bachrach describes in an article for World Affairs journal the complete disintegration of the taxpayer-funded Radio Liberty.

In addition to reporting that RFE/RL president and CEO had been told by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to vacate his post by February, Bachrach also reports that Andrei Babitsky, a renowned war correspondent who was captured and tortured by Russian soldiers during the Chechnya atrocities, was ordered to apologize to Masha Gessen, the new Russian Service director appointed by Korn. Babitsky criticized her management of the Russian Service, and she, like Korn, does not take kindly to criticism. Babitsky may have a chance of not getting canned, however, because the BBG took away Korn’s authority to fire any more employees, Bachrach reported.

Bachrach quotes BBG member Victor Ashe: “To turn Russian dissidents who used to be strong proponents of RFE and RL into opponents—even Vladimir Putin couldn’t have arranged that on his worst day.” The current management “does not understand why people go to RFE/RL websites.” Bachrach reported about “pathetically smutty videos,” which were put on the RFE/RL Kazakh Service website to attract a younger audience.

Bachrach concludes that under Steven Korn’s “brief aegis and that of his most trusted aide, Julia Ragona, who is vice president for content, Radio Liberty, a onetime free speech and hard news beacon, has turned into a bloodbath, full of fear, fury—and almost no sound at all.”

She also explained that it was not easy for her to get permission to attend the open meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), but eventually she pressured the BBG staff to admit her.

“As it turned out, you really and truly needed a ticket to get into the December meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors to try to figure out what’s going on with the complete disintegration of the taxpayer-funded Radio Liberty. Or to find out the fate of its highly problematic president, Steven Korn, a former CNN executive who has both led and fueled its meltdown. And as it also turned out, the board representatives were in no hurry to give that ticket to the press or, once the meeting was over, to encourage the press (i.e., me) to linger in order to discover what was bubbling beneath the blather. Korn especially wasn’t open to chat, his ruddy face as grim and rigid as Stonehenge, and his response to my interview request—a terse “I’m going on vacation”—as true a thing as he’s ever said.”

READ MORE: Korn Fired: Meltdown at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, by Judy Bachrach, World Affairs, December 24, 2012

Our far form complete list of Russian and international media reports on the Radio Liberty crisis had:

56 articles for September,

45 articles for October,

54 articles for November,

85 articles so far for December.

Read: Russian and international media on Radio Liberty crisis, Dec. 20, 2012, PDF.

Radio Liberty in Exile Photo

Recent attacks in Russian by Masha Gessen, the new head of Radio Liberty’s Russian Service, on leaders of American human rights NGOs backfired by generating more negative media coverage in Russia about her role at the U.S. government-funded news station and the role its other American executives, particularly Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Steven Korn.

Radio Liberty in Exile Photo

In an interview with Russian media, Gessen spoke dismissively of Ann Noonan, executive director of the independent Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) who at a meeting last Friday in Washington of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of RFE/RL, defended dozens of experienced Radio Liberty journalists who had been fired on orders of Steven Korn and replaced with Masha Gessen and her team.

Noonan made a special plea to the BBG to rehire the journalists, including two fully qualified staffers with disabilities, Bella Kaloeva and Aleksey Kuznetsov.

Gessen dismissed Noonan by describing her activities and those of other CUSIB members as “a trick with mirrors: they serve themselves illuminate themselves inflate scandal.”

Noonan spoke highly critically about decisions taken by RFE/RL president Steven Korn but did not mention Masha Gessen in her presentation to the BBG. During one of the BBG meetings in Washington last week, the head of Freedom House David Kramer also expressed his shock at the treatment of Radio Liberty journalists by RFE/RL executives.

Link to the video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/c1n5XEgQ66w

Masha Gessen

Gessen claims that she had no role in the dismissals, which came after her appointment was announced but before she came officially on board. Independent Russian journalists speculate, however, that as a consultant working in early 2012 for Mr. Korn, she knew about the dismissals in advance, may have suggested them or at least concurred so that she could bring on board her own associates. Gessen accused some of the journalists making these suggestions of slander, which was recently made a criminal offense in Russia by the Parliament and President Putin.

Nearly all major Russian human rights and opposition leaders protested against the firing of the journalists and believe that Korn and Gessen are destroying Radio Liberty and its effectiveness in Russia. Russian human rights leaders also blame RFE/RL Vice President for Content Julia Ragona and Vice President for Administration Dale Cohen who had planned the dismissals, including use of security guards to bar the journalists from entering the Moscow office and preventing them from saying good bye to their radio and online audience of many years.

Gessen’s media comments, including her claim that the Broadcasting Board of Governors did not order an inspection of Radio Liberty but merely a review of the situation in Russia brought a rebuke from BBG member Ambassador Victor Ashe. In an interview with Lenta.ru, Ashe countered Gessen’s claims and confirmed that a review by the BBG will take place and will be focused on the circumstances of the firing of Radio Liberty staffers. According to Ashe, the decision to fire Radio Liberty journalists was made by Steven Korn without the sanction of the BBG. Victor Ashe refused to confirm previous reports concerning the imminent departure of Korn from RFE/RL. BBG Watch has learned that BBG members had agreed not to comment on this issue for the time being.

BBG Watch reported, quoting reliable sources at the BBG headquarters in Washington, that BBG members had given Korn 45 days to leave his post and stripped him of the authority to fire any more RFE/RL employees.

Lenta.ru reported that Ashe described Gessen’s comments as “stunning” and “totally untrue.” Ashe stressed that the Deputy Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Jeffrey Trimble was directed “to turn over all the rocks and get to the bottom of the events.” “If Ms. Gessen feels her actions are not part of the review then she is mistaken,” Ashe said, adding “as far as I am concerned, she is skating on thin ice.”

Despite Steven Korn’s assurances to the BBG last September that the whole controversy will blow over in a week or two, the list of mostly highly negative coverage in the Russian and international media keeps growing every day. New articles are appearing especially fast in December, including the last few days, because of Gessen’s comments to media. BBG Watch compiled links to 230 articles, but the list is far from complete.

Russian and International Media on Radio Liberty Crisis, Dec. 19, 2012

Also reporting on the Radio Liberty crisis are newspapers and online media in Kazakhstan. Korn, Ragona and Cohen ordered the firing of four Radio Liberty Kazakh Service journalists in Prague (half of the service in Prague). RFE/RL ordered private contractors in Kazakhstan to produce videos, which turned out to be morally offensive with sexually suggestive content. A young Kazakh woman journalist, Nazira Darimbet, who challenged Mr. Korn and protested against the offensive videos (which were removed from the RFE/RL website after they produced a moral outrage in Kazakhstan) did not have her RFE/RL contract renewed. Ann Noonan mentioned Ms. Darimbet in her presentation to the BBG, which was reported one of the most popular websites in Kazakhstan, Zonakz and included a link to Noonan’s video: Уволенные сотрудники радио Свобода/Азаттык могут быть восстановлены. The article suggested that Russian and Kazakh journalists fired by Korn may be reinstated although the BBG and individual BBG members have not made any comments about such a possibility.

Fired Radio Liberty Kazakh Journalist Nazira Darimbet

A Kazakh language website, Serke.org, also reported on Nazira Darimbet’s plight, Қазақ журналистерінің үні Вашингтонға жетті, and she was interviewed on Kazakh TV.

Novaya Gazeta a popular liberal Russian newspaper, owned partly by Mikhail Gorbachev, published Wednesday two new articles on Radio Liberty, a commentary by Aleksandr Panov and an interview with David Satter conducted by fired Radio Liberty journalist Mikhail Sokolov, one of the best independent political reporters in Russia.

Wikipedia describes Novaya Gazeta as a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. Four Novaya Gazeta journalists were murdered between 2001 and 2009. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was critical of Russia’s actions in Chechnya, wrote for Novaya Gazeta until her assassination on October 7, 2006. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and State Duma Deputy Alexander Lebedev own 49% of the newspaper and the paper’s staff controls the remaining 51% of shares. Gorbachev has long been a friend of the paper. He used the money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize to help set up Novaya Gazeta in 1993 and purchase its first computers.

Gorbachev was one of many Russian opposition political figures and human rights leaders who have issued statements or signed petitions protesting the firing of Radio Liberty journalists and the programming changes made by Korn, Ragona, and Gessen. Some of the petitions were sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the BBG, and members of the U.S. Congress. Korn’s deputies, Ragona and Cohen, continue to defend the firing of Radio Liberty journalists and attack their critics. See: RFE/RL executives claim strong BBG support, ignore reports of Steven Korn’s imminent departure. Cohen did not respond to BBG Watch’s offer to publish his answers and comments to the questions posed by BBG Watch. Despite receiving several requests, the BBG’s Office of Communications and External Affairs has not commented on Gessen’s attack on Ann Noonan and Gessen’s claim that the BBG-ordered review is not an inspection of Radio Liberty and her role.

###

Inspection of “Svoboda” (Radio Liberty)

by Aleksandr Panov

Novaya Gazeta

19/12/2012

Federal agency of the Government of the United States (the Broadcasting Board of Governors – BBG), which controls U.S. broadcasting to foreign countries, intends to investigate the circumstances of the reorganization of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty.

As it became known, “reform,” accompanied by the appointment to the post of the head (of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty) of journalist Masha Gessen, mass layoffs of staffers, and the closing of radio broadcasting, were criticized at the BBG meeting by the executive director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting Anne Noonan and the head of Freedom House, David Kramer. The Broadcasting Board of Governors expressed concern about falling ratings: over the last two months the website traffic of the station fell by 50 percent. According to BBG Watch, at a closed meeting of the board, David Kramer rebuked the president of Radio Liberty Steven Korn that what he did to the radio station in Russia was “worse than (what) Putin (did).”

Anne Noonan called on the leadership to reinstate the staff of the Moscow office sacked in September. She stated that the new leadership of the station fired highly qualified and experienced staffers Bella Kaloyev and Alexei Kuznetsov, who are persons with disabilities, and instead hired less qualified and less experienced employees. The new chief editor of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty Masha Gessen claims that the decision to reform was made before her appointment. According to Gessen, this was due to the need to modernize and change the format. In November, laid-off employees in November launched their own website SvobodaNew.com – Radio Liberty In Exile.

At the meeting in Washington, BBG’s interim presiding governor Michael Lynton announced the intention to undertake a thorough analysis of the restructuring of the station, which occurred in the autumn of 2012. According to the official press release, the Board instructed the Deputy Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Jeffrey Trimble to review the situation in Russia. The study must be completed within six months. In addition, Board members will go to Russia in early 2013 to meet with officials and representatives of civil society and to explore options for broadcasting Voice of America ​​and Radio Liberty programs.

In an interview with Lenta.ru Masha Gessen has denied media reports of an impending inspection. “A review of the situation,” in her opinion, is not , “an audit,” and her presentation of strategy at the meeting in Washington was perceived by the BBG as “very good.” BBG Watch, referenced by the Russian media, Gessen described as “slimy”. “All that they publish, is always based on anonymous sources who claim that they have reliable information about private meetings or unpublished BBG decisions BBG,” explained Gessen.

See also:

Radio – It’s Not a Shoe Factory

During the Cold War, Radio Liberty and Voice of America, ​​by overcoming jammers, conveyed to Soviet listeners an alien ideology and American point of view on world politics. But not only. Top-notch jazz and rock music, reviews of banned books, conversations about religion, interviews with interesting people – listeners got what they have been demanding and what they could not get at home. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, this kind of Russia focus was, to say the least, minimized. This was a mistake, the fruits of which America is reaping today.

Love-candy period of a romantic relationship with America ended very quickly. Instead of a new “Marshall Plan,” Russians were offered frozen “Bush chicken legs.” Instead of a strategic partnership – NATO’s eastward expansion.

Foreign voices of the romantic era of the early 90s in Russia, which were received without interference, gradually returned to where they were “before perestroika and glasnost.” A place friendly to Americans of the late Gorbachev era became hostile. Every Russian citizen was told that America’s intrigues are the root of all our problems.

And now the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a congressional hearing noted with some surprise that America is losing the information war to Al-Jazeera, Russia Today and the Chinese channel CCTV. It should not be surprising, however, if we compare the forces and resources assigned to the production of these channels by the Arabs, the Kremlin and the Chinese Communist authorities with endless “reorganizations” conducted by U.S. broadcasters, poorly presented as to who and why they “reorganize” and generally what to do with the Russian audience .

At a time when the federal television channels and national media in Russia are under tight control of the Kremlin, it appears that Washington has neither the strength nor the ability to withstand the powerful wave of “anti-Americanism,” which will be effective as long as the majority of Russian citizens draws information and assessments from TV. There is no “better alternative” for them from the American information providers.

Radio – It’s Not a Shoe Factory

Novaya Gazeta

19/12/2012

You have to understand what (Radio Liberty) means for Russia and for the post-communist space

David Satter worked for many years in the Soviet Union and Russia as a correspondent for The Financial Times, and then special correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. More than six months ago, he was seen as a potential candidate to head the Russian Service of Radio Liberty.

But as you know, in September, the president of (Radio Free Europe/) Radio Liberty Steven Korn appointed Masha Gessen as director of the Russian Service, firing about 40 employees of the Moscow office.

Sokolov – David, what do you think about what happened in the Moscow bureau of Radio Liberty with the mass dismissal?

Satter – I think that after all this story is not over. I can say that I know people in Washington who do not accept what happened. There are various discussions which are underway about what to do to . Although they ( RFE / RL managers) are now hiring new people. And it will be very complicated. But I repeat that all who were fired, should return to work.

I think it was a mistake on the part of the BBG (U.S. federal agency in charge of international broadcasting). They found the man, Steven Korn, who does not know the history of Radio Liberty, does not speak Russian, has no experience, does not know the culture of Russia. He behaves like an ordinary American businessman who has employees who sell detergent …

Sokolov – He has a factory making shoes …

Satter – Oh, I see. Shoes. Here he sees that sales have fallen. What to do? Dismiss all. He acted like businessmen who wants to increase sales. And it did not work. Such errors happen in the United States: in corporations, in companies. The new man wants to show how smart he is …

Sokolov – “Sales” are still falling, and the traffic to the site of Radio Liberty has fallen substantially …

Satter – This is due to the fact that the reputation (of Radio Liberty) has been ruined. It was created over decades decades. One does not throw it away in of one minute. And this was done the moment they fired employees.

See also:

Inspection of “Svoboda” (Radio Liberty)

And besides, they instantly lose the level of expertise, identity and profile. It is obvious that the “new” Radio Liberty will be just a shadow of the old.

I think it’s not the end of the story. Although I can be mistaken. But what they do is very unacceptable, very unprofessional.

I saw a video of the roundtable with Lyudmila Alekseeva and other human rights defenders, representatives of laid-off staffers, and Korn. True, I saw only parts of the video. But it is quite clear that this man (Korn) is unqualified, he does not understand what he says when he talks about numbers. He does not understand the role of Radio Liberty, the tradition of this radio station, what it mean for Russia and for the post-communist space.

And I am not opposed to doing something to modernize. But betting only on the Internet is very risky. You can block it. During a crisis, the situation may arise when Radio Liberty will remain almost the only reliable source from which people can get information, as in 1991. Although Ekho Moskvy was working then to some degree.

This is a huge loss for American public diplomacy. These decisions can not be tolerated.

One needs to restore the old situation and then rationally think about some changes that should be made in the organization as a whole that could be justified. But not to purge the whole editorial staff.

Sokolov – And it could end badly. Through the deliberate lowering of (content) quality, it will become yellow press. Why the American taxpayers should pay for materials about sex shops?

Satter – I also don’t understand. I’ve seen sad examples. In Russia, there are those who talk more and better about such topics.

There will be hearings in the Senate, and, if I am invited, as promised, I will speak in detail about all this.

Mikhail Sokolov – special for Novaya Gazeta

BBG Watch Commentary

It used to be the job of the director of Radio Liberty’s Russian Service to counter Soviet and later Putin’s spin designed to confuse and deceive media consumers. But dozens of Radio Liberty journalists who had done that were fired without any warning last September on orders of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Steven Korn and replaced by Masha Gessen and her team. This produced an outrage among Radio Liberty supporters in Russia, particularly among human rights leaders, like Lyudmila Alexeeva, and opposition political figures like Mikhail Gorbachev.

(Radio Liberty in Exile photo.)

So when the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency that funds and oversees RFE/RL, finally ordered last week a review of Steven Korn’s personnel and other management decisions, those responsible for the dismissals under Korn — including his Vice President for Administration Dale Cohen and Vice President for Content Julia Ragona — went into spin overdrive, presenting the BBG action not as an investigation of their actions but merely as a review of the situation in Russia and building bridges with the old audience and supporters who have left Radio Liberty in disgust.

No doubt these managers and executives fear a full-blown investigation or even a review of their own role in the destruction of the Radio Liberty Russian Service, particularly their role in the brutal dismissal of longtime journalists, which triggered the crisis. There was moral outrage in Russia when Russian media reported that RFE/RL executives used security guards against experienced, dedicated and loyal journalists to bar them from entering their news bureau in Moscow, and even prevented them, after they were fired, from saying good bye to their audience of many years, both on radio and online.

The job of spinning the news from the BBG in Russia was taken up by Masha Gessen, the new director of the Russian Service. When media outlets in Russia reported over the weekend that the BBG had ordered an inspection of Radio Liberty, Gessen wrote on her Facebook page:

“It is an idiotic task work to refute nonsense. But I have to. No, there is no inspection of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty. To everyone who shares a canard (false media report) about the alleged inspection announced by Michael Lynton, I advise to search on Google words: “Michael Lynton”, and let’s say, ‘Russian’. Well, or ‘Inspection’. Well, or what else you are able to invent. There is no announcement. End of message.”

When someone challenged her, Gessen wrote:

“Oh, that’s it! You think that the words BBG commissioned a six-month review of the situation in Russia can be translated as “Michael Lynton announced an inspection of the Russian Service.” But in fact they are translated as “BBG commissioned review of the situation in Russia, which should be completed in 6 months. These are the difficulties of translation.”

Masha Gessen also said in a Russian media interview that during a closed BBG meeting in Washington last Friday, “the strategy of the development of the Russian Service (under her directorship) was perceived very positively.” “There was no talk of concerns; no concerns were expressed.”

Gessen also attacked Ann Noonan, Executive Director of the independent, nonpartisan Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org), who spoke at the BBG meeting in Washington in defense of the fired Radio Liberty journalists.

BBG Watch has learned that inquiries from CUSIB whether the BBG had sanctioned Gessen’s comments about Noonan were left unanswered.

Masha Gessen’s spin for the Russian media was too much for BBG member Victor Ashe. When contacted by Lenta.ru, which had reported earlier on Gessen’s statements, Victor Ashe said that “Radio Liberty Russian Service Director Masha Gessen distorted the sense of a decision made during a closed meeting of the BBG that an inspection be conducted at Radio Liberty.”

Американский регулятор подтвердил инспекцию на “Радио Свобода” – Lenta.ru, Dec. 18, 2012

In an interview with Lenta.ru, Ashe confirmed that a review by the BBG will take place and will be focused on the circumstances of the firing of Radio Liberty staffers. According to his words, the decision to fire Radio Liberty journalists was made by Steven Korn without the sanction of the BBG. Victor Ashe refused to confirm previous reports concerning the imminent departure of Korn from RFE/RL. BBG Watch has learned that BBG members had agreed not to comment on this issue for the time being.

BBG Watch reported, quoting reliable sources at the BBG headquarters in Washington, that BBG members had given Korn 45 days to leave his post and stripped him of the authority to fire any more RFE/RL employees.

Lenta.ru reported that BBG Watch published a statement by Victor Ashe describing Gessen’s comments as “stunning” and “totally untrue.” Ashe stressed that the Deputy Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Jeffrey Trimble was directed “to turn over all the rocks and get to the bottom of the events.”

“If Ms. Gessen feels her actions are not part of the review then she is mistaken,” Ashe said. In his interview with Lenta.ru, Ashe confirmed that he did in fact make this comment to BBG Watch. Ashe also denied suggestions from Dale Cohen that BBG members, including himself, went gaga over Gessen when they met her in Washington.

Dale Cohen has accused BBG Watch of spreading lies and not seeking balancing comments. He has not responded, however, to BBG Watch questions to him posted online. BBG Watch in fact frequently seeks and posts comments or provides statements from BBG spokespersons, other officials, and BBG members.

Lenta.ru reported that, according to Masha Gessen, the firings of Radio Liberty journalists were decided before she came on board and were due to the necessity to change the format. However, Victor Ashe said that for him “it is difficult to believe” that Gessen did not know in advance about the imminent firings of staffers, Lenta.ru reported.

Other RFE/RL executives responsible for the crisis at Radio Liberty joined Gessen in downplaying the significance of the review ordered by the BBG.

RFE/RL Vice President for Content Julia Ragona who oversaw the process of the selection of the journalists to be fired, including some of the most popular and most influential in Russia, made this statement to the RFE/RL staff after the BBG meetings in Washington, which she attended by flying business class from Prague with Dale Cohen, as reported by BBG sources (BBG Watch has learned that inquiries directed to the BBG if Ragona and Dale indeed flew business class and why went unanswered):

“Jeff’s (IBB Deputy Director Jeff Trimble) six-month review that was mentioned there. And just to put it into context, this is, Jeff is meant to — because all of you know Jeff’s, his background, his abilities, his connections — to work with the sort of, the audience that was on the medium wave, the people who are upset to have lost their medium wave — aren’t we all — to try to build bridges with the new team. It’s largely for the sake of trying to build relationships that have been, shall we say, damaged, and not for the sake of a review of the strategy, which is how it’s been thrown out there.”

Interesting spin from RFE/RL executives responsible for the current crisis at Radio Liberty and a public diplomacy crisis for the United States in Russia. Mr. Putin must be rejoicing to see Radio Liberty being now run by people who have ruined the station’s formerly stellar reputation for hard-hitting, objective, pro-human rights journalism. If Masha Gessen is practicing her spin on Russian media consumers, and Dale Cohen and Julia Ragona are practicing theirs on RFE/RL staff, it is fair to ask who will counter Putin’s spin in Russia on behalf of American taxpayers who want the Russian people to have access to uncensored news and who are paying salaries of American executives in charge of Radio Liberty.

The fired Radio Liberty journalists and their colleagues who resigned in protest and solidarity have created Radio Liberty in Exile group and started their own website, SvobodaNew.com. Other than their volunteer work, most of them are still unemployed in Putin’s Russia. Their website, which continues the tradition of Radio Liberty journalism, receives no funding from the U.S. government.

(Radio Liberty in Exile photo.)

The PDF copy of the media list has links to individual articles.

The latest report, which did not make this list, is about sharp criticism of Steven Korn’s leadership from Freedom House President David Kramer.

The PDF copy of the media list has links to individual articles.

After Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) fired more than 30 Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow, without letting them say good bye to their audience and hired Masha Gessen to be the new director of its Russian Service, RFE/RL president Steven Korn assured members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) who employ him that the whole controversy will blow over in a week or two. He was wrong.

Media in Russia continue to report on the ongoing crisis at Radio Liberty, as do international media. Most Russian media reports in November focused on the Radio Liberty in Exile group of fired journalists and their new news website SvobodaNew.com.

Our list of Russian and international media reports on the Radio Liberty crisis is far from complete. There have been so far at least 30 new Russian and international news reports in November.

Russian and International Media on Radio Liberty Crisis
In PDF