BBG Watch is reposting CUSIB’s press release:

Justin C. Yu

Justin C. Yu, Chinese American community leader, joins CUSIB Advisory Board

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – www.cusib.org) is delighted that Justin C. Yu, a journalist and Chinese American community leader, has agreed to be a member of our Advisory Board.

Justin Yu is the President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York. Justin Yu worked for twenty-five years as a reporter specializing in immigration issues for World Journal, the largest Chinese newspaper in North America. He is a former president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New York, an umbrella organization encompassing over sixty Chinese American organizations.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting welcomes Justin Yu as a member of its Advisory Board. Mr. Yu brings to our organization a vast knowledge of journalism, political and social conditions in China, Chinese American community’s concerns, and commitment to media freedom and human rights advocacy.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) 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 and works closely with the executive branch, Congress, and media to promote effective multi-channel delivery of news and information to overcome press censorship.

For further information, please contact:

Ann Noonan, co-founder and Executive Director
Tel. 646-251-6069

Ted Lipien, co-founder
Tel. 415-793-1642

You may also email us at: contact@cusib.org.

Dr. Helle Dale, the Heritage Foundation

BBG Watch had reported earlier on the self-censorship by the Voice of America Russian Service to comply with restrictive media laws in Russia with regard to pre-election news coverage. This was done to keep rebroadcasting on a local AM transmitter in Moscow controlled by the Russian government. Helle Dale of the Heritage Foundation has just published an article on the same problem.

Russian Roulette at Voice of America – Helle Dale, Heritage Foundation

Depending on Russian government-funded media to broadcast news from Voice of America (VOA) is about as brain-dead as depending on Russian spaceships to send American astronauts into space or depending on Russian fuel supply for the U.S. ground and air forces in Afghanistan. The outcome will surely not be in America’s interest.

And yet, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has contracted with Voice of Russia for rebroadcasting VOA programs in English. The BBG has closed down most of its own radio transmitters around the world and even closed down VOA’s Russian-language broadcasting in 2008. The board’s reasons are, firstly, to cut costs and, secondly, to move away from radio toward other more glamorous media, like satellite television and the Internet. The fact remains, however, that most of the BBG’s global audience are still radio listeners, and the way U.S. radio programming now gets on the air is through contracts with local broadcasters. Unfortunately, relying on others for rebroadcasting U.S. programs gives them de facto control of programming content and leads to self-censorship.

Helle C. Dale is the Heritage Foundations Senior Fellow in Public Diplomacy studies.

BBG Watch Commentary

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which makes these decisions, ended all direct shortwave radio broadcasts by the VOA Russian Service in 2008. But the problem goes even deeper. Media freedom activists and independent journalists in Russia have accused the VOA Russian Service of having a “pro-Putin bias” and downplaying of reporting on human rights issues.

New media scholar Nikolay Rudenskiy is author of ‘pro-Putin Bias in VOA’ study

The BBG fired and pushed out experienced VOA Russian journalists, many longtime US citizens, and replaced them with poorly-paid and untrained contractors hired directly in Russia or shortly after they arrived in the United States, some of them only on temporary visas.

Some of these full-time contractors, whom the BBG executive staff shamelessly exploits by denying them basic employment rights and benefits, posted on the VOA Russian Service website a fake interview with a Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Russian Accuses Voice Of America Of Fake Interview – NPR

The interview, designed to embarrass Navalny, was probably crafted and passed on to these contract employees by the Russian secret services or their agents. The new VOA Director David Ensor has taken some actions to prevent similar missteps in the future, but he or anybody else at VOA can do only so much against the BBG and IBB bureaucracy and their policies and plans, which are killing U.S. international broadcasting and sound journalism.

Some of the most recent plans of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executive staff have included terminating all Voice of America radio and television broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese to China, ending VOA Tibetan radio broadcasts and creating a CEO position which would not be subject to presidential appointment and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Some of these plans of BBG and IBB executives (China and Tibet) were killed by Congress and by BBG members themselves, but others designed to limit Congressional and public scrutiny of the incompetent BBG staff are still on the table.

BBG Watch News Commentary

The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo and his staff are working behind the scenes on Capitol Hill trying to get approval for legislation that would limit Congressional oversight of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency in charge of taxpayer-supported U.S. international broadcasts, and allow them to hire a new CEO who would not be subject to Senate confirmation and Congressional oversight.

BBG Watch has learned that some of the nine members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors have been kept in the dark about significant details of the efforts by the International Broadcasting Bureau Director Richard Lobo and his staff to reorganize the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasts by reducing Congressional oversight.

At least one BBG member, Victor Ashe, is demanding a more open process and public discussion of the proposed changes and expressing concerns that they could drastically limit public scrutiny of BBG operations. Ashe is the senior Republican member and former mayor of Knoxville and former U.S. Ambassador to Poland.

BBG member Michael Meehan, a Democrat, also raised objections at the Board meeting last month in Miami over the proposal to merge the so-called grantee or surrogate broadcasters into one administrative structure. Meehan is in favor of a more comprehensive merger, including the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB). He indicated that a partial merger may not succeed and would waste the BBG’s time and resources that could be used for more urgent international broadcasting needs.

Ashe has expressed concerns about any kind of merger without public hearings, public input and proper safeguards. Another Democratic BBG member Susan McCue was in favor of the partial merger. She may also be working on the Hill trying to gain support for the proposed legislation to establish the position of a powerful CEO without the need for a Senate confirmation. Both Meehan and McCue supported Ashe at the meeting in Miami in opposing the IBB staff’s proposal to end Voice of America radio broadcasts to Tibet and to close down the VOA Cantonese Service.

Lynne Weil is sworn in by IBB Director Richard Lobo

According to our sources, the newly-hired Director of Communications and External Affairs Lynne Weil who works for IBB Director Lobo sent out an email to BBG members earlier this week informing them about some of her efforts on Capitol Hill to get approval for a new bill that would effectively strip much of Congressional control over the BBG. The proposed legislation would place the Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti, as well as the grantee broadcasters like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) under a CEO who would not be appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate or answerable to the U.S. Congress.

While the IBB staff uses the rationale that this change would establish a journalistic firewall between the Congress and the BBG, critics have pointed out that BBG and IBB executives want to exempt themselves from public and Congressional scrutiny and use the firewall argument as an excuse to get greater control over public funds to spend them as they want and to eliminate news broadcasts to countries like China.

Outside experts familiar with the history of U.S. international broadcasting have pointed out that if it were not for Congressional interventions during the Cold War, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as well as some broadcasting services of the Voice of America, would have been eliminated at the request of the State Department or the White House. But they also point out that more recently an even greater threat has emerged from the entrenched BBG bureaucracy. Members of Congress of both parties again had to step in to save various broadcasting services from being eliminated at the insistence of some BBG members and IBB officials.

Ted Lipien, a former Voice of America acting associate director and co-founder of the nonpartisan Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), warned in a recent Washington Examiner op-ed that the Broadcasting Board of Governors staff is grasping for power in an effort to limit public and Congressional role in U.S. international broadcasting. He argued that editorial as well as administrative independence was the essential element of the success of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in helping to bring down communism in East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. He also argued for strong Congressional oversight of the BBG.

Many journalists working at Voice of America, Radio and TV Marti, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks ( Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa) see the U.S. Congress as their only protection from IBB executives who, among other things, wanted to end VOA broadcasts to Tibet and China and to reduce RFA transmissions to other countries without free media. Critics say that the most needed firewall would be the one between the BBG/IBB staff and the journalists who are committed to U.S. International broadcasting serving the needs of those who need uncensored news and information.

We have learned that the proposed legislation covers several areas, but the last two proposals are the most important as they would create a position of a powerful CEO and would give BBG members and BBG and IBB bureaucrats vastly greater authority to run U.S. international broadcasting without worrying about Congressional mandates and public criticism.

Our sources told us that this is what the legislation proposed by the IBB staff would do:

- Authorizes the Board to hire, fire, and fix the compensation of a CEO answering directly to the Board.

- Authorizes the Board to delegate certain of its authorities to the CEO, which the CEO would exercise subject to the supervision of the Board.

- Converts the IBB Director position into the CEO position, preserving the journalistic firewall by eliminating the requirement that the position be Presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed.

- Clarifies that the VOA and OCB Directors report to the CEO.
 

We have learned that at least some BBG members were upset about not getting this information earlier and in greater detail and by Ms. Weil’s directive not to share the information that she provided with anyone outside of the Board. She reminded them that at its January 2012 meeting, the Board voted to pursue legislation to create a CEO of United States international broadcasting in the context of a proposed International Broadcasting Innovation Act. This action was planned while the BBG was still led by Walter Isaacson who had plans to turn U.S. international broadcasting into a CNN-like operation and allow it to operate in the United States like NPR and PBS. Isaacson resigned as BBG Chairman and left the Board.

Our sources told us that Lobo and Weil informed BBG members that they have identified an opportunity to implement the front-end goal of the International Broadcasting Innovation Act (IBIA) in the current Congress, rather than the 113th as originally envisioned: adding a provision to a foreign affairs authorization bill now being prepared in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  Conversations with key House Foreign Affairs Committee majority staff indicate that this initial window of opportunity is open only for a brief time, Weil reportedly told BBG members. Weil did not identify House Republican staffers who may have told her about the “window of opportunity.” She also did not disclose information about any contacts with members of the Senate and their staff.

According to BBG Watch sources, Lobo and Weil did inform BBG members that the proposed provision creating the position of a CEO was revised and no longer includes language regarding the relationship between the CEO and the grantees, to be settled later upon further consideration by the Board. This proposed provision enables the Board to decide the CEO’s responsibilities, authorities and compensation, as well as to hire or fire the incumbent, who would answer directly to the Board.

It appears that the Congress would have no role in this process. Apparently, not even the heads of the Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and the grantee organizations were informed about the latest proposals for the authorities of a new CEO as outlined in recent communications to BBG members from Director Lobo and Lynne Weil.

The secrecy of the process and the way the BBG/IBB staff is trying to rush the proposed legislation, which may have a significant impact on the ability of the United States to inform and influence foreign audiences, raises very strong concerns. It appears that even BBG members are being kept in the dark and are ordered by bureaucrats to keep quiet.

American taxpayers who pay the salaries of these officials and pay for U.S. international broadcasting have the right to know what is being proposed. They should be invited to offer comments and be part of this process. Any proposal that puts Broadcasting Board of Governors and International Broadcasting Bureau officials outside of public scrutiny should be rejected by the Board and by members of Congress.

Chen as Tank Man - 2011 Christmas Card to Free Blind Chinese Human Rights Activist Chen Guangcheng

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executives and public relations specialists should be letting everyone know about outstanding reporting by Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Voice of America (VOA) on the plight of Chinese blind activist Chen Guangcheng, but strangely they have remained silent.

The BBG public relations office issued a few days ago a press release announcing that “VOA Launches English Learning For Vietnamese” and earlier they bragged that OMG! Meiyu, Voice of America’s trendy Chinese-English video blog, is attracting new fans at the iTunes store.

But when it comes to announcing real news-generating coverage and journalistic achievements by VOA and RFA in reporting to China, there has been a total silence.

Perhaps, this may explain why.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors and its International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executives have just imposed a 17 hours VOA radio news silence in China by replacing two hours of live VOA Mandarin radio broadcasts with repeat programs without live news. Radio listeners in China now have to wait 17 hours between live VOA Mandarin newscasts.

This change was imposed while Chen Guangcheng is still not permitted to leave China. Earlier, the same BBG and IBB executive staffers tried to completely eliminate VOA Mandarin and Cantonese radio and TV broadcasts. They would have succeeded if their plans were not blocked, first in Congress, and later by BBG members themselves.

They still, however, try to downplay the importance of VOA and RFA broadcasts and real news reporting to China, particularly via shortwave radio.

The BBG public relations specialists have ignored Chen’s statement made in a phone interview that he is listening to VOA Mandarin radio program in his hospital room in Beijing. This information was not worth a press release, even though USA Today reported a few that Chen Guangcheng was inspired to become a human rights activist by listening to the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

In a telephone interview with VOA China Branch reporter Ye Bing on Monday, Chen noted that he had listened to 30 minutes of the Sunday night (Beijing time, Sunday morning EDT) VOA Mandarin live news program which extensively featured information pertaining to his case, then expressed his gratitude to VOA for drawing international attention to his plight. When asked how he managed to access the broadcast, Chen mischievously answered: “There’s always a way.”

Several VOA and RFA employees have provided BBG Watch with information about their extensive coverage of the Chen Guangcheng’s story.

Radio Free Asia (RFA)

All four RFA/China services have provided coverage of the Chen story, with saturation reporting by Mandarin and Cantonese. Mandarin’s interviews with Chen were picked up by Reuters for two days in a row. In addition to intensive coverage of Chen on the current affairs APR programs, Mandarin feature programs “Journey of the Soul” and “Weekend Teahouse” explored in-depth the issues involved in the Chen story. Mandarin call-in program Democracy Salon devoted two entire shows having guest commentators recounting Chen’s work and answering caller questions about Chen. Call-in hosts on Hotline and Voices of the People answered caller questions on the latest on Chen. Mandarin stringers all over the world reported reactions to the story from Berlin to London to Toronto.

Here are the translations of just some of the listeners’ quotes and thoughts from inside China:

RFA Cantonese:

1. Nickname “Little citizen” from Guangzhou: The case of Chen Guangsheng indicates that the more the Communist wants to maintain stability, the more the society becomes instable. The whole system (of the Communist regime) should reflect themselves. The regime would be given up finally.

2. Mr. Zhang from Zhuhai, Guangdong: I heard the news of Chen Guangsheng from RFA programs. Many other overseas radio including a radio program in Russia also comment on Chen. It is a shame for the (Chinese ) government..

3. Mr. Li from Jiangsu: Chen Guangsheng is not against the Communist. He just wants to speak out for the unfairness and injustice. He doesn’t want to stay silent. However, the source of the unfairness and injustice is from the Communist government. Then Chen becomes a thorn in the Communist’s side.

4. Mr. Chen from Shanghai: The most terrible thing is to persecute a blind person, even his whole family. It is comforting that there are some Chinese people who have the consciences such as Guo Yushan and Zengzhu, stand up for him. Wang Lejun and Chen Guangsheng are totally different kind of persons but the same they have no way out so they went to the US Embassy.

5. Mr. Huang from Zhengjiang, Guangdong: It is a failure of the Chinese government to maintain stability. They spend 60 million yuan to surveillance Chen Guangsheng but Chen still could escape. Money is not everything.

6. Mr. She from Guangzhou: I feel very sad as a Chinese. Many people including him really want to see Chen Guangsheng can finally go to the US, not stay in China.

7. Mr. Wang from Guangxi: The case of Chen Guangsheng becomes a very hot topic among the students at Guangxi University. However, we just have very little information about Chen’s case. Many students got rid of the internet firewall to learn the truth. However, some student still do not understand why a blind person can get so much international concern.

RFA Mandarin:

From Hotline 5/8.

Caller from Hebei province: Many Chinese audience would question China’s official media’s report on Chen Guangcheng. They would ask if Chen is an ordinary blind person. Why he can get into the U.S. embassy to China? …Foreign media may not be 100 percent fair and balanced when reporting Chen’s case but they are no doubt more credible than those of Chinese official media on this matter.

Caller from Jiangxi province: Chen’s case could be a test for Sino-U.S. relations. It may test how much they can tolerate each other.

Caller from Tianjin.: It is very important to pay attention to Chen’s case. It is equally important to know how Chen’s case became such a crisis.

From 5/3 Hotline

Caller from Hubei province.: I want to thank those who helped Chen escape to freedom. Chen is a role model of all blind people who stand up for their rights.

Caller from Guangdong province: The name Chen Guangcheng has become sensitive words in China’s government controlled internet. Internet users have to alter the words to avoid their message being blocked.

Caller from Fujian province: I heard the story from RFA’s APR news that Chen Guangcheng has successfully escaped to the U.S. embassy. I am thrilled to learn about it and I want to congratulate him on this.

From 5/8 VOP

Caller from Guangdong province: I wish Chinese government keep its promise to allow Chen Guangcheng to go abroad. But if Chinese government broke its promise, it will ruin its credibility. Rights groups and U.S. congress would blame the Obama administration and Chen Guangcheng will be sent back to his hometown. It would be a disaster for the three parties and Chinese government would be the biggest loser.

Caller from Hubei province: Chen Guangcheng is a good person. He has been mistreated. I hope Chinese government prosecutes the outlaws who involved in Chen’s case. If Chen didn’t seek the U.S. government for help, then who else could help him? Only the western democratic governments can bring justice back to Chen.

From 5/7 VOP

Caller from Shanxi province: It is totally understandable that a decent person as Chen Guangcheng who sacrificed his own well-being for others was eventually helped by other noble people to escape to safety. I wish Chen a better life in the U.S.

From 5/8 Salon

Caller from Shandong province: Chinese official media provide so little information on Chen Guangcheng, only saying that Chen is now in hospital and he can apply for studying abroad via normal channel. I just want to say in regard to Chen’s case that when a gentleman has to deal with a rogue, it is the gentleman that always loses.

Caller from Jiangsu province: We are truly thrilled to learn that Chen Guangcheng has escaped from captivity and we are also puzzled as how can a blind person make such an escape?

RFA/Mandarin is on the air Beijing time:

11:00 pm – 6:00 am 7:00 – 8:00 am 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

Voice of America (VOA)

VOA China Branch has reported extensively on Mr. Chen’s fight against injustices in recent years, especially after he escaped from house arrest and took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in late April. To date, reporter Ye Bing has interviewed Mr. Chen four times since last Thursday (03 May). His reports have been cited by the Associated Press and The Washington Post.

03 May: In a ten-minute interview aired on a live China Branch radio broadcast on May 3, Chen Guangcheng told VOA reporter Ye Bing that he was visited by a high-level Chinese official who, in addition to bringing a gift of flowers, issued assurances that justice will be meted out in accordance with the law if Chen’s story of abuses proves true.

07 May: Chen Guangcheng expressed serious concern for the fate of his nephew, Chen Kegui, and called on the outside world to closely follow the case as it developed. Before the line was disconnected, Mr. Chen noted that he had listened to 30 minutes of the previous night’s Mandarin news show.

08 May: Mr. Chen told reporter Ye Bing that he has not been allowed to meet with any of his friends, family members, and supporters attempting to visit him in his Beijing hospital room. Mr. Chen reported that he brought the issue up with a government official, who in turn said that due to the sensitivity of the case, it would be best if he did not see visitors for the time being.

09 May: Mr. Chen refuted media reports that he has finished the process of passport application, saying that he has not been given an opportunity to take any steps in the application process such as filing paperwork or taking a passport photo. Mr. Chen also said that Chinese authorities have charged his sister-in-law with sheltering a criminal and threatened her with imminent detainment. The wife of Chen Guangcheng’s nephew, who has been missing since 26 April, was also sought by authorities and threatened with arrest if she did not appear to sign unknown documents within 24 hours, he said.

VOA building in Washington, D.C.

One of the great things about the Voice of America (VOA) is its location at 330 Independence Avenue, SW in Washington, DC, near the Capitol and within easy access to all Washington area news sources and events. Former BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson, who had resigned earlier this year, wanted to move VOA to an office building somewhere near the Dulles airport. It would have been a foolish idea for a news organization like the Voice of America to give up the best possible real estate in downtown Washington. Mercifully, it died with Isaacson’s departure. In these difficult economic times, US taxpayers are in no mood to pay millions of dollars in relocation costs to support grandiose plans of government officials who are political appointees.

But there may be another potential threat to VOA’s use of the two buildings on Independence Avenue that are owned and maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA). Sources have told BBG Watch that a group known as L88, which describes itself as Government Strategic Operational Asset Investment Program targeting global assets of U.S. Government agencies in partnership with its stable of investment partners and others, has been engaged in secret talks with GSA officials about the buildings used by VOA. The General Services Administration owns and leases over 9,600 buildings nationwide.

BBG Watch has learned that the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo and other top IBB officials know about these talks.

Since these are valuable historic government buildings used by the Voice of America as well as the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, there are legitimate concerns about the outcome of any talks or negotiations.

We would like to know why they are conducted in secret and why other potentially interested parties have not been invited to participate. Are there any real or potential conflicts of interest involving government and/or BBG grantee organizations officials and their current and/or former private businesses, associates, friends, and investments? Will any transaction that may result be open to bids?

In a meeting on March 8, 2012, Board members had approved BBG’s role in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) lease arrangement with the very same investment group L88. The BBG will participate as “co-obligor” in the proposed lease arrangement between RFE/RL and L88 of the RFE/RL headquarters lease in Prague, Czech Republic. The description of the proposed transaction was provided to the Board members by the International Broadcasting Bureau Director Richard Lobo. There is very little information about the financial exposure of the BBG, and consequently US taxpayers’, in this particular transaction with L88.

BBG and IBB executive staffers like secrecy and avoid public and Congressional scrutiny and oversight as much as possible. That’s way they prefer doing business through the grantee organizations like RFE/RL. They want to push forward with the merger of the grantees without Congressional and public hearings. They have plans to hire a CEO with extensive but still undefined powers who would not be answerable to Congress. And they want to keep eliminating Voice of America programs and jobs since they fall under stricter rules of public scrutiny.

Members of Congress should be asking a lot of questions about the managers running this agency and their plans.

If indeed L88 is now involved in secret talks with GSA about the historic VOA buildings in Washington, DC, Director Lobo has an obligation to share whatever information he has with IBB and VOA employees and to keep them informed if he learns anything new.

If GSA has plans that would affect the ownership and management of this property, this should be an open and transparent process. The public has the right to know. Other potentially interested parties should know as well.

These are not only historic and valuable buildings. They are also very important to the Voice of America and its mission of providing news and information to critical overseas audiences. They are the property of all Americans, as is the Voice of America, its brand name, and its broadcasts. They can’t be disposed of or moved around from one location to another just because one or two political appointees or other officials think it’s a good idea. Government officials have a duty to explain their decisions to the public and to seek public input whenever public institutions, public property or public money are involved.

by The Federalist

When Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and its International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) officials brag about growing audience numbers overseas, taxpayers and members of Congress should always ask what are these audiences actually listening to or watching: is it uncensored American, international and national news with hard-hitting commentary or are they getting English lessons on iTunes and innocuous lifestyle features that anyone in the private sector could possibly even sell to a foreign broadcaster? We’re not saying that cultural programs are bad as part of a well-rounded program, which includes news, but since BBG officials eliminate newscasts, even to China, there is a need for a better disclosure of inconvenient facts that may lead to questioning of BBG audience and impact claims.

Our sources are always looking for these rarely reported facts relating to the BBG and IBB staff. More often than not they find a something worth commenting on.

Here’s one:

We have a web version of the “JakartaGlobe” and an article titled “Voice of America Leans on Indonesia to Alter Broadcast Law.”

Some years ago, the Indonesian government enacted a law that regulates the live broadcast of news from foreign news outlets over Indonesian radio and television.

Enter Norman Goodman, chief of the Voice of America (VOA) Indonesian service. During a visit by Indonesian lawmakers in April, the article reports that Goodman “requested” that the Indonesian House of Representatives make changes to their Broadcast Law to amend prohibitions against live broadcasts by foreign media.

You can read the full article here:

The Jakarta Globe – “Voice of America Leans on Indonesia to Alter Broadcast Law,” Markus Junianto Sihaloho | April 30, 2012

Here’s a little background and perspective:

The VOA Indonesian Service has been around for a long time. In the big picture, Indonesia is an important place for US Government broadcasts. Indonesia is a country with the world’s largest Muslim population. Some years ago al-Qaeda, or one of its affiliates, conducted a terrorist attack against a Bali nightclub. It is the kind of thing that makes both Indonesian and US authorities nervous and watchful.

In the last ten years or so, the VOA Indonesian Service has embraced television in a big way. The Indonesian Service has a large television contingent made up largely of young Indonesians recruited by the agency for this purpose. The radio part of the service is made up of more veteran broadcasters.

So what’s the story here, with a VOA service chief deciding to – in so many words – tell the Indonesian government what to do?

Direct broadcasting to Indonesia is really not the issue. The Indonesian government would have to spend a lot of money on jamming direct broadcasts whether by radio or television.

The Indonesian government’s attention is on foreign broadcasters using local Indonesian radio and television stations to carry their programs. In VOA, they call these stations “affiliates.” They really aren’t. What is really going on is what is called “placement.” In this instance, getting an Indonesian radio or television station, or network, to agree to carry VOA Indonesian Service programs. These agreements often involve payments of large sums of money by the BBG to a local station or network.

What are US taxpayers paying for is a legitimate question.

If an agreement is reached, which may or may not involve a large payment by the BBG, the agency would then provide downlink equipment to the station. It would be interesting to determine how much payments for “placement” and equipment cost the American taxpayer and just as importantly, what happens to that equipment when an agreement with a particular station expires. It can’t be cheap.

Here’s the next part of the process:

By law, the Indonesian radio and television stations cannot broadcast live foreign programs, particularly news programs. The Indonesian government clearly wants to exercise control over foreign broadcaster news content.

In one scenario, on the radio side, this means structuring a program with what are called “cutaways;” in other words, the program starts, maybe with a minute of talk-up about what’s coming in the show. About sixty seconds into the program, there is a cue for the news. The Indonesian station breaks away from the VOA feed and inserts its own news segment. The length is determined by the program content to follow the news. In the meantime, back in DC, the Indonesian service broadcasts their own news – if the program is also being transmitted via shortwave and thus not directly subject to the prohibitions put in place by the Indonesian government.

Thus, when the news segment ends, the Indonesian station can rejoin the non-news segment of the program.

Of course, the station can also record the program for later broadcast to make sure there is no content that would infringe on the Indonesian Broadcast Law. Better to be safe, than sorry.

For television, it’s a little bit different.

In this scenario, perhaps the most likely one, the Indonesian station takes a satellite feed from VOA in DC. The program is recorded. Editors at the Indonesian station go over the program content. They can and will excise program content that will get the station and the station owner in trouble. No station owner is going to run afoul of the government and risk losing his/her station license and/or perhaps spend some jail time for the infraction, if it happens to be a particularly flagrant violation of Indonesian law.

In reviewing the content, the Indonesian editors have several options:

They can run the material as is, assuming it’s clear of troublesome content.

They can trash the content and not run it at all.

They can embed the content as part of a locally produced Indonesian television program. In doing so, they may or may not identify the VOA content as to its origin. In some cases, they can make it appear that the VOA Indonesian reporter is a reporter for the television station. They can also minimize or remove the VOA logo to similarly make it appear that the program content originates with the station.

Now, you can be sure that this poses a dilemma for the VOA Indonesian Service chief. News content is not going to get through. That leaves the service in the position of producing “lifestyle” features which really have a limited value for the agency’s core mission as defined in the VOA Charter.

Television production is costly. Television satellite time is costly. Paying for placement costly if a network or a station demand such payments, as many do, not only in Indonesia. Providing downlink equipment to Indonesian stations is costly. A roomful of employees to do television is costly.

How much is a “lifestyle” feature without news placed on an Indonesian station worth to American taxpayers? If a TV viewer in Indonesia gets to see such a feature but does not see VOA news, can he or she be counted as getting news from the United States? Can he or she be legitimately included in the overall weekly VOA audience numbers as one TV viewer/radio listener or perhaps as only one tenth of one?

These are not good things for the VOA Indonesian service chief to ponder day to day.

Hence, in the current VOA paradigm, a not unusual encounter between the VOA Indonesian Service chief with the Indonesian delegation “requesting” they change their laws.

Now, from the Indonesian perspective, it is doubtful they like heavy-handed tactics coming from VOA. They have a law in place which some Indonesian lawmakers claim works well enough for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). They probably don’t see any wisdom in reinventing the wheel for the sake of a complaining service chief of the VOA Indonesian Service.

As we often remark, you don’t have to like the way other governments operate vis-à-vis the BBG/IBB scheme of things. But it helps to understand it. And even better, to have a plan. US international broadcasting was invented to overcome news censorship by foreign governments. What is the BBG doing about it in countries like China and Tibet? — proposing to eliminate and actually eliminating newscasts.

One of the most important things to understand is that things have changed for the BBG/IBB. They aren’t the big man on campus in international broadcasting. It’s a different world – one which they have not adjusted to very well. They still can’t tell a difference between news and an Oscar feature. To them, they are both worth the same, in terms of audience ratings and how much they are willing to pay to have them placed.

One recalls from the “West Wing” mini-series an episode in which two of the president’s aides try to approach an aide to a foreign dignitary on a human rights issue. They scramble to find a translator and ultimately got everyone together in the White House kitchen to try to parley the problem.

After a fashion, the dignitary interrupted the translator and addressed the aides in English, remarking how President Bartlet had made remarks offending the foreign dignitary. He then tells President Bartlet’s aides to “go to hell.”

The foreign dignitary was a fictional president of Indonesia. You may want to watch it: West Wing, Season One, Episode Seven, “The State Dinner.”

This could be one of those “go to hell” moments for the BBG. If you are going to “request” a foreign government to change its laws, you better have something to offer. If you don’t, what do you expect the response will be? Such “requests” are usually discussed in confidential government-to-government diplomatic exchanges. There is always a quid pro quo. If you go public, you better know what you can hope to achieve.

Someone needs to call these BBG/IBB/VOA boys into a room before they again expose their own weakness, embarrass the United States or even cause an international incident. It would be better to have a workable plan on how to deliver the news and effectively deal with local gatekeepers. We know that much — a “request” from the VOA Indonesian Service chief is not going to do it.

The Federalist
May 2012

by The Federalist
 
 
 

Venture Capitalist - Sign at the Office of Digital Design and Innovation at the Broadcasting Board of Governors

The gift that keeps on giving:
 
By now, readers of BBG Watch have seen the photo of a hand-printed piece of paper taped to a door in the Cohen Building containing declarations not unlike what one would find in public declarations by IBB staff most responsible for the “flim flam strategic plan.”
 
But if you haven’t seen it yet, here is the text:
 
“We are an internal venture capitalist team for US international media.  We provide best in class support, guidance + development for all digital + design products.  We do this by rethinking + leading on everything that touches mobile/social/digital for serving current + future audiences.”
 
Do you know what this means?
 
Absolutely nothing.  It is a self-serving sales pitch, gibberish right up there with the oxymorons that emanate from the Third Floor of the Cohen Building.
 
In our view, venture capitalism is synonymous with risk.  A lot of risk.  It can be like gambling.  But these individuals, whoever they are, aren’t rolling the dice with their own money.  The money they use is American taxpayer dollars.
 
How much taxpayer money is being used to support this escapade?
 
How much is being paid to these “venture capitalists?”
 
What are they specifically assigned to do?
 
How much travel have these “venture capitalists” engaged in and at what cost to the American taxpayer?
 
Other than a hand-printed piece of paper, what have these “venture capitalists” produced?
 
US international broadcasting has become too bizarre for words.  We cannot make this kind of stuff up.  The House of Innovation comes by it naturally, along with its most notable by-product: oxymorons.
 
None of what is coming out of the Third Floor of the Cohen Building is the type of stuff that keeps US international broadcasting whole – focused on the mission and being effective in having resonance with audiences.
 
The one thing that the House of Innovation excels in is leading the decline of US international broadcasting with global publics by engaging in spurious mumbo-jumbo that doesn’t get the job done.
 
And here’s another thing:
 
The House of Innovation can’t play with the big boys: the Chinese, the Russians, or the Iranians.  They don’t even make the junior varsity squad.  And worst of all – the big boys know it.
 
What this agency has become is a clearinghouse for a lot of far out ideas that don’t hold up to global realities.  In some cases, the “idea” incubators are individuals we call “shortstops:” people with long resumes full of brief stays in a lot of places; people who seemingly pop out of the woodwork with a lot of jargon but not much in the way of substance.  The House of Innovation is like a magnet attracting these people.
 
These people globe trot their ideas.  That may make for a lot of nice travel, but there doesn’t seem to be a heck of a lot of traction to show for the effort.  We know the House of Innovation very well.  One of its key components is shouting about successes.  There isn’t much to shout about.  And many times, what talk there is has to do with the latest version of the “strategic flim flam plan.”  
 
New and improved!  
 
Well, not really.
 
Here is perhaps the one thing the hand-printed sign from our Cohen Building “venture capitalists” means:
 
This is indicative of the House of Innovation plan to privatize and de-Federalize US international broadcasting and go “corporate.”  We are most definitely not in favor of that scheme.
 
However, if it somehow were to come to fruition here’s the deal:
 
Cut these guys off from American taxpayer money.  Totally.  Let them try to stand on their own.
 
You know what?
 
They would fall flat on their faces.  It would be a bankrupt undertaking before barely in motion.
 
These guys want the American taxpayer to be an ATM machine for any wild, oxymoron-laced idea they can come up with.  It’s dead wrong.  It has nothing to do with the national or the public interest.
 
These guys are dead-set on their objective.  So, with that in mind, it behooves the Congress to be thinking ahead and planning to take as much of US international broadcasting out of the hands of the House of Innovation.  Transfer the vital functions and operations elsewhere in the Federal Government.
 
If the Congress and the American taxpayer want “best in class,” this represents the best alternative to the whacked out world of the Cohen Building.
 
However, if the Congress isn’t prepared to take that step, here is a short list of some other things it can do:
 
At the top of the list is meaningful oversight and accountability.  We’re not going to get to that particular objective with the current cast of characters “leading” the agency.  The name of the game in the House of Innovation is hawking damaged goods and not being held accountable for it.  These guys need something else to do and to do it far away from the Cohen Building.  
 
Next, someone at the highest levels of government has to come to the understanding that this agency is in the business of strategic communication.  It is not going to be the next CNN.  It is not going to compete with commercial media.  This agency has to be mass strategic communication that has the greatest potential to reach the most people possible, in the face of serious countermeasures by rivals and adversaries.
 
The BBG/IBB needs to be disabused of the notion that the agency is going to adopt a model that is “corporate” in nature. Given the track record established by the House of Innovation, this agency is already well on its way to being the Enron of international broadcasting.
 
Our venture capitalists and their “manifesto” are a far cry from the principles of the Voice of America (VOA) Charter.  It is no surprise to that US international broadcasting has fallen over a precipice.  It is now in the grips of people with – to all outward appearances – a calculated, exploitative agenda.  
 
People watching the situation are not stupid.  They know what they’re dealing with, especially when language service broadcasts are eliminated, programs are cut and essentially, the US international broadcasting footprint has substantially diminished.  An enterprise that is now working assiduously to be in the category of an also-ran has drained itself of a substantial amount of international credibility and respect.  
 
This is not an agency that is on the rise in its line of work.  It is not going to be reinvented as a “global news network.”  These guys can’t manage the news operations they already have.  And they are well on their to being 24 hours behind the news cycle in China when they cut live evening radio broadcasts to China (evening in DC, morning in China).
 
What they want to be is a mediocre and insipid “lifestyle” and social media website.  
 
This is the slippery down slope.
 
It is interesting to note that the BBG/IBB is soliciting public comment about aspects of its strategic plan, consolidation and related matters.  Don’t expect a groundswell of interest and/or support beyond the Beltway.  In fact, if the interest in what the agency is doing is as low as we expect, the message may well be that the agency isn’t worth American taxpayer money.  It is not on the radar of the average American who may question its relevance in the context of other pressing national priorities and have other notions about how public money should be spent.
 
We’d like to see the BBG come clean with exactly how much interest they are able to generate from this latest gambit.  We’d like to see what American citizens and taxpayers think about this little-known and less understood Federal agency.
 
We’ll wait to see how the House of Innovation spins lack of interest by the American public in their enterprise.
 
Basics and fundamentals, ladies and gentlemen.  These guys have abandoned both and have preordained the demise of US international broadcasting.  Without its core base, the House of Innovation is lost in search of an audience that has gone elsewhere or has been abandoned entirely.
 
The House of Innovation has delivered on one thing: the BBG/IBB has lost the information war.  These bureaucrats, with their own agenda and bonus-mongering, have allowed global publics to lose interest in US international broadcasting.
 
People who know, including those same rivals and adversaries, know that the BBG/IBB have thrown in the towel.  It is only a matter of time before their entire venture capitalist/corporatist fantasy collapses on itself.
 
The Federalist
May 2012
 

“[B]lind activist Chen Guangcheng … the youngest of five brothers, began grade school at age 17. He was inspired to tackle injustice by listening to U.S. broadcasts on Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. Chen took up the cause that would take his freedom: thousands of victims of forced sterilizations and abortions under China’s draconian family planning policies.” — Calum MacLeod and Oren Dorell reporting for USA Today, May 3, 2012.

Chen Guangcheng with his family

There is at least one person in China who does not want to agree with the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executives. The blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng listens to Voice of America (VOA) Mandarin radio broadcasts in his semi-imprisonment at a government hospital in Beijing.

When the Voice of America Chinese reporter Yibing Feng interviewed Chen Guangcheng on his cell phone Monday, Chen said he just listened to VOA Mandarin live radio news show Sunday night (Beijing time) and thanked the Voice of America Chinese broadcasters for reporting on his plight.

When the reporter asked him how he managed to listen to VOA, he said mysteriously: “There’s always a way.”

How about that?! If Chen can listen to VOA Mandarin in his Beijing hospital, who else can’t?

But according to BBG and IBB officials almost no one in China does listen to VOA radio and these broadcasts should be eliminated. Needless to say, the BBG Public Affairs office did not issue a press release about Chen Guangcheng listening to VOA Mandarin radio broadcast.

Why not?

On the same day Chen was listening to VOA evening radio program, the Broadcasting Board of Governors and International Broadcasting Bureau executives have replaced live VOA Mandarin morning radio broadcasts with repeat programming without even a five minute live newscast. This was done silently, with no press release to announce the change.

When asked about it, the International Broadcasting Bureau Director Richard M. Lobo said that this change will have no impact for radio listeners and does not violate the Congressional directive to maintain VOA radio and television to China, know as the Rohrabacher Amendment.

According to Mr. Lobo, everything is the same despite the fact that there is now a 17 hour VOA Mandarin radio news silence in China. Some BBG members said privately that they were not briefed by Mr. Lobo about this change.

IBB executives tell Congressional staffers that the change they made to VOA Mandarin radio is in any case irrelevant because there is no shortwave radio listening in China. To prove their point, they play recordings that show heavy jamming of VOA radio by the Chinese authorities. And yet, Chen Guangcheng is able to listen to VOA Mandarin broadcast in Beijing where the jamming of VOA shortwave transmissions is presumably the most intense. It is easier to listen to VOA shortwave radio in rural China, where many of Chen Guangcheng’s supporters live and where he was kept under house arrest until his recent escape.

Earlier, the same executives working for Mr. Lobo, who was appointed to his position by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate, have done everything possible to terminate VOA Mandarin and Cantonese broadcasts and to fire several dozen VOA Chinese journalists and broadcasters. They insisted that using only the Internet to deliver VOA news to China is quite sufficient and can be done with low-paid contractors. This, despite the fact that the Chinese authorities effectively censor the Internet and block VOA and other Western news websites.

Meanwhile, these executives gave themselves bonuses, which were approved by Mr. Lobo, created new bureaucratic positions and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for foreign and domestic travels. The elimination of broadcasts to China and the firing of VOA journalists would have allowed them to continue their extravagant spending on themselves.

These IBB bureaucrats nearly succeeded in silencing Voice of America in China. At first BBG members agreed with them. But the Congress did not. Their plan was blocked by bipartisan votes in Congressional committees.

Later, the same executives working for Mr. Lobo tried again to carry out their plan by targeting for elimination VOA radio to Tibet and the VOA Cantonese Service, but this time BBG members changed their mind and decided to keep VOA broadcasts to China and Tibet.

Now, these bureaucrats will pretend that live radio news to China in the morning is not important for a news organization like VOA. They will also pretend that the VOA interview with Chen Guangcheng did not happen. It was not worth issuing a press release. The BBG also did not issue a press release when Radio Free Asia (RFE) interviewed Chen. And these BBG and IBB staffers will definitely try to ignore and hide Chen’s statement that he listens to VOA Mandarin radio.

The BBG did not pick up on the USA Today report that Chen Guangcheng “was inspired to tackle injustice by listening to U.S. broadcasts on Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.” They had also ignored an earlier National Public Radio (NPR) report that Tibetan Buddhist monks secretly listen to VOA Tibetan radio programs on shortwave. The BBG Public Relations Office did not have a press release on this NPR story either. At that time Mr. Lobo’s team was trying hard to silence VOA radio to Tibet and to eliminate the VOA Cantonese Service with all its broadcasts and Internet news.

The problem with BBG and IBB executives is that in addition to trying to expand their bureaucratic control over the Board members and the organization, they believe their own faulty research. According to their research, almost no one in China admits to listening to shortwave radio. They believe it partly because many of them may not know any better and partly because it suits their bureaucratic goals, but the key officials do know that this research is worthless.

Any sensible person can grasp that people in China have a very good reason for not volunteering information about their radio listening habits. But Chen Guangcheng was not afraid to say that he is a listener to the Voice of America Mandarin radio news. At this point he has very little to lose.

Is there much doubt that his supporters and other human rights activists in China also listen to VOA radio? We don’t think there is. They may not want to share this information with local Chinese contractors working for Gallup, but they do listen. Listening to radio is safe. Accessing the VOA Chinese website in China is nearly impossible and carries a risk of being discovered by the Chinese cyber police. But this is what BBG and IBB executives want the people in China to do: to use the Internet.

VOA radio plays a vital role in supporting freedom of expression and democracy in China because it is inexpensive, accessible despite the jamming, and safe. These broadcasts also explain US policies and offer a variety of views and opinions, including those critical of the Obama Administration’s handling of the Chen Guangcheng’s case.

It strikes us as odd that officials working for IBB Director Richard Lobo are doing everything in their power to silence VOA radio news to China. BBG members need to ask Mr. Lobo for answers and the Congress needs to exercise more oversight for as long as the bipartisan, part-time Board is not able to control its own bureaucrats.

Voice of America radio to China – the sounds of news silence from Broadcasting Board of Governors
by Ann Noonan, Executive Director, Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – www.cusib.org)

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and its International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) management team have finally accomplished their goal of cutting into Voice of America (VOA) Mandarin radio broadcasting into China, sub silentio.

As of May 6th, Voice of America’s 2-hour live Mandarin radio morning (Beijing time) broadcasts have been replaced with repeat programming from the previous day. These repeat broadcasts come without live newscasts. There are no timely, current news reports in the previously-taped taped content — not even a five-minute live news update.

All this is happening as Chinese and Tibetan radio listeners and rest of the world await news of the fate of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and learn daily about new violations of human rights in China and Tibet.

While the International Broadcasting Bureau Director Richard M. Lobo and his managers may want to quash any inquiry about these VOA Mandarin Service radio broadcasting changes by accusing those expressing concerns of spreading baseless rumors, news silence is in fact what is happening. This report may be the first time that some individual members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors are even hearing about this change with its nuances and implications.

While these broadcasting changes may potentially save the BBG some unknown amount of money to add another hour of satellite television program in Mandarin at some future date and to simulcast it on shortwave radio, activists inside China, who need constant radio news updates especially now during this critical time with the Chen affair and all the repercussions for his family and supporters, understandably may feel abandoned.

Some believe that these Voice of America Mandarin Service broadcasting changes put the BBG in contempt of a Congressional directive. Last year, the Rohrabacher Amendment passed with full bipartisan support to keep VOA China broadcasts on the air and to prevent BBG/IBB executives from eliminating VOA Mandarin and Cantonese radio and TV programs and transferring news reporting to the highly-controlled and blocked Internet, as these managers had proposed.

And then there are those like Director Lobo and his team who might argue that the BBG has not actually jettisoned the radio time and that they haven’t cut anything because they are merely repeating the previous programming.

However smooth that rationalization sounds, without a newscast and with only repeats of often outdated content, there is now a gap of 17 hours in live VOA Mandarin radio news at a critical time with the Chen affair.

It is a well-known fact that if the news, information, and commentary are old, listeners are going to switch elsewhere to get the information they want and need. They could still listen to Radio Free Asia (RFA), but since RFA programs are even more heavily jammed by the Chinese authorities than VOA radio, these listeners may be left with nothing but official regime propaganda.

These repeats of old VOA programs without the news are a far cry from live broadcasts from a studio with up-to-the-minute breaking news. Just a few days ago, the VOA Mandarin Service managed to reach Chen Guangcheng by phone and interviewed him about threats to his family and supporters. With the latest elimination of live programs, radio listeners in China may have to wait almost a full day to hear from VOA about such threats and the US government’s official responses.

With Chen Guangcheng’s future uncertain and the US reputation tarnished by the handling of his case, could there possibly be a worse time to implement such a drastic change?

Ann Noonan has been active in human rights organizations, including those working for religious freedom. She is the former President of the New York Chapter of the Visual Artists Guild. In 1999, Ann founded Free Church for China, an NGO which researches and documents religious persecution in the PRC. Ann 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. She serves as the CUSIB’s Executive Director.

Photo on the BBG website shows Michael Lynton and Dana Perino attending the BBG meeting in Miami on April 20. Both Lynton and Perino were absent at that meeting.

A photo on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) website shows Governors Michael Lynton and Dana Perino at the BBG meeting in Miami on April 20, 2012. There is only one problem with the photo: neither Michael Lynton nor Dana Perino attended the Miami meeting during which BBG members who were present voted to reverse the Board’s earlier decision to end Voice of America Tibetan radio broadcasts and to shut down the VOA Cantonese Service.

Perino and Lynton along with Governor S. Enders Wimbush have the worst attendance record at BBG meetings. Wimbush did attend the meeting and voted with the majority to restore funding for VOA broadcasts to Tibet and China despite his earlier support for the cuts.

The third BBG Governor in the photo is former mayor of Knoxville and former U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe who has the best attendance record at BBG meetings and who has led the fight to save Tibetan and Cantonese broadcasts. He was supported by Governors Michael Meehan and Susan McCue. Meehan and McCue do not appear in the photo, and neither does Governor Dennis Mulhaupt who presided over the meeting in Miami as a replacement for Michael Lynton. Lynton is the BBG’s interim presiding governor following the departure of Chairman Walter Isaacson in February, 2012.

As to why this particular photo was used, there could be several possible explanations, although only one of them seems plausible.

One conspiratorial explanation is that perhaps a dissident BBG staffer was trying to make fun of slacker Board members in an attempt to shame them into attending to their duties in the future. Or it could have been a deliberate placement of a Soviet-style fake photo by the public relations staff to show absentee Board members hard at work.

We prefer not to believe such wild theories and are inclined to attribute the photo to pure and simple laziness. Someone was too lazy to get a real photo from the meeting so they used an old image from some other BBG event without bothering to check whether all the persons in the photo were attending the Miami meeting. Using an old photo would have been in any case deceptive, especially for a communications agency that claims to practice and promote accurate and objective journalism.

But the far bigger problem are BBG members who fail to attend to their duties and allow incompetent staff to lead the agency from one disaster to another.

Cutting VOA broadcasts to Tibet and China while the Chinese government increases repression and Tibetan monks self-immolate to shock the conscience of the world???

What were BBG members thinking? Or perhaps they did not know what their executive staff was doing because they missed so many meetings.

While the BBG executive staff can’t get their photos straight, they do generate plans designed to increase their own bureaucratic control and power while incidentally getting the BBG members in trouble with the Congress and the constituent groups that support U.S. international broadcasting.

Their latest such scheme is the merger of the surrogate broadcasters: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). Let’s hope that this time all BBG members will attend their meetings and pay attention.

Link to Washington Examiner

When the U.S. officials in charge of persuading foreign audiences must themselves be persuaded by the Dalai Lama not to end Voice of America radio programs to Tibet, it is apparent there is something rotten in the management of U.S. international broadcasting.

READ Washington Examiner Op-Ed: Bureaucrats grasp for power at Broadcasting Board of Governors by Ted Lipien

“…it took relentless efforts by the BBG’s senior Republican, former Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe, to persuade his colleagues that the executive staff is taking the agency in the wrong direction.

Ashe was supported on Tibet and China by two Democratic members of the BBG — Michael Meehan and Susan McCue, who even suggested that broadcasts to Tibet should be paid for from cuts in management expenses. Eventually, all the BBG members voted to restore funding for Tibetan and Cantonese broadcasts.

The struggle for public control of taxpayer-funded U.S. international broadcasting is, however, far from over. The BBG staff, with the support of some board members, is still pushing forward with the proposal to merge the independent surrogate broadcasters — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks — under a single administration headed by a new CEO who would not be directly answerable to Congress.”

The captain has just announced new promotions.

A Voice of America journalist, who for obvious reasons wants to remain anonymous, has sent us a description of questionable and employee morale killing promotions among top ranking managers while dozens of VOA newsroom and English programs employees face possible dismissals (RIFs – Reductions-in-Force) as part of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) proposed cuts in the FY 2013 budget.

Due to overwhelming public protests and outrage among members of Congress from both parties, BBG members have recently reversed their decision to cut VOA radio broadcasts to Tibet and to close down the VOA Cantonese Service. A petition to save VOA Spanish broadcasts to Latin America has been delivered to members of Congress who have oversight over the BBG. We have heard of various efforts to save VOA Turkish, Greek, Laotian, Vietnamese, and Burmese broadcasts. Little has been heard, however, from VOA English newsroom and English programs employees who also face drastic cuts in the number of positions and broadcasts.

Reports reaching BBG Watch describe these journalists as stunned and demoralized by arbitrary actions of some top managers who are either unfamiliar with international broadcasting, are perceived overbearing, or both. Employees have been complaining, individually and in groups, about some of their managers to Voice of America director David Ensor and to BBG member Victor Ashe who is seen as a champion of improving employee rights and morale. Results of these complaints are not known.

Here is a submission by an anonymous VOA journalist. Some names have been removed.

It strikes several current and former newsroom people that it is highly inappropriate for VOA to be naming and promoting a new news department managing editor when they are only a few months away from possible crippling RIFs.

It is worth noting that several people in the news division ALREADY carry deputy managing editor titles. Would it not have been more appropriate and budget-wise to name one of them to this seemingly broader role? There are also questions whether the job had been properly posted in the first place.

The selected individual has been at VOA only since 2010 — and as such a prime RIF candidate due to lack of seniority — could this promotion be an act of favoritism to shield the person from a layoff?

Overall, this fits nicely into the BBG pattern, which your website has already noted, of merrily creating new positions and promoting favorites even as the sword of deep cuts hangs over. Worth noting that VOA elevated front office favorites to new deputy director jobs early this year even though impending budget cuts were already clear.

Jing Zhang, Women's Rights in China

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) Advisory Board member Jing Zhang published an article in National Review Online on China’s war on baby girls.

She describes reprisals by the Chinese communist authorities against a charity helping Chinese women keep and feed their infants. These reprisals have intensified after the daring escape from house arrest by the blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng who was jailed for exposing forced sterilizations and abortions as part of China’s one-child policy.

On Thursday, Mary 3, Another CUSIB Advisory Board member Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, testified at an emergency Congressional hearing on the dangers faced by Chen Guangcheng and his family. Chen Guangcheng spoke during the hearing by phone.

In a phone call lasting about eight minutes, Chen said he would like to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “thank her face-to-face.”

“He wants to come to the U.S. for some time of rest,” said activist Bob Fu who translated Chen’s remarks during the hearing. “He has not had any rest in the past ten years already.”

Chen also said he was concerned about the safety of his family.

Both Reggie Littlejohn and Jing Zhang have been active supporters of Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to China as an important uncensored news source for women and their families and for human rights activists.

Women’s Rights in China (WRIC) NGO, which Jing Zhang founded, has produced a short video showing that both very young and older persons in China continue to rely on Voice of America radio broadcasts for uncensored news and information. These comments, recorded in China, point to the censorship of the Internet by the Chinese authorities and the fact that hundreds of millions of Chinese cannot use the Internet to access VOA websites, which are being blocked in China, or can’t afford to have Internet access of any kind.

Link to the Women’s Rights in China video on the 70th anniversary of Voice of America broadcasting to China.

Jing Zhang suffered five years in prison for her belief in freedom and democracy. After leaving China, she spent 20 years building a career as a newspaper editor in Hong Kong and the United States. She founded Women’s Rights in China in 2007. She joined the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) Advisory Board in 2011.

Sign the Petition to Save Voice of America Spanish Broadcasts to Latin America - Click on the Image

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), a former Voice of America (VOA) director, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and representatives of other free media and human rights organizations have signed a petition to the United States Congress asking for Congressional support to continue Voice of America Spanish broadcasts to Latin America.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which controls VOA, wants to severely cut journalistic positions and broadcasts to this important part of the world for the United States. The BBG had earlier proposed and then canceled, in response to numerous public protests, elimination of Voice of America radio broadcasts to Tibet and VOA Cantonese radio, television and Internet news to China. Because of its even closer links to the United States, its fragile democracy, and anti-American propaganda coming from Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, and China — Latin America must not be abandoned to hostile voices while the Voice of America is silenced by BBG bureaucrats.

The BBG proposal to cut broadcasts to Latin America is not about saving money. BBG officials do not plan to give this money back to the U.S. Treasury. Instead, they want to spend it on themselves.

American taxpayers should demand that this mismanaged agency must keep VOA broadcasts to Latin America rather than keep investing in its own bureaucracy.

Here is an introduction to the petition on change.org:

“Voice of America Spanish Service celebrated a milestone in its communications with the countries of Latin America last year, including its immensely popular Breakfast Show, Buenos Dias America, as well as other broadcasts throughout Central and South America on AM and FM affiliate stations and satellite and also available on podcasts, the VOA website and on mobile phones.

This legacy of communication, which impacts the people of an important part of the world strategic to our interests, will stop if the cuts are approved by Congress. The BBG is wrong in concentrating its resources only on the Middle East and Asia while ignoring the nations of Latin America, whose trade surpasses those of China, India and Russia all together.

Don’t let the Broadcasting Board of Governors deny essential and uncensored Voice of America news and hope to the people in Latin America while BBG executives divert U.S. taxpayers’ money to create new high-level bureaucratic positions, pay themselves bonuses and sign a $50 million multi-year contract with the Gallup Organization.

As U.S. taxpayers, you fund and support the Voice of America. Demand that your money be used to bring uncensored American news to Latin America and other regions of the world that do not have free media rather than being spent on the salaries of government officials at the Broadcasting Board of Governors.”

SAVE VOICE OF AMERICA SPANISH BROADCASTS TO LATIN AMERICA

Dear Member of Congress,

This letter is to request your strong support to restore the funding in the FY2013 Budget for Voice of America (VOA) Spanish Broadcasts to Latin America.

We adamantly oppose plans for FY2013 by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to enact a major Reduction-in-Force for the essential VOA Spanish Service which broadcasts to Latin America. Over 20 employees are scheduled to be fired or displaced. We believe that the cessation of U.S. broadcasts to an extremely important region, which is strategic to U.S. interests, is a major blunder for our foreign policy.

​For over 50 years, the Voice of America has been broadcasting to this critical part of the world in our hemisphere. At its anniversary celebration last year, the VOA Spanish Service celebrated the milestones in its communications with the countries of Latin America including its immensely popular Breakfast Show, Buenos Dias America, which covers historic events, news about our country, and international events in a style accessible to both elites and working people. This show, as well as others are broadcast throughout Central and South America on AM and FM affiliate stations and satellite and are also available on podcasts, the VOA website and on mobile phones. This legacy of communication, which impacts the people of an important part of the world strategic to our interests, will stop if the cuts are approved by Congress. The BBG is wrong in concentrating its resources only on the Middle East and Asia while ignoring the nations of Latin America.

​This region which had become synonymous with the words junta, banana republic and turmoil, is now emerging with a new level of political and economic maturity: exactly the audience that we want to reach. Democracy as well as economic upward mobility in many of the countries of Latin America is starting to grow which could be a definite stimulus for tourism to the United States.

However, the Hugo Chavez and Castro models of centralized control with their strong anti-Americanism and opposition to the free market are undermining the growth of democracy in Latin America especially with the constant anti-American diatribes of broadcasting agencies like TELESUR, a 24-hour TV network. The Chavez model in Venezuela is negatively affecting other countries in the region including Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua. Most important, if America stops its communication with the emerging democracies of Latin America, the results could be most serious for U.S. national security.

​China and Iran have expanded their influence in Latin America. China has now replaced the U.S. as the major trading partner of Brazil. Both countries are opening new cultural centers throughout Latin American countries. At the beginning of the year, Iran launched a 24-hour TV network which is broadcasting an aggressive anti-American message. Most seriously for global security, Iran is getting uranium for its fuel rods from Brazil and has negotiated an agreement with Bolivia’s leftist leader, Evo Morales, to extract lithium in commercial quantities. Their political and economic ties are growing, while the U.S. does not seem to be paying attention, which could directly impact our national security. Cutting VOA Spanish broadcasts to Latin America at this critical time makes no sense.

​There are 50 million people of Latino heritage in the United States and their individual success stories in politics, business, culture, medicine and entrepreneurship in our society are an important and inspiring factor in our communications with the people of Latin America and in forging alliances with those countries. Cutting U.S. broadcasts to Latin America sends the wrong message to the Hispanic-American community, alienates Latino voters, and destroys the possibilities of communicating U.S. ideas, ideals and institutions. This would be a blow to U.S. public diplomacy in the region.

​In its budget submission for FY2013, the BBG states that its actions are part of a long-range consolidation of VOA Spanish and Radio/TV Marti. To our knowledge, there is no mechanism for consolidation of VOA Spanish and Radio Marti in the language of the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act (P.L. 98-111) where the mission of Radio Marti is specifically spelled out. We do not believe that there has been any directive from Congress to change the mission of Radio/TV Marti whose broadcasts are targeted to the Cuban people. The mission of the VOA Spanish Service is codified in the VOA charter contained in P.L. 94-350. Therefore, we do not understand how and why the BBG is undertaking these actions unilaterally without consultation with or approval from the U.S. Congress.

The most glaring example of how vital the VOA’s Spanish Service is for the United States was the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia. As never before, the United States was isolated while nearly 30 regional Presidents refused to sign a joint Summit Final Declaration in protest against U.S. policies towards Cuba. In fact, there is growing support for the inclusion of Cuba at the next scheduled Summit. This highlights the steady decline of U.S. influence in a region whose economic growth rates are the envy of the developed world.

We urge you to require that the FY 2013 Budget funding for the Voice of America’s Spanish broadcasts be restored, and to undo the proposed cuts in other news and information services so that Voice of America can continue to fulfill its mandate to provide an accurate, balanced and comprehensive view of significant American thought and institutions and to clearly present the policies of the United States in news-restricted nations.

Respectfully,

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB)
Roberty Reilly, American Foreign Policy Council
Tim Shamble, President Local 1812, American Federation of Government Employees
Robert Senser, Human Rights for Workers
Manny Papir, Human Rights Advocate
Ted Lipien, Committee for US International Broadcasting
Ann Noonan, Committee for US International Broadcasting
Herb Stupp, Adjunct Lecturer at Baruch College
Marie Ciliberti, Retired VOA Broadcaster
Reggie Littejohn, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

[Your name - CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION]

The Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station is the largest BBG transmission facility in the United States. This four minute video provides an introduction to its history and operations. Approximately 85% of the shortwave broadcasts from the Murrow Transmitting station in North Carolina are Radio Martí Spanish broadcasts to Cuba. The remaining programs include VOA Spanish to Latin America, along with English, Portuguese and French to Africa.

Worldwide, the BBG operates 84 transmitting sites, with a total of 182 transmitters plus nearly 1,400 affiliate stations in order to send broadcasts in 59 languages to audiences in more than 100 countries.

The video and the above description are from the BBG official website.

The report below is from BBG Watch.

Rep. Walter B. Jones

There was a gala celebration at the rededication of the Edward Murrow Transmission facility on May 2 in Greenville, NC.  Over 200 area residents attended and speakers inlcuded Casey Murrow, only son of Edward R. Murrow, along with BBG Governor Victor Ashe, US Congressman Walter Jones and IBB Director Dick Lobo.
 
Jones and Ashe pledged strong support for shortwave transmissions. Jones stressed the station is the only facility of its type in the US and important for reaching Cuba and Latin America.  Jones received a standing ovation at the start and end of his remarks.
 
Jones worked to keep the facility open against attempts by some BBG officials to close it down. He praised Ashe for getting the Murrow name restored to the station as well as his efforts to keep the facility open.

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Victor Ashe

The bipartisan effort to stop the closure of the Greenville shortwave radio broadcasting facility was led BBG’s senior Republican member Ambassador Victor Ashe. He was assisted by North Carolina congressmen from both parties: U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., and U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C. They received strong support from numerous human rights and media freedom advocacy groups, including the independent and nonpartisan Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB).

Rep. Walter B. Jones

Other members of Congress from both parties also joined forces last year to prevent the BBG executive staff from ending shortwave radio broadcasts and satellite television transmissions by the Voice of America to China. The Greenville station is not used for transmitting radio programs to Asia but serves mostly Cuba, South America, and Africa. It is, however, the only remaining U.S. government-owned shortwave broadcasting facility on U.S. territory. Other BBG-operated shortwave transmitters are based abroad and leases for these stations may be terminated by foreign governments due to domestic or foreign pressure.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield

Victor Ashe has also led the fight within the nine-member presidentially-appointed bipartisan board to save broadcasts to China and Tibet from the new round of cuts proposed by the same BBG executive staff for the FY 2013 BBG budget. He received strong support from BBG’s Democratic member Michael Meehan. Another Democratic member Susan McCue also voiced strong support for continuing VOA radio broadcasts to Tibet.

Rep. David Price

In the end, even those BBG members who initially sided with the executive staff and supported the cuts voted to restore funding to continue broadcasting to Tibet and China, just as they had agreed earlier to save the Greenville facility. Some BBG members may have been persuaded to change their vote by a powerful plea from Holocaust survivor Mrs. Annette Lantos. She is a highly-respected human rights campaigner and the wife of the late Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos who was one of the strongest voices in Congress in defense of human rights around the world.

The effort to restore the original name of the Greenville station is seen as a symbolic gesture to stress bipartisan support for U.S. international broadcasting and as part of a larger fight to keep U.S. radio and television news flow to countries without free media. President John F. Kennedy dedicated the facility in 1963 and Edward R. Murrow was a member of his administration. Edward R. Murrow’s son, Casey Murrow, attended the rededication ceremony as did Congressman Jones, Victor Ashe, and International Broadcasting Bureau Director Richard Lobo.

A team of BBG/IBB executives has been pushing for ending many direct-to-home radio and TV broadcasts in favor of using the Internet even to countries like China and Cuba which censor and block online news from Western sources and from their own dissidents. Some of the BBG’s strategic planners and their private consultants have been also advocating downplaying of human rights reporting and expanding English lessons and other non-political programming as a way of reaching a larger audience.

While shortwave radio listening has been declining around the world, it is still a vital link for regime opponents in many countries and those who cannot afford the Internet or don’t want to use it to get uncensored news for fear of being monitored by the local authorities. The saving of the U.S. facility in North Carolina is seen as a challenge to some of the strategic planners at the BBG. Critics have accused the BBG and IBB executive team of mismanagement and diverting money from broadcasting to pay for their bonuses, travel, and expensive outside contractors. These executives have been rated in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) employee surveys as being the worst leaders and managers in the federal government. They have proposed in recent years the elimination of hundreds of journalistic and broadcasting positions while expanding their own bureaucratic staff. The BBG has one of the lowest employee morale among all government agencies.

Ashe has been the most outspoken BBG member demanding greater transparency and accountability at the agency. He has come out recently against the staff’s plan to merge the so-called surrogate broadcasters, which include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). Critics describe the merger plan as a bureaucratic power grab to limit public and congressional scrutiny. Ashe has asked for public comments and listed his personal email. According to sources, he is also in favor of holding congressional hearings on the proposed merger and other plans developed by the BBG and IBB staff.

Members of Congress from both parties have always been the strongest supporters of U.S. international broadcasting, particularly to countries without free media. In the past, they have often come to the defense of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Voice of America against attempts by bureaucrats of both Republican and Democratic administrations to blunt human rights reporting and to close down various language broadcasting services in favor of questionable short-term gains.

Despite the setback on the Greenville station and broadcasts to Tibet and China, BBG/IBB executives still want to drastically reduce Voice of America English and Spanish broadcasts and to limit news to countries like the Russian Federation, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Turkey, Greece, and Georgia. We hope that both Republicans and Democrats in Congress will once again extend their protection to what is one of America’s most effective and least expensive national security and public diplomacy assets. U.S. government-funded international broadcasts are simply too important to be turned over to unaccountable bureaucrats just because they want it and hope that no one will notice. We do.

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The official BBG announcement:

BBG Rededicates The Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) rededicated its Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station on May 2 during a ceremony in Grimesland, N.C., that honored Murrow, the renowned broadcaster and director of the USIA (1961-1964), and recognized World Press Freedom Day.
Speakers included Congressman Walter Jones; Casey Murrow, son of Edward R. Murrow; BBG Governor Victor Ashe, and International Broadcasting Bureau Director Richard M. Lobo. Speaker Bios

Edward R. Murrow’s legacy as a journalist and his rich understanding of the importance of press freedom as part of the bedrock of democracy along with the key role of U.S. international broadcasting as a model of a free press will be highlighted in the ceremony to be held in the lead-up to World Press Freedom Day, May 3rd.

The transmitting station, a 24/7 broadcast facility, supports the mission of the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy” through about 2,200 hours of transmissions each month.

The Murrow Transmitting Station

The Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station is the largest BBG transmission facility in the United States. It is a 24/7 shortwave facility, broadcasting about 2,200 hours each month. Over 80 percent of these transmissions are Radio Martí Spanish-language broadcasts to Cuba, and the balance is Voice of America programming to Latin America as well as VOA English, Portuguese, and French to Africa.

The station is located on 2,715 acres of land and is equipped with eight high-power shortwave transmitters, including five 500 kW and three 250 kW transmitters. The station has nearly 40 broadcast antennas in an arc around the main building to provide the maximum flexibility in reaching audiences overseas.

President John F. Kennedy formally dedicated the station on February 8, 1963, and in October 1968 it was named the “Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station” in honor of the renowned wartime broadcaster and director of the USIA.

Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow was a pioneering newsman whose distinctive baritone voice and devotion to the truth forever shaped the field of broadcast journalism. Beginning with his ever-calm reporting of the bombing of London during World War II, Murrow’s career spanned 25 years in both radio and television with CBS, then three years as director of the U.S. Information Agency.

Called the “Father of Broadcast Journalism,” Murrow began his broadcasts during the war with a matter-of-fact statement: “This…is London.” He survived the bombings, flew dozens of combat missions, and was among the first civilians to enter liberated Nazi death camps.

After the war, he hosted news and interview programs at CBS, including a 1954 broadcast that took on, and ultimately undid, the red-scare campaign of Senator Joseph McCarthy. He ended his career at CBS in 1961 when President Kennedy named him to head the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), where he brought his dedication to truth and accuracy to the field of public diplomacy. He died of cancer at 57 in 1965.

Broadcasting Board of Governors

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal government agency that oversees all U.S. civilian international broadcasting. Our networks—the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio and TV Martí, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks’ (MBN) Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa—serve as indispensable sources of news for people who often lack access to independent information.

They inform, engage, and connect with international audiences across television, radio, Internet, and mobile devices in 59 languages in more than 100 countries.

In 2011, the BBG had one of its most successful years ever; our broadcasts reached a record 187 million people every week, up 22 million from 2010. We reach people in their languages of choice; in countries where independent journalism is limited or not available; and where governments jam broadcasts and censor the Internet. The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) provides transmission, marketing, and program placement services for all BBG broadcast organizations.

For more information, please call 202-203-4400 or email pubaff@bbg.gov.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency, supervising all U.S. government-supported, civilian international broadcasting, whose mission is inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. BBG broadcasts reach an audience of 187 million in 100 countries. BBG networks include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Martí).

Ordered by the nine-member Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executive staff reluctantly published a draft of the controversial plan to merge administrative functions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). The executive staff omitted two charts which compared average compensation for various positions and categories of employees.

Sources told BBG Watch that BBG and IBB staffers were discussing among themselves whether these two charts should be included since they did not appear in the version of the plan already leaked and available online. In the end, they decided not to release the charts by claiming that they contain sensitive information. One top executive was quoted as saying that none of the plan should have been made public.

The BBG/IBB staff was also forced by BBG members to ask for public comments on its newly-released but censored plan. But even with this reluctant call for public input, the proposed merger of the surrogate broadcasters — whose effectiveness depends on their editorial and administrative independence — is far too risky and controversial to be left in the hands of the BBG and IBB bureaucrats who devised the plan in the first place to expand their power and to limit public and Congressional scrutiny.

The surrogate broadcasters play a vital role in the area of news and ideas that contributes to national security of the United States. Considering the fact that the same bureaucrats wanted to end Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Tibet and VOA radio and television broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese to China, the U.S. Congress should definitely hold hearings to examine the merger proposal and other questionable actions of the BBG and IBB executive staff.

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The official BBG announcement:

BBG Seeks Views On Draft Consolidation Plan For RFE/RL, RFA, MBN

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is seeking public comment on its newly-released plan to consolidate several support functions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and to create a single, non-profit grantee in an effort to redirect managerial savings into content, programming and newsrooms. The grantees’ support functions, such as payroll, would serve all the people working at RFE/RL, RFA and MBN, but each of these grantees would retain its unique brand and mission.

Read the Plan

In January, the Board tasked MBN President Brian Conniff, reporting to IBB Director Dick Lobo, with leading the effort to produce a grantee consolidation plan to reduce administrative duplication, foster greater communication and connectivity between reporters and use the savings for reporting teams, and to enhance programming and content creation.

Conniff assembled a task force consisting of the heads of the two other grantees and their senior staff and he discussed the resulting draft plan with the Board in April. The draft plan will be reviewed further by all Board members and discussed at a meeting of the Strategy and Budget Committee in late May.

It’s important to note that this document is a draft. Two charts that contain sensitive information were omitted.

The plan:

• Details a new organizational structure and workflows for each primary support function to be shared among the grantees;

• Determines human and financial resource requirements for a consolidated organization of these offices;

• Estimates the savings and costs once these back-office support functions of the three separate grantees are consolidated;

• Provides timelines at the macro and functional levels;

• Reduces administrative duplication and directs the savings for reporting teams, enhanced programming and content creation.

Under this plan, all brands that have been created within RFE/RL, RFA, and MBN over the past five decades would be preserved and one private, non-profit organization would be staffed to provide the administrative and technological support needed for their continued success in pursuit of their mission.

Please submit any comments by 11:59 p.m. EDT on May 22 to ConsolidationReportComment@bbg.gov .

One of those “brand name media properties” that BBG executives wanted to discard were Voice of America radio broadcasts to Tibet and China.

So who are these venture capitalists at the Broadcasting Board of Governors? We are told that they are some of the best paid contractors who love foreign travel.

A BBG employee sent us this image of a sign taped to the front door in the recently reorganized Office of Digital Design and Innovation (formerly Office of New Media). “That’s probably the biggest contribution of the Office’s new management so far…,” said the note sent with the picture.

What do you think?

Venture Capitalist Team - Sign at the Office of Digital Design and Innovation at the Broadcasting Board of Governors

Michael Meehan

In a meeting last Thursday in Chicago with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors Michael Meehan and the president of Radio Free Asia (RFA) Libby Liu discussed “the BBG’s plan to strengthen U.S. international broadcasting through the Voice of America’s Tibetan service and RFA.” The announcement about the meeting with Dalai Lama was posted on the Broadcasting Board of Governors website.

Meehan and another BBG member Victor Ashe were in the forefront of efforts to reverse an earlier Broadcasting Board of Governors’ decision to end VOA Tibetan radio broadcasts, close down the VOA Cantonese Service and reduce some of Radio Free Asia shortwave radio programs. Another BBG member Susan McCue also made a public statement in support of continuing VOA radio broadcasts to Tibet and to China.

The cuts were recommended by the BBG executive staff and initially supported by the majority of BBG members. Some claimed privately later that the BBG staff did not brief them fully on the programming cuts in the FY 2013 budget proposal and did not provide them with sufficient input from the public.

The decision to disavow these cuts was made at the BBG meeting in Miami on April 20. It was unanimously approved.

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Official Broadcasting Board of Governors announcement:

The Dalai Lama during a 2011 visit to RFA headquarters in Washington

Dalai Lama Discusses BBG And Tibet With Meehan, Liu

Chicago — In a meeting today with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the president of Radio Free Asia discussed the BBG’s plan to strengthen U.S. international broadcasting through the Voice of America’s Tibetan service and RFA.

“We discussed the importance of not simply maintaining our programing, but also expanding our reach and positive impact,” said Michael Meehan, co-chair of the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee.

“The Tibetan people go to great risk to hear our programing, and I reassured His Holiness that the BBG is fully committed to the highest quality news and information both inside and outside Tibet,” Meehan said.

RFA President Libby Liu also attended the meeting.

Last week the Board unanimously approved a renewed strategy for broadcasting to China that will be reflected in the ongoing dialogue with Congress about the Agency’s proposed FY 2013 budget.

The agency is developing alternatives that take into account the roles of RFA and VOA Tibetan Radio, along with VOA Cantonese TV programming and VOA satellite TV capability in China.

At the April meeting of the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee, the board asked key senior staff to form a working group to devise a holistic solution for reaching audiences throughout China, including Tibet.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency supervising all U.S. government-supported, civilian international broadcasting, whose mission is inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. BBG broadcasts reach an audience of 187 million in 100 countries. BBG networks include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Martí).

One of the organizations protesting the BBG’s decision to terminate VOA Tibetan radio is the Association of Tibetan Journalists based in Dharamsala, India. These Tibetan journalists working in exile have appealed to the United States Congress “to continue its support for the Voice of America Tibetan Radio Service on the grounds of the principles of right to information and freedom of expression.” The appeal was addressed to the House Appropriations Committee.

Open Letter to Members of House Appropriations Committee

25 April 2012

Dear Members of Congress,

This is a letter of appeal requesting your support for the continuation of the Voice of America Tibetan Radio Service broadcast inside Tibet in the FY2013 Budget.

We, the Association of Tibetan Journalists (ATJ) based in Dharamsala, India, appreciate all the efforts and support by the US Government towards the Voice of America Tibetan Section since 1991. However with the current spate of Self-Immolations by Tibetans against the repressive Chinese Government policies we believe that this is not the time or the place where free media and right to information for the Tibetans inside Tibet is cut-off on any grounds whatsoever. Not only that, as reported by Reporters without Borders, Tibetan Writers have been arbitrarily arrested and major blogs like sangdhor.com and rangdrol.net have been shut down. Such is the situation inside Tibet.

Especially in Tibetan Autonomous Areas (TAR), with the massive censorship, Voice of America Tibetan Radio service is one of the most important uncensored media, which is available. Dolma, a recent arrival from Lhasa, Tibet states that, “I and many like me used to listen secretly to VOA Tibetan service to get information not only about the International news but also about what is happening in other parts of Tibet. I feel that VOA Tibetan service not only gives me information but I also learned a lot about Tibetan culture and history”.

We on behalf of the voices from inside Tibet would like to urge the US congress to continue its support for the Voice of America Tibetan Radio Service on the grounds of the principles of right to information and freedom of expression.

The ATJ was established in 1997 and is an independent non-profit organization that aims to facilitate the free, fair and accurate delivery of news and information regarding Tibetan communities both inside and outside of Tibet. We have over 30 members in India and Nepal working for media organizations including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Voice of Tibet, Tibet Times and Tibet Express.

Yours Sincerely,

Ms. Lhakpa Kyizom
President, Association of Tibetan Journalists

Mr. Gurbum Gyal
Vice President, Association of Tibetan Journalists

Signed PDF version can be downloaded here: ATJ-Open-Letter

A Guest Commentary from Canada by Edite Lynch

It has become worldwide knowledge that American President Barack Obama, in a sit-down chat with Prime Minister Medvedev of Russia, categorically stated that he would have more “flexibility” after the 2012 American election in November, which quite obviously he expects to win.

Considering the fact that very early in his presidency he quickly engaged with Russia and went through a mock ceremony of “Restarting” relations, it soon became apparent that he was giving away the store in the new START treaty and America was placed in a disadvantaged state vis a vis anti-ballistic missile defense.

Given this kind of information of sucking up to Putin’s Russia, it becomes even more disturbing when one hears about the strange and incomprehensible actions of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) toward both its U.S citizen broadcasters working at the Voice of America (VOA) but also the many foreign journalists and contractors who outnumber the Americans, as well as the termination of seasoned journalists to be replaced by neophytes untrained in media issues.

The “flexibility” comment becomes more insidious when viewed through the prism of what is happening with a very respected and valued organization such as the Voice of America which has operated for 70 years with tremendous results, especially in the former Soviet Union.

It is also common knowledge that a fish starts to decay from the head on down. Are the inexplicable machinations of the BBG managers being directed from a source that is by-passing the oversight committees in Congress?

Given the very obvious kowtowing to Russia and with the Voice of America Russian Service broadcasting a fake interview purporting to be that of Alex Nalvalny in order to discredit a valuable anti-Putin activist at will, without just cause and with impunity, the question must be asked, who is really pulling the strings in this situation?

If the BBG is acting as an island unto itself, with no real oversight from Congress, which appears to be the case except for its revised position regarding VOA Cantonese and Mandarin language broadcasts to China and Tibet, then that behaviour must be curtailed because American taxpayer dollars are supporting the BBG in a way that is neither fruitful nor productive given the VOA Charter and its abused employees.

The BBG managers are definitely not worth the money that is being paid to them for not doing what their job descriptions call for, which is to correctly manage America’s voice to the world in an exemplary fashion as well as a truthful one. There continues to be something rotten in the state of the BBG that is not being adequately addressed.

The writer, who uses the pen name Jan Palach, was responding to questions posted earlier by another anonymous RFE/RL employee:

“Is anyone actually noticing the disaster being perpetrated against Radio Free Europe by its new management? Is anyone going to stop this madness?”

The RFE/RL journalist wrote that according to what he had been told, only four BBG Governors are likely to attend the June Board meeting in Prague. That information is subject to change and BBG members may participate in the meeting by telephone. Granted, that is not the same as being in Prague and being able to talk to RFE/RL employees. That requires getting away from the RFE/RL top management handlers who will no doubt hover over the Governors. BBG Watch received reports earlier that RFE/RL President Steven Korn tried to discourage BBG members from going to Prague. He reportedly cited the need to save money. Subsequently, he himself embarked on a number of foreign travels. There was speculation that he did not want Board members to poke around RFE/RL.

The anonymous journalist presents three theories circulating among RFE/RL employees in Prague with regard to what their management is doing and what may be the BBG’s plans regarding the future of RFE/RL. These theories do not necessarily reflect the truth, but they are symptomatic of a work force being kept in the dark and deeply unhappy with their management.

It is not likely that the Obama Administration or BBG Governors have a single master plan for RFE/RL. BBG Governors often do not agree with each other. The Board is bipartisan. Recently, some BBG members have been trying to assert their authority vis-a-vis the BBG and IBB staff and are asking difficult questions.

The BBG executive staff is a different story. They do want to keep as much control and power for themselves and to manage information reaching BBG members. Their plans change depending on what may be in their best interest at any given moment. They also look for a patron among Board members like Walter Isaacson or S. Enders Wimbush. Walter Isaacson is gone and with him went some of his grandiose plans. With BBG members becoming more inquisitive, the BBG executive staff will have a more difficult time building up their bureaucratic empire at the expense of journalism. This may potentially be good news for RFE/RL. Let’s hope it is.

We offer this opinion piece by an anonymous RFE/RL journalist for further discussion.

Does anyone care about Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty?

opinions gathered by anonymous RFE/RL journalist

Is anyone noticing what is happening at RFE/RL? That is a really good question. As I read this site, most of the attention for the past month or so has been on VOA, Tibet and China, so I do not think we on the forefront of anyone’s mind at the Governors or BBG staff. In fact, we were told on Monday that only four Governors are expected to come to Prague in June for that month’s board meeting. This is a very strong signal that at least four members of the board are not that interested in learning how their actions are affecting our work. Perhaps they are afraid to look us in the eyes, after providing us with a management team that places little value on the actual journalism we are presenting to our audiences.

As to the original questions posed I assume by one of my colleagues here at RFE/RL, I have heard three theories as to why our current management behaves the way they do.

The first is that they are truly in over their heads. Our President did some tangential work for CNN and his friend former Governor Isaacson brought him on board because he dreamed of reliving that triumph by creating a new CNN. Once he realized that competing with private news outlets was not what the U.S. taxpayers hired him for, Chairman Isaacson left, and now President Korn is left without clear instructions, and is now looking to find a new path. This would explain his recent attempts at outreach to the RFE/RL staff. If we were not too afraid to give him the advice of the collective experience of hundreds of journalists, we might be able to redirect his efforts more productively.

The second theory is that the current team was chosen to make us more compliant when it comes time to consolidate the operations of the grantees. Maybe after a year or two a senior management team that shows very little interest in our actual work, we will be so happy for the opportunity to work for someone else, that we will willingly embrace the change of management, even if it means a change in the focus of our journalism.

The third theory is the most widespread amongst my colleagues, which is unfortunate as it is the one that most affects morale. The theory goes that President Korn was brought in to close down RFE/RL, and that ignoring our output and shifting our focus from radio to the web, our stories will be lost in clutter of available information on the internet. This assumes that unfriendly governments will not be blocking access to our websites, which is a dubious assumption at best. The overriding sentiment of backers of this theory is that the U.S. Government does not want to continue to fund U.S. International Broadcasting, and they have instructed the BBG to move away from radio and TV, put all of us onto the internet to wither and die on the vine. Then when it is shown that our message is being lost, it will be easy to convince Congress that USIB is no longer needed.

Regardless of the validity of any of the above theories, my colleagues and I will continue to do our best for the audiences in our respective home countries until such a time as we are no longer needed by them or wanted by the BBG.

Chen Guangcheng with his family

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) Advisory Board member Reggie Littlejohn reported that blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has escaped house arrest. Reggie Littlejohn, who is president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, has received the news about Chen Guangcheng’s escape from leading Chinese activist He Peirong and other human rights defenders in China.

Blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng was reported “disappeared,” by a reliable source who contacted Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, Reggie Littlejohn told CUSIB. Yaxue Cao, a key Chinese human rights activist who has been advocating on behalf of Chen Guangcheng, told WRWF that she spoke with Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui. Kegui’s mother overheard guards saying that Chen Guangcheng had “disappeared” from his home, where he had been under strict house arrest. Neither villagers nor family members know where he is. Yaxue Cao posted the recording of her conversation with Chen Kegui here. http://www.freecgc.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_27.html

He Peirong just told WRWF that she helped Chen escape to an undisclosed location outside of Shandong. She said that his health is stable, but she fears he is in danger. She also stated that the fate of Chen’s wife, mother, daughter and son may be in jeopardy as well.

A further alarming development is that on the night of Thursday, April 26, Chen’s brother (Kegui’s father) was also seized by a band of thugs, led by Zhang Jian (张健 the head of the township). Kegui defended his parents using kitchen knives and injured the thugs, who ran away. Kegui then walked outside the village to surrender himself to the police. As he was standing outside the village, he told Cao that he fears for the lives of Chen Guangcheng and his family, and for his own life.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said, “We are grateful that Chen is no longer under house arrest, but we are concerned about his safety and that of his family. We call upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton specifically to raise Chen’s case during her visit to Beijing May 3-4. Indeed, we call upon the entire international diplomatic community to make urgent, official interventions on behalf of Chen with the Chinese government. We call upon NGOs and concerned citizens the world over strongly to support this great hero during his hour of need.”

Kegui also told Cao that he has seen Chen Guangcheng only twice since Guangcheng was put under house arrest. When Guangcheng’s other brother died in February of this year, Chen burst out of the house but was forcibly returned by dozens of guards. Also, early in 2011, several relatives were allowed to visit Chen briefly during the Chinese New Year.

View a video and sign a petition to free Chen Guangcheng here. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/

Reggie Littlejohn, Founder and President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers

As a member of CUSIB’s Advisory Board, Reggie Littlejohn has been actively campaigning for saving Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China and Tibet from being silenced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a U.S. federal agency which manages Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other U.S. government-funded international broadcasters. In response to protests from Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and other human rights groups, the BBG has decided to restore some of the VOA and RFA broadcasts that were to be terminated. Reggie Littlejohn has stated that these radio broadcasts from the United States are vital for human rights activists in China like Chen Guangcheng and his supporters.

Chen as Tank Man - 2011 Christmas Card to Free Blind Chinese Human Rights Activist Chen Guangcheng

Before the news of Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest, Reggie Littlejohn published this op-ed:

The REAL War Against Women –

Forced abortion and Gendercide in China

SAN JOSE, CA. The real war against women has nothing to do with the morning-after pill or insurance coverage. This war transcends the debate between pro-life and pro-choice. It is not even being waged on U.S. soil.

The real war against women is forced abortion and gendercide in China.

As the U.S. debates Obamacare and the contraceptive mandate, Chinese women are being dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables and forced to abort babies that they want, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Sometimes the women themselves die, along with their full term babies. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, no one supports forced abortion, because it’s not a choice. Watch this 4-minute video to learn the brutal truth about forced abortion in China.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion

Equally appalling, baby girls are being selected for termination. According to one UN estimate, up to 200 million women are missing in the world today due to gendercide, the sex-selective abortion of baby girls, mostly in China and India. Anyone who cares about women’s rights must be heartbroken and incensed by this massive attack against females.

China’s One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth. It is systematic, institutionalized violence against women:

· Forced abortion is violent. It is official government rape.

· Forced sterilization is often done without anesthesia and may cause infection, which can ruin a woman’s reproductive and general health.

· Infanticide – the killing of newborns – is a human rights atrocity. Read “Best Practices – Infanticide” here. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=congressional

· Because of gendercide, there are now approximately 37 million more males living in China than women.

· This gender imbalance is driving sexual slavery not only within China, but from the surrounding countries as well.

· China has the highest female suicide rate of any nation in the world. An estimated 500 women a day end their lives in China.

The women of China cannot fight this war, or they risk being imprisoned, tortured and denied medical treatment, like blind forced abortion opponent, Chen Guangcheng.

Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Stand with our sisters in China. Sign a petition to end forced abortion in China.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Help free Chen Guangcheng.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=chen-guangcheng

–
Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, at VOA Chinese 70th Birthday Reception on Capitol Hill. BBG members failed to attend the reception and later proposed to end VOA broadcasts in Cantonese to China and VOA Tibetan radio. They subsequently decided not to proceed with these cuts but other broadcasting cuts are still on the table.

In a Christian Science Monitor op-ed, Joseph A. Bosco, who served in the office of the secretary of Defense as a strategic communications officer from 2002-2004 and as China country desk officer from 2005-2006, criticizes the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) for proposing cuts in news broadcasting to China, Tibet, Burma, Vietnam, Laos and other countries without free media while China and other authoritarian regimes expand their propaganda outreach abroad. In response to strong criticism by media freedom groups, human rights organizations and members of Congress from both parties, the BBG has already announced its intention to reverse some but not all of its proposed cuts in Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasts. The cuts were proposed by the BBG executive staff and initially accepted by most BBG members.

The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com
Why Voice of America is losing to voice of communist China – at home and abroad

In the war of ideas between freedom and authoritarianism, the Voice of America (VOA) broadcast program is losing to the voice of communist China – not because Beijing’s message is better but because its strategic vision and will to win surpass Washington’s.

The United States government is unilaterally disarming (through funding and personnel cuts) much of its program of speaking truth to the Chinese people. Meanwhile, the People’s Republic is aggressively expanding its campaign to spread untruths, especially about Western anti-China “plots.” Worse, China’s misinformation now openly targets the American people, as well – and does it from American soil.

Yet the Broadcast Board of Governors, which manages and oversees all US civilian international broadcasting, proposes cutting parts of its radio transmissions to China and Tibet as well as Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. The board plans to eliminate dozens of personnel directly or indirectly involved in local language broadcasts to those countries even as it adds scores of administrative positions despite budget constraints.

The board of governors proposed drastic reductions in its Mandarin radio broadcasts until Congress ordered a halt. It is now reviewing its plans for total elimination of the Cantonese program reaching China’s most dynamic and democratic-leaning population. The rationale was that “audiences…prefer digital and social media.”

By contrast, Beijing recognizes the continuing importance of radio and television to tens of millions of Chinese. The government-controlled China Central Television has just opened a new state-of-the-art broadcast bureau in Washington, D.C. as part of a major overseas expansion aimed at boosting China’s international influence.

Read more

This press release was issued by AFGE Local 1812, a union representing BBG employees. Link

NEWS RELEASE

Using Taxpayer Dollars, BBG Agency Battles Against U.S. Citizen Employees

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) which oversees all non-military international government broadcasting including the Voice of America, has been found liable for not giving employment priority to United States citizens.

The practice of hiring non-U.S. citizens despite the presence of qualified U.S. citizens was submitted to an institutional grievance by AFGE Local 1812, the Union that represents broadcasters and journalists at the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. In August 2007, Federal Arbitrator George Marshall Jr., ruled that the policy was illegal. However, the Agency appealed the award to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). It lost.

The Agency then tried to appeal in the D.C. Circuit Court, only to withdraw its motion. (Order granting Petitioner’s Motion to Voluntarily Dismiss Appeal in Broadcasting Board of Governors v. FLRA, No. 12-1044 (D.C. Cir. April 24, 2012).

We are aware that several plaintiffs who are not covered by the AFGE Local 1812 Contract are currently challenging the practice through the courts, which could lead to more legal liabilities that we calculate could reach in the millions of dollars, due to the Agency’s stubbornness in violating the will of Congress.

For the Agency to keep flaunting the Smith-Mundt Act sends a terrible message to employees: that the BBG considers itself above the law and will deny U.S. citizens their rights, using taxpayers’ money to do so. AFGE Local 1812 has expressed concern to the BBG that the Agency continues to incur back pay and damages liability for past and current illegal selections, at a time of budgetary constraints and RIFs. Continued violation of the Smith-Mundt Act after the FLRA’s ruling raises the prospect of individual liability for any BBG officers involved. This litigation may be one of the reasons why the Agency is now trying to get Congress to repeal the entire Smith-Mundt Act.

This type of behavior is not new to this Agency. In 2002, after more than 20 years of legal maneuvering, the Agency reached a half-billion-dollar settlement in the discrimination case brought by female employees against VOA/USIA in Hartman v. Albright.

In 2010, the courts forced the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to pay over $650,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by former VOA Arabic Service employees who said they had been discriminated against by Radio Sawa. (Mohamed Abdelkarim, et al. v. James K. Glassman). The Agency was accused of discrimination in the hiring, promotion, and treatment of these experienced Arabic broadcasters who were pushed out in favor of less experienced younger workers.

The Agency has acquired another potentially huge financial liability. On November 19, 2011, Federal Arbitrator, Suzanne Butler, found in favor of AFGE Local 1812 in its grievance over the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ 2009 illegal reduction-in-force at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, adversely affecting more than 20 employees.

The Arbitrator’s award orders, among other things, reinstatement of the affected employees to their previous positions without loss of seniority or benefits and full back pay including interest. Acting in its usual manner the Agency is postponing its day of reckoning, when it would have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to these employees, by filing an appeal to the FLRA. Continued delays could add millions to taxpayers’ costs.

These Agency actions might not be happening in glitzy Las Vegas casinos as was the case with the GSA. Still and all, the BBG is using the hard-earned and increasingly scarce dollars from U.S. taxpayers in its capricious legal battles against VOA employees.

For more information call AFGE Local 1812 at 202-382-7616.

Revolution monument in Managua

This past December 2011, the VOA Spanish Service celebrated the 50th anniversary of its popular broadcast, Buenos Dias America, to the countries of Central and Latin America. Several months later, as if on cue, Service members learned that in the FY2013 budget proposal, the BBG Executive Staff plans to cut their budget and potentially eliminate many positions, a proposal which would effectively destroy VOA broadcasting and most news coverage to Latin America. Some have described this move as Phase I of a long-range VOA Spanish and Radio/TV Marti consolidation, a project which has a number of legal obstacles.

The VOA Spanish Service has remained steadfast in its mission to reach the people in the countries of Latin America in the face of diminishing resources allocated to the broadcasts from the IBB/BBG over the years. Several years ago, despite the warnings of a number of experts in the field, the BBG abandoned its broadcasts in Portuguese to Brazil. If VOA Spanish reductions are now implemented, America’s communication with the 19 Spanish-speaking countries in Central and Latin America would be severely curtailed at a critical time despite some glaring facts affecting U.S. national security including:

1) The rising tide of an aggressive anti-Americanism throughout the region spearheaded by Venezuelan strongman, Hugo Chavez, through his TV network TELESUR

2) One country after another falling to left-wing governments based on the Castro/Chavez models

3) The increasing involvement of China and Iran in Latin America including a new Iranian 24/7 Spanish-language TV channel

4) Defense Secretary Panetta’s recent statement that Tehran’s efforts to expand its circle of influence in South America is tantamount to exporting state-sponsored terrorism and that, as a result, Hamas and Hezbollah could expand their foothold in the region.

To most logical analysts, a crisis of these proportions in any region of the world would dictate that U.S. broadcasts be expanded and not curtailed, especially because of the potential impact on U.S. national security in this hemisphere.

Strategic planning, if it is to be truly strategic, cannot make arbitrary decisions in a vacuum especially if these decisions negatively affect national security.

The VOA Spanish Service has issued an appeal to the U.S. Congress to save its broadcasts.

Those who believe in the mission of VOA can only hope that this appeal will be heard in the U.S. Congress before the BBG flawed strategy for Latin America has a chance of being implemented.

(APPEAL)

La sabiduría nos llega cuando ya no nos sirve de nada. Wisdom comes to us when it’s already too late.

​​​​APPEAL TO THE CONGRESS
SAVE VOICE OF AMERICA SPANISH BROADCASTS TO LATIN AMERICA

In its plans for FY2013, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has announced a major Reduction-in-Force for the essential VOA Spanish Service which broadcasts to Latin America. Over 20 employees are scheduled to be fired. We believe that the cessation of U.S. broadcasts to an extremely important region, which is strategic to U.S. interests, is a major blunder for our foreign policy.

​•​ For over 50 years, the Voice of America has been broadcasting to this critical part of the world in our hemisphere. At its anniversary celebration last year, the VOA Spanish Service celebrated the milestones in its communications with the countries of Latin America including its immensely popular Breakfast Show, Buenos Dias America, which covers historic events, news about our country, and international events in a style accessible to both elites and working people. This show as well as others are broadcast throughout Central and South America on AM and FM affiliate stations and satellite and are also available on podcasts, the VOA website and on mobile phones. This legacy of communication, which impacts the people of an important part of the world strategic to our interests, will stop if the cuts are approved by Congress. The BBG is wrong in concentrating its resources only on the Middle East and Asia while ignoring the nations of Latin America, whose trade surpasses those of China, India and Russia all together.

​•​ This region which had become synonymous with the words junta, banana republic and turmoil, is now emerging with a new level of political and economic maturity: exactly the audience that we want to reach. Democracy as well as economic upward mobility in many of the countries is starting to grow. However, the Hugo Chavez and Castro models of centralized control with their strong anti-Americanism and opposition to the free market are undermining the growth of democracy in Latin America especially with the constant anti-American diatribes of broadcasting agencies like TELESUR, a 24-hour TV network. The Chavez model in Venezuela is negatively affecting other countries in the region including Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua. If America stops its communication with the emerging democracies of Latin America, the results could be most serious for U.S. national security.

​•​ China and Iran have expanded their influence in Latin America. China has now replaced the U.S. as the major trading partner of Brazil. Both countries are opening new cultural centers throughout Latin American countries. At the beginning of the year, Iran launched a 24-hour TV network which is broadcasting an aggressive anti-American message. Most seriously for global security, Iran is getting uranium for its fuel rods from Brazil and has negotiated an agreement with Bolivia’s leftist leader, Evo Morales, to extract lithium in commercial quantities. Their political and economic ties are growing, while the U.S. does not seem to be paying attention, which could directly impact our national security. Cutting VOA Spanish broadcasts to Latin America at this critical time makes no sense.

​•​ There are 50 million people of Latino heritage in the United States and their individual success stories in politics, business, culture, medicine and entrepreneurship in our society are an important and inspiring factor in our communications with the people of Latin America and in forging alliances with those countries. Cutting U.S. broadcasts to Latin America sends the wrong message to the Hispanic-American community, alienates Latino voters, and destroys the possibilities of communicating U.S. ideas, ideals and institutions. This would be a blow to U.S. public diplomacy in the region.

​•​ In its budget submission for FY2013, the BBG states that its actions are part of a long-range consolidation of VOA Spanish and Radio/TV Marti. To our knowledge, there is no mechanism for consolidation of VOA Spanish and Radio Marti in the language of the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act (P.L. 98-111) where the mission of Radio Marti is specifically spelled out. We do not believe that there has been any directive from Congress to change the mission of Radio/TV Marti whose broadcasts are targeted to the Cuban people. The mission of the VOA Spanish Service is codified in the VOA charter contained in P.L. 94-350. Therefore, we do not understand how and why the BBG is undertaking these actions unilaterally without consultation with or approval from the U.S. Congress.

•​​ The most undeniable example of how vital the VOA’s Spanish Service is for the United States was the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia. As never before, the United States was isolated while nearly 30 regional Presidents refused to sign a joint Summit Final Declaration in protest against U.S. policies towards Cuba. In fact, there is growing support for the inclusion of Cuba at the next scheduled Summit. This highlights the steady decline of U.S. influence in a region whose economic growth rates are the envy of the developed world.

VOA SPANISH BROADCASTS TO LATIN AMERICA ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THE ​STRATEGIC INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

For the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency that runs the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and other stations broadcasting news to the world with U.S. taxpayers’ money, the public opinion that matters is mostly abroad.

These stations provide uncensored news to many countries without free media and some, specifically the Voice of America, also represent the United States — the full spectrum of American opinions — as part of VOA’s mission. These stations are not in the public diplomacy business per se, but their news reporting and the image they project adds to the overall U.S. public diplomacy message in various countries.

If you are a foreign national and the news gets out that your U.S. government employer mistreats you and takes advantage of you, it’s not a good thing for America’s reputation abroad. Journalists talk to other journalists who in turn publish what they hear from their colleagues.

If the U.S. government employer claims that its activities reflect American values and help other nations transition to media freedom and democracy, the gap between actions and words becomes even more apparent.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors executive staff has never cared about such things. They have ignored the public impact of their actions for years as they continued to exploit foreign born and U.S. visa status journalists, denied them basic rights and got away with it until now.

But the news about their mistreatment of employees is now leaking out, bad press in many countries intensifies, and court cases pile up, including one at the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. Even pro-American foreign politicians speak out in defense of journalists mistreated and exploited by the BBG. This is not the kind of public diplomacy the U.S. needs. Yet, the BBG executive staff has remained unmoved.

But the tide may be turning against the BBG managers now working for the director of the International Broadcasting Bureau Richard Lobo. The fact that BBG employees rate their managers as being the worst leaders in the entire U.S. government, as reflected in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveys, has caught the attention of BBG member Ambassador Victor Ashe. He started meeting with employees and urged other BBG members to do the same.

Ashe reported at the BBG meeting held last week in Miami that Board members have learned about management practices that were hidden in the closet for many years. He also said that Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine, who represented Secretary of State Clinton at the BBG meeting in Miami, made valuable suggestions on public input into the Agency’s operations. Another BBG member Susan McCue suggested that instead of cutting programs, the management should look for savings in “management.” At the same meeting, the Board reversed their staff’s recommendation to eliminate Voice of America radio broadcasts to Tibet and to close down the VOA Cantonese Service. The decision to reverse the Tibet and China cuts was announced by Governor Michael Meehan.

It appears that BBG members are finally beginning to realize that they themselves have been the victims of their own staff which has been responsible for numerous blunders, such as the proposal to end VOA radio to Tibet, but also for constantly proposing to cut programs, expanding their own bureaucracy at the expense of programming, and exploiting foreign journalists to maintain their positions and power.

The scheme devised by BBG executives involves cutting or reducing broadcasts, firing regular employees and replacing them with contractors who are paid very little, are denied basic employment benefits and can’t defend themselves effectively against abuses by the management.

Thanks to Governor Ashe’s efforts, BBG members and IBB director Richard Lobo have been hearing from some of these contractors at the Voice of America. For the first time, BBG members have met with union representatives. As Governor Ashe said, they have learned things they would rather not hear about, but things they should know. Exploitation and discrimination of foreign-born contractors was one of many topics which were discussed.

But neither employees nor their union are convinced that the current top BBG/IBB managers can be reformed. Most recently, the union representing BBG employees, AFGE Local 1812, posted an item on its website on the continuec Agency’s abuse of its J-1 Visa status journalists. It reads:

“Every so often there is case that so perfectly illustrates the mistreatment of employees committed by the BBG/IBB/VOA management that it needs to be told. The way this management has mistreated people that they brought into this country via the inappropriate use of the J-1 Visa process (known for good reason as the “nanny visa”) is appalling. Unfortunately the example below is not a singular case. There have been others that this management has sent packing in a similar manner. These former employees now have a very low opinion of the United States Government; if not America itself (although it needs to be pointed out that Sumaira has not indicated any ill will towards anyone at this point). I believe that the BBG/IBB/VOA management, by treating their J-1 Visa holders the way they do, turn these once enthusiastic promoters of America and our values into less than enthusiastic admirers of this country. In this way the management under the BBG undermines the Voice of America’s purpose, at least to the extent that we are supposed to promote good will towards this country and our ideals. I cannot vouch for everything she states but I can state that when the head of the H.R. office was asked what would have happened if Sumaira left the country when she was first informed that her visa had expired, she me told that there would not have been a reconsideration appeal because the Agency would not sponsor her to bring her back. In addition, the deciding official who heard Sumaira’s appeal did not sign the decision letter. One has to wonder why. I was a witness to Sumaira’s appeal and believe a third party decision maker would have thrown out the Agency’s allegations completely. Read Sumaira’s account by clicking on the title of this story.” Agency Abuse of J-1 Visa

Snjezana Pelivan is suing RFE/RL and BBG at the European Court of Human Rights

Then there is the longstanding discrimination of foreign-born journalists employed as contractors by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty at their headquarters in Prague, the Czech Republic. The Broadcasting Board of Governors executives devised a scheme of depriving these journalists of the protections they could receive under the current Czech labor law. That way they can fire them at will without any explanation and they can do that — they claim — under the communist-era rules that exempted certain foreign employers (It used to be Soviet companies in communist-run Czechoslovakia.) from some of the local laws and regulations.

This cynical abuse of the Czech legal system by the BBG has been a public diplomacy disaster abroad for the United States, but somehow it escaped the attention of most U.S. media and U.S. public officials.

Anna Karapetian is suing RFE/RL in Czech courts

This scandal has, however, been reported on widely by foreign media in some of the countries where RFE/RL operates. One case of a former RFE/RL employee Snjezana Pelivan has reached the European Court of Human Rights. Another case filed by an Armenian journalist Anna Karapetian is being reviewed by the courts in the Czech Republic. Both plaintiffs are women. They claim they were denied the protections of the Czech labor law because they were foreigners employed and then dismissed by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. RFE/RL was merely following personnel policies set by BBG executives.

The husband of one of the women, himself a distinguished former RFE/RL editor and commentator, wrote a letter about the impact of this BBG policy on America’s image abroad. He provided a list of foreign media titles highly negative toward the United States as they reported on these court cases. The letter was addressed to the newly sworn in Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Tara Sonenshine.  The author of the letter Lev Roitman is the husband of Snjezana Pelivan whose case against RFE/RL and the BBG is pending before the European Court of Human Rights.  Roitman is a former RFE/RL senior commentator. He retired in 2005,after thirty years with RFE/RL in New York, Munich, and Prague.

“Please accept my congratulations on your confirmation by Senate as the next Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy. Hopefully, you will achieve better results for the United States than the kaleidoscope of your predecessors in that position.

 

In particular, the Secretary of State serves ex officio as a member of BBG and of RFE/RL’s

Board of Directors. You will represent her in that critical segment of U.S. public diplomacy.

For your predecessors, it was just a ceremonial and burdensome chore. The results of such a “leadership” (to use a politically correct word) are devastating to American image abroad.

 

Enclosed please find an Open Letter

At Broadcasting Board of Governors and Radio Free Europe/Liberty –Public Diplomacy is Public Scandal at Public Expense

It was delivered in hard copies to the listed addresses. On January 24th, the Open Letter was published and widely multiplied by Internet.

 

On January 27th, Mr. Walter Isaacson resigned as the BBG Chairman. Otherwise, nothing changed since then. Just the list of scandalous for the United States international publications (follows) grew longer. It is your task now to stop that cancerous grows of negative publicity.

 

I wish you real achievements in public diplomacy. You may start by confronting the self-serving BBG bureaucracy — for immediate benefit to our country.

 

“Abbreviated List of international publications (in Czech, Serbo-Croatian, English, Russian, Armenian, etc.) condemning RFE/RL discriminative personnel policies practiced in the Czech Republic”:

“At Broadcasting Board of Governors and Radio Free Europe/Liberty –

Public Diplomacy is Public Scandal at Public Expense,” 

“Snjezana Pelivan asks Croatian government to support her legal claim in Strasbourg,” 

“’Prague winter’ for USA’s Radio Free Europe/Liberty,”

“A Spectre (ghost) Haunts ‘Free Europe’ ,”

“A Letter from Prague: Two Women Fighting to Uphold America’s Principles at America’s Radio,”

“Samizdat at Radio Free Europe/ Liberty describes discrimination against foreigners, women,”

“American Radio Free Europe violates equal rights of its foreign employees in Prague,”

“U.S.-Funded Radio Free Europe Invokes Communist Law to Violate the Will of Congress,”

“American RFE/RL Fights in Courts against Armenian Journalist. And Scores Against America,”

“From RFE/RL: Immorality as a Matter of Policy,”

“Czech Court Rules Against RFE/RL in Suit by Dismissed Armenian Employee,”

“In handcuffs of ‘Liberty’,”

“Czech Court to American Radio Free Europe: No Use for U.S. Laws in the Czech Republic.         Hillary Clinton Will Not Be Asked to Testify,”

“Czech Court Rules RFE/RL Cannot Discriminate Against Its Own Foreign Journalists,”

“Radio Liberty Betrays Its Ideals,”

“Czech Supreme Court Rules Against Radio Free Europe. Karapetian’s Case Returned for New Consideration”,

“It’s the Morality, Stupid,”

“Radio Free Europe – Task for Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg,”

“Radio Free Europe – Guantanamo in Prague,”

“Armenian journalist appeals to Obama to Protect Rights of Foreign Journalists at U.S. Government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,”  

“Equality With Precondition. Practice of Free Europe Contradicts Its Ideals,”

“U.S. Attorney General is Asked to Investigate Fraud at RFE/RL,”

“Doomsday of Radio Liberty. From Double Standards to Double Morals?”

“A Sense of Betrayal,”

“Czech Politician Accuses U.S. of Discrimination Against Foreign Journalists,”

“On Air in Legal Vacuum,”

“Czech MP Writes to U.S. Counterparts Over Work Conditions in RFE/RL,”

”New Administration Must Undo RFE/RL Anti-Diplomacy Abroad,”

“BBG, RFE/RL: Bring Public Diplomats Instead of Public Bureaucrats,”

“Don’t Feed Kremlin’s Public Diplomacy With U.S. Public Hypocrisy,”

“Public Disaster Instead of Public Diplomacy,”

“Cases of Karapetian and Pelivan as Morality Check for Obama Administration. Radio Free Europe to Face European Court of Human Rights,”

“Czech MP Questions Pelivan Case,”

“Czech Sovereignty Ends at RFE/RL,”

“At Radio Free Europe/Liberty, Bulk of Discriminated Employees is Muslims. Hillary Clinton Serves on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Board of Directors,”

“Free Europe With Its Own Laws in Colonial Czech Republic?”  

“From Human Rights Show to Human Rights Court,”

“Prague Spring Leads to Strasbourg,”

”News Flashes From Radio Free/Radio Liberty. The Face of America Abroad,”

“Czech senator angry about Croat’s lawsuit”… “

Is it only us, or was Lynne Weil engaging in a bit of passive aggressive behavior at the recent Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) meeting in Miami?

The BBG’s Director of Communications and External Affairs Lynne Weil gave a very professional report on on media and Congressional outreach activities.

Fine and Good. But then something strange happened.

Lynne Weil

Frankly, we were surprised because Lynne Weil is a highly respected and experienced public relations specialist who before joining the BBG was the Press Director and Spokeswoman for the U.S. Agency for International Development, a Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, the Press Secretary for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Communications Director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Victor Ashe

What struck us as very strange was the way Lynne Weil described BBG Governor Victor Ashe’s efforts to restore the Edward R. Murrow name to the BBG shortwave radio transmitting facility in Greenville, NC. Ashe with the help of North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones saved the station from being closed down by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and International Broadcasting Bureau executive staff. These staffers deeply resent Ashe’s active engagement and second guessing of their decisions. Most recently, he convinced other BBG members to discard the staff’s earlier recommendation to end Voice of America shortwave radio broadcasts to Tibet and to close down the VOA Cantonese Service.

It’s not that Lynne Weil was silent about Ashe’s efforts to save the Greenville station and to restore its name. On the contrary, her presentation was so full of accolades that after a while it began to sound farcical, at least to us, and perhaps also to Ashe and other BBG members in the room.

Lynne Weil also volunteered information that the placing of Edward R. Murrow signs near and on the station and the planned rededication ceremony that is to take place on May 2, will cost $10,000. A really strange move by a public relations professional.

Victor Ashe has been know to question extensive foreign travels and other extravagant expenditures like the $50,000,000 audience research contract with Gallup approved by BBG and IBB executives who protect their jobs and perks while proposing to eliminate broadcasts and fire hundreds of journalists and other broadcasting professionals. Ashe refuses to have his public comments cleared by the IBB staff and invites input from BBG rank-and-file employee. To the horror of the executive staff, he made his personal email address public and asked for public comments on important U.S. international broadcasting issues.

Rep. Walter B. Jones

Those viewing or listening to the proceedings of the Miami meeting could have easily concluded from Lynne Weil’s presentation that Ashe and Congressman Jones are only interested in the placing of new signs around the station and the rededication ceremony. In reality, this is an effort by distinguished public servants (Ashe is a former mayor of Knoxville, TN and former U.S. Ambassador to Poland) to ensure that Broadcasting Board of Governors and International Broadcasting Bureau government bureaucrats will have a more difficult time in the future trying to close down this only remaining shortwave radio transmitting facility on U.S. territory, which is operated by American workers and fully controlled by the U.S. government.

Ashe announced at the meeting that in addition to Congressman Jones, Casey Murrow, son of Edward R. Murrow, will participate in the rededication ceremony, which will also honor World Press Freedom Day. Edward R. Murrow, after whom the Greenville station was named, was the renowned broadcaster and director of the United States Information Agency, USIA (1961-1964). The Greenville station was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

It’s a well known fact that BBG/IBB executive staff wants to end shortwave radio broadcasts, especially by the Voice of America, even to countries without free media. Their now rejected recommendation to eliminate VOA radio to Tibet and China is a proof of their bureaucratic vision. They ignore the fact that the Chinese authorities censor and block Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and other Western news websites but they can never fully jam shortwave radio broadcasts.

Did Lynne Weil get carried away by her enthusiasm of being new in this job or was there another agenda? I guess we will never know for sure.

You can check it out yourself by viewing the on-demand video from meeting or listening to a MP3 file HERE. Lynne Weil’s presentation is at the very end of the file.

Contact: Rohit Mahajan 202 530 4976 mahajanr@rfa.org

Radio Free Asia Honored at Hong Kong Human Rights Press Awards

Human Trafficking Web Video Series, Cantonese Radio Report Recognized

WASHINGTON – Radio Free Asia won two awards at the 16^th annual Hong Kong Human Rights Press Awards sponsored by the Foreign Correspondents Club, Amnesty International, and the Hong Kong Journalists Association. RFA’s video documentary series on human trafficking in Asia won in the contest’s online content category and its Cantonese language story on the humiliation of a Chinese rights advocate garnered a merit award in the radio broadcast category.

“These hard-won awards reflect the commitment to the eye-opening journalism RFA does on a daily basis,” said Libby Liu, Radio Free Asia’s president. “Our reporting brings our audience closer to the truth, no matter how difficult the subject matter or media environment in which RFA language services operate.”

RFA’s online human trafficking series, representing the research and work of videographers spanning a year, documents the advent of child soldier recruitment in Burma, labor abuses in China’s black factories, traffickers targeting refugee camps in Thailand, and North Korean mothers being forcibly wed in China, among other instances of trafficking. Drawing from in-country interviews with victims, NGO representatives, and traffickers themselves, the videos tell the first-person stories of trafficking that affects millions in Asia. Together, the individual videos seek to go beyond the content’s shock value to explore the human subjects and complex factors that underpin trafficking in Asia, namely, population displacement, poverty, ethnic discrimination, cultural pressures, war, and government corruption, among other issues.

RFA Cantonese’s reporter Grace Leung was honored at the event for her radio story on Hebei rights activist Xu Yishun who was jailed for one and a half years in a re-education center for charges related to his plan to visit the wife of then-jailed Shandong blind activist Chen Guangcheng. Xu incurred mistreatment during his imprisonment and public humiliation upon his release in September 2011 when he was discharged without adequate clothing and his relatives were not allowed to pick him up at the prison gates.

Other news organizations recognized at this year’s event included South China Morning Post, National Public Radio, International Herald Tribune, and Time magazine, among other regional Hong Kong-based outlets. The winners were named at an April 21 ceremony held at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong.

# # #

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media.  RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Annette Lantos with her husband Congressman Tom Lantos

At the meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in Miami on April 20, the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting decided to reverse its earlier decision on Voice of America (VOA) program cuts to China and Tibet. In expressing his full support for restoring funding for these broadcasts, BBG Governor Ambassador Victor Ashe said:

This will make people like Annette Lantos very pleased and happy. She is a special figure in history.

Annette Lantos is the Chairman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. She and her late husband Congressman Tom Lantos were both Holocaust survivors. Click here for more information about Mrs. Lantos’ pro-human rights activities.

Earlier this month, Annette Lantos had written a letter to the nine members of the bipartisan Board urging them to save U.S. taxpayer-funded news broadcasts to China, Tibet, and Russia. Her letter states:

“I write to you on a personal basis to express dismay that Voice of America radio and television broadcasts to Russia ceased in 2008. I am deeply concerned that although last year’s proposed cuts of VOA Mandarin and Cantonese radio and television programs were halted, this year’s proposal includes the elimination of VOA Cantonese services and VOA Tibetan Radio Services, at a time when there is significant unrest in Tibet. I urge you to continue the Cantonese and Tibetan broadcasts, and to restore them to Russia.”

Victor Ashe spearheaded the effort to overturn the earlier decision on cuts in broadcasting to China and Tibet.

He recalled that as U.S. Ambassador he had the privilege to welcome to Poland Annette Lantos and her late husband Congressman Tom Lantos when they came in 2005 for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.

“It was a very difficult time for him emotionally to visit the barracks where torture occurred every minute,” said Ashe.

Speaking about the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ decision to restore funding in the next fiscal year for Voice of America radio broadcasts to Tibet and for the VOA Cantonese Service with its radio, television and Internet programming to China, Victor Ashe said that “hopefully, the response of this committee will receive the same attention that her [Annette Lantos'] eloquent letter has received.”

In her letter, Annette Lantos noted the efforts of the independent, nongovernmental Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) in support of the free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries without free media:

“I write in support of the efforts of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting. The CUSIB works to ensure that U.S. government-funded broadcasts promote respect for human rights and freedom of the press, especially in nations where these basic freedoms are under attack.”

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and member of CUSIB’s Advisory Board, said, “I am deeply grateful to Mrs. Lantos for supporting Voice of America broadcasts into China, as she is a towering presence for human rights all over the globe, including millions who suffer at the hands of the brutal, totalitarian regime in China.  With a wave of self-immolations in Tibet, now is not the time to cut off VOA broadcasting in Tibetan.  The Cantonese broadcasts are essential as well.”

In addition to Ambassador Victor Ashe, other BBG members: Susan McCue, Michael Meehan and Dennis Mulhaupt, also made strong public statements at the meeting in Miami last week in support of continuing U.S. broadcasts to Tibet and China.

To read the entire letter by Annette Lantos click here.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) is an independent, nongovernmental organization which supports free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries without free media.

For further information, please contact:

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB)
New York, New York

Ann Noonan, co-founder and Executive Director
Tel. 646-251-6069

Ted Lipien, co-founder and Director
Tel. 415-793-1642

Email: contact@cusib.org
www.cusib.org

by The Federalist

It is painful – the process of seeing the depths to which US Government international broadcasting has fallen at the hands of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and its International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) staff.

Here’s the latest example:

On Friday, April 20, 2012 the BBG issued another one of its press releases extolling itself, this time on the subject of its broadcasting to China. The title of the press release:

“Board Forges Ahead With China Strategy, Adapted to Modern Media Environment and Audience Needs”

Let’s be clear:

The BBG has no China strategy. Along with that, the BBG is not meeting audience needs or effectively addressing a “modern media environment, which for US Government international broadcasting requires a balanced multi-media approach to deal with the broad disparities within intended audiences and similar issues of accessibility.

The strategy embraced by the BBG/IBB is the strategy of defeat. In turn, this strategy of defeat has turned into a strategic rout. Once started, it is very difficult to stop – and will not be stopped while in the hands of the current BBG/IBB. Some would argue that this process started in the Middle East with the end of the VOA Arabic Service. It certainly became manifest with the unilateral ending of broadcasts to Russia in 2008 by the BBG/IBB. It continues with ineffective and costly television programs to Iran via its Persian News Network (and yes, the “Parazit” satire program doesn’t cut it because its strategic value is questionable and it has not been successful as a lead-in for the Persian News Network news programs). It continues in Latin America where those pesky Iranians are ratcheting up their Spanish language broadcasts.

Returning to the issue of China:

Thanks to the BBG/IBB, United States is already a big-time loser. It has ceded the initiative to the Chinese. In essence, the BBG has to concede that the Chinese have essentially outmaneuvered them across all media. As the BBG/IBB has noted on its BBG Strategy website, the Chinese jam BBG programs “very well.” The Chinese also have the likely capability to jam BBG television programs even if they have not exercised that capability. And as far as the Internet is concerned: forget it. The Chinese have replicated their own Internet, albeit content-controlled and periodically blocked. That’s it: game, set and match.

But wait! Breaking news!

Now we learn from the latest BBG press release:

“At the April meeting of the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee, the Board asked that key senior staff form a working group to devise a holistic solution for reaching audiences throughout China, including Tibet.” (emphasis added)

“Holistic solution?!?”

Chinese officials must be highly amused at this latest BBG/IBB pronouncement.

Why?

Because we are well into the realm of the surreal on the Third Floor of the Cohen Building.

Badly.

Like an illness.

If the Chinese government wants the clearest indication that it has won what has to be one of the greatest of victories against the United States in the arena of international broadcasting, they just got it via this press release.

Whatever prestige US international broadcasting had has now been driven into oblivion by mumbo-jumbo and psycho babble by the wonks of the BBG/IBB.

And this thing about “asking” senior staff to form a “working group:” doesn’t the BBG know the meaning of the word “direct?” You don’t ask. You order and direct. You hold that senior staff accountable – in part because it is likely that there won’t be a great deal of enthusiasm for a task that has the potential for revealing how seriously messed up these officials have made of US Government international broadcasting.

Once again, the BBG has taken a pass on effective leadership.

Let’s go back to what we have said in previous commentaries:

The Chinese have a $7-billion dollar budget for its international broadcasting budget. It is booming into North America with radio, television and print media. They are a major player. They have the posture of a major player. Most assuredly, they do not rely on psycho-babble like the charlatans in the Cohen Building who are pushing a ludicrous “flim flam strategic plan” or a “holistic solution” to its self-inflicted disaster in China.

And look at this:

“The funding increase required in order to implement the board’s China distribution strategy totals approximately $3 million for FY 2013.”

What did we just say above?

The Chinese have a $7-BILLION dollar budget for its international broadcasting.

And if the Board doesn’t wrangle that $3-million dollars from the Congress, the BBG may very well try to terminate more US Government international broadcasting; in other words, proceed with the favorite BBG/IBB operational model: business as usual.

The BBG/IBB is no longer a serious threat to the Chinese – on any platform, in any medium.

How many times do we need to say it: this is really bad.

It’s bad not only for the US Government international broadcasting effort to China. It’s bad for all of US Government international broadcasting. The BBG/IBB has no meaningful strategy for effectively carrying out the agency’s mission as codified in the VOA Charter. They can’t even carry out their own spin on the Charter: “supporting freedom and democracy.”

Has there been any manifestation of this “holistic solution” regarding US Government international broadcasting to China?

Sort of.

We learn from our sources that the VOA China Branch staff has been informed that it will only do live radio programs to China in its morning broadcasts from Washington. That would be evening time in China.

For the evening programs from Washington, the broadcasts will be a repeat of the morning shows. We do not know if this includes the newscasts typically at the top of the hour and on the half-hour. Even so, in essence, this means that the Chinese radio broadcasts will be 24 hours behind in the news cycle, particularly in long-form news content. That means that the repeated programs could well be overtaken by events, making the “holistic solution” look even more ludicrous and ridiculous to the Chinese audience.

You know what happens next?

The audience will likely stop listening to the evening broadcasts (evening DC, morning in China). They will catch on to the fact that VOA is dealing in what is essentially “old news.” Good-bye audience!

Maybe the IBB apparatchiks will spend some of that $50-million dollar Gallup contract on doing a survey to verify that this decision results in no one listening to the evening Chinese broadcasts from VOA anymore.

Brilliant!

And then they will troop out the usual IBB spin that no one listens to radio. Why would they when the BBG/IBB sets up the VOA China Branch to fail by cutting back on generating live programming for virtually all of its evening broadcast schedule?

There is nothing worse than the work of the staff of the VOA China Branch being deliberately undermined by decisions of the career, bonus-seeking bureaucrats on the Third Floor of the Cohen Building.

And let’s be clear: this is a known BBG “strategy,” albeit in a different form. In the past, the BBG has eliminated broadcasts over radio frequencies, which in turn means that audiences can’t hear the broadcasts. Do a survey. No audience. Good-bye broadcasts and/or language services altogether.

In any form, this constitutes self-inflicted defeat, ladies and gentlemen. It is intentional and it is deliberate – brought to you by the bonus-mongers of the IBB.

And you can best believe that if the BBG/IBB “brain trust” decides to pull the plug on the evening VOA Chinese broadcasts, the Chinese will then have the opportunity to really ramp up and concentrate their jamming efforts of the VOA Chinese morning broadcasts.

One other thing:

We also learn from our sources that the BBG/IBB “holistics” now want to do two hours of live television programming to China.

What’s wrong with this picture?

The production costs for those two hours of television are substantially greater than those for the same amount of radio time.

This isn’t rocket science. Here’s an example: The average American needs to look no further than the Super Bowl to understand how costly television time is: the amount of money to produce a television commercial to run in the Super Bowl – along with the amount of money that networks will charge to run that spot. Sure – this is at the high end of the spectrum by nature of the event. However, a side-by-side comparison of the typical radio versus television spot would show the same cost difference.

And every Member of Congress knows how much radio versus television time costs when they are formulating their media campaigns in their election bids. The same thing applies when costing out radio versus television programs. That’s something every Member of Congress can understand and see in context. They should be asking the BBG/IBB for this cost comparison for what it intends to do with its VOA China Branch programs – presuming the BBG/IBB would be forthright with an honest answer – which isn’t a given.

And here’s another way to look at it –

You are not likely to hear a US congressman or senator saying to one’s constituents that he/she is looking for a “holistic solution” to the national debt, to Social Security solvency, to rising food and gasoline prices or the war on terrorism.

You know why?

Because it would be absolutely ludicrous! It would be moronic. The congressman or senator would be soundly ridiculed across all media. It would be the kind of nonsense that gets people unelected.

That is what the BBG/IBB is doing: trafficking in nonsense in the form of oxymoronic pronouncements.

We’ve seen a variation of this oxymoron before. It has been applied to the VOA Central Newsroom. In that instance, a senior Newsroom manager referred to taking a “holistic approach” to VOA news reporting.

You know what this is?

It’s reaching, grasping at straws. It’s desperation – not being willing to face the reality that the people in charge of this agency and its mission have lost their grip, their ability to carry out the mission effectively or efficiently. The initiative now is in the hands of others: the Chinese, the Russians, the pesky Iranians, the “Arab Spring” fundamentalists.

US international broadcasting has deteriorated to such an extent that the highest levels of US Government must make a decision to rescue the agency’s mission and remove it from the hands of the BBG/IBB – some of whom are now reported to be preparing for overseas junkets.

Perhaps these Don Quixotes are on a search for the ultimate “holistic solution!”

Most likely, the travel will be at taxpayer expense, of course.

The American taxpayer should never pay for a strategy of defeat. They should have zero tolerance for officials of a Federal agency who embrace and are proponents of a strategy of defeat.

Perhaps the only thing “holistic” about the BBG “strategy” is that it is shot full of holes, if you’ll pardon the play on words.

We provide the BBG press release for your excursion into the surrealism of the “holistic solution” below.

The Federalist
April 2012

###

Friday, April 20, 2012

Board Forges Ahead With China Strategy, Adapted to Modern Media Environment and Audience Needs

Miami, Fl, April 20, 2012 – The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) today announced a renewed strategy for broadcasting to China that will be reflected in the ongoing dialogue with Congress about the Agency’s proposed FY 2013 budget.
“China’s highly competitive media market and its government’s aggressive jamming of BBG content are long-standing challenges,” said BBG board member Michael Meehan. “Beijing blocks media of many kinds and aggressively stifles free expression, especially in regions where dissent continues to arise in the open, such as Tibet. While the Board understands the reality of the current budget environment, it also perceives a pressing need for the news and information that we provide to be seen and heard across China and Tibet.”

In response to inquiries from Congress and other stake-holders, the Agency is developing alternatives that take into account the roles of Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA) Tibetan Radio, along with VOA Cantonese TV programming and VOA satellite TV capability in China.

At the April meeting of the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee, the Board asked that key senior staff form a working group to devise a holistic solution for reaching audiences throughout China, including Tibet.

The funding increase required in order to implement the board’s China distribution strategy totals approximately $3 million for FY 2013. The Board directed top agency management to identify various areas to offset the cost of the new strategy, including migrating satellite frequencies to the KU band and accelerating other transmission optimizations.
This was one of several key initiatives discussed today at the Board’s meeting, held this month in Miami at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

An account of those initiatives, as well as reports and other documents, will be posted on the Agency’s website, www.BBG.gov.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency, supervising all U.S. government-supported, civilian international broadcasting, whose mission is inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. BBG broadcasts reach an audience of 187 million in 100 countries. BBG networks include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Martí).

For more information, please call the BBG’s Office of Public Affairs at 202-203-4400 or e-mail publicaffairs@bbg.gov.

BBG member Susan McCue

At the meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in Miami on April 20, BBG Governor Susan McCue made a statement in support of restoring funding in FY 2013 for continuing Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to Tibet and China by achieving savings in management expenditures.

Susan McCue, a Democrat serving on the bipartisan Board, commended the BBG Strategy and Budget Committee which made a recommendation to restore funding in the next fiscal year for Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Tibet and the VOA Cantonese Service. Some Radio Free Asia (RFA) programs facing cuts in FY 2013 were also saved. The decision approved by the whole Board was announced at the Miami meeting by BBG Governor Michael Meehan, another Democrat who supported BBG’s senior Republican member Ambassador Victor Ashe in his early efforts to save these broadcasts.

VOA radio to Tibet and VOA Cantonese radio, television and Internet programs were to be eliminated in the next fiscal year under a controversial proposal approved earlier by the BBG at the recommendation of their executive staff. Some BBG members later said privately that they were not adequately briefed by the staff on the details of the cuts and public comments.

After numerous protests and a plea from human rights activist and Holocaust survivor Annette Lantos, the full Board voted last Friday to reject parts of the earlier budget plan and to restore funding for these broadcasts. Even Republican member S. Enders Wimbush, who had previously sided with the executive staff in supporting elimination of VOA radio and television in Mandarin and Cantonese to China, as well as elimination of VOA Tibetan radio, eventually voted to keep these programs on the air.

On the question of funding for Tibetan and Chinese broadcasts, Susan McCue suggested that the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) staff should look for savings in management expenditures:

“I know there have been lively conversations. I’m fully supportive of restoring the funds, particularly with regard to Tibet. It’s been a concern for us for a while

One other side note in terms of where to find money. We did have a conversation at our closed door meeting with the staff to see if it’s possible to find the funding in management, if possible. I’m just putting it out there.” — Susan McCue

[Another voice] “In administrative costs, not in programming”

A public suggestion by a Broadcasting Board of Governors member that savings can be found in management expenditures rather than in cutting programs is highly unusual. Until recently, BBG members almost always accepted recommendations of their executive staffers who protected and expanded management positions and expenditures while eliminating and reducing broadcasts and other news programs.

BBG Watch commends Governor McCue for her statement. We also commend other BBG members who changed their mind on the value of broadcasting to Tibet and China. BBG Watch is particularly pleased that Governor Wimbush changed his position on this issue.

It was also revealed at the BBG meeting in Miami that Susan McCue is working on a comprehensive legislative proposal to reform U.S. international broadcasting. She referred to this proposal at the open meeting as “U.S. Broadcasting Innovation Act” but did not disclose any details and did not ask for public comments.

She and another BBG Democratic member Michael Meehan disagreed politely during the open meeting on the merits of the proposal to partially merge administrative functions of the BBG-managed surrogate broadcasters — Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). McCue supports going ahead with the proposed merger, while both Meehan and Victor Ashe have raised reservations about the plan.

Susan McCue has considerable experience on Capitol Hill, as does Michael Meehan. She was chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from 1999 to 2006. She also held numerous communications positions in government and campaigns. She is now President of Message Global, a strategic advocacy firm she founded in 2008 for social action campaigns. She was also the founding President and CEO of The ONE Campaign to combat extreme global poverty. She is currently Vice Chair of Humanity United and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Send an email to BBG member Victor Ashe

Often referred to as a senior Republican member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Ambassador Victor Ashe has invited the public, including BBG employees and contractors, to send comments to his personal email address, Send an e-mail to BBG member Victor Ashe, on the controversial plan to merge BBG-managed Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) into a single administrative unit.

Ashe has become a champion of transparency and raising employee morale at the federal agency which oversees U.S. international broadcasting. He is one of nine members serving on the bipartisan Board. In the absence of Michael Lynton, the BBG’s interim presiding governor, the meeting in Miami was presided over by Governor Dennis Mulhaupt. Governor Dana Perino was also absent. Both Lynton and Perino have a poor attendance record at BBG meetings. Lynton is a Democrat. Mulhaupt and Perino are Republicans.

Victor Ashe

While the open meeting of the Board on Friday at the headquarters of Radio and TV Marti in Miami was chaired by Governor Mulhaupt, Governors Victor Ashe and Michael Meehan clearly dominated the discussion. On-demand video and audio from the meeting is available on the BBG official website.

Ashe, who in addition to serving as U.S. ambassador to Poland was earlier the mayor of Knoxville, TN and is the most experienced public official on the Board, called attention to a number of unresolved issues in the proposal to merge the publicly funded surrogate broadcasters who get their grants from Congress through the BBG. He expressed concerns about the lack of information on the selection and the authority of the CEO for the merged entity. Ashe warned that rushing to implement the plan in its current form may damage U.S. international broadcasting and said that he would oppose the idea of selecting the CEO for the proposed entity as early as next month.

At one point Ashe was interrupted by another Republican member S. Enders Wimbush with whom he has had disagreements on various BBG issues. Ashe managed to introduce a parliamentary maneuver to divide the merger proposal motion into three separate questions and voted against an early selection of outside contractors to help implement the plan which has not yet been fully discussed and approved. He explained why he voted “no” by saying “I’m not comfortable with this, and I just don’t have enough information.” Ashe asked for a complete documentation of how the proposed merger can produce $10 million in savings. He also disclosed that the heads of broadcasting entities have reservations about the Global News Network. The network functioning as a news agency aggregating news content from all BBG entities was an idea of the former BBG chairman Walter Isaacson who suddenly resigned earlier this year. Critics have described the Global News Network as redundant and lacking a target audience.

Michael Meehan

Also raising reservations at the meeting in Miami about the proposed merger was BBG Democratic member Michael Meehan. Meehan is not opposed to streamlining BBG administrative operations, but he expressed concerns that a partial merger will only divert resources from other urgent BBG business without achieving desired results. Meehan believes that these resources would be better used for a comprehensive merger of U.S. international broadcasting operations involving all BBG entities.

Another BBG Democratic member Susan McCue disagreed with Meehan on proceeding with only the partial merger. She is working on a legislative proposal which she described as “U.S. Broadcasting Innovation Act.” She said that the proposed administrative merger of the three grantee organizations would help with the passage of the proposed legislation. She has not disclosed any details of her legislative proposal and has not invited public comments.

Meehan supported Ashe on the reversal of the proposed elimination of Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to China, the closing down in FY 2013 of the VOA Cantonese Service providing radio, TV and Internet content, and reductions in Radio Free Asia broadcasts. At the BBG meeting in Miami, Meehan announced the decision to reject the earlier recommendations of the BBG executive staff on cuts in broadcasting to China by VOA and RFA.

S. Enders Wimbush

It is believed that S. Enders Wimbush, a strong supporter of ending Voice of America radio and television broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese to China, helped to push through the earlier staff recommendations which were rejected at the meeting in Miami. After a storm of criticism from human rights organizations and members of Congress, some BBG governors claimed that their executive staff did not brief them sufficiently on the FY2013 budget proposal for China and did not provide adequate public input.

Victor Ashe spoke at length at the meeting about the benefits of involving the public and major stakeholders in the discussions and cited President Obama’s statement in support of transparency in government. He urged BBG members not to rush major decisions on issues such as broadcasting to China and Tibet and the merger of the surrogate broadcasters. He suggested that the Board allocate more time for discussion and questions at future meetings.

Critics of the merger plan worry that if implemented in its current form it would undermine independence and effectiveness of the surrogate broadcasters as well diminish public and Congressional scrutiny over U.S. international broadcasting. They also fear that area experts and other professionals currently running these broadcasters will be replaced by International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) bureaucrats who have devised the merger plan and made recommendations to limit broadcasting to Tibet, China and other countries without free media. Some critics have described the merger plan as a power grab by BBG and IBB executives who don’t like Congressional oversight.

Referring to the interim report on the proposed merger, which was prepared by an inside working group led by MBN head Brian Conniff, Victor Ashe said that he looks forward to hearing comments from the public when the document is posted on the official BBG website. It was suggested at the meeting that the report will be posted by May 1, but an unofficial copy of the interim report is already available online.

At the open meeting in Miami, Ashe said that Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Tara Sonenshine, who has been recently confirmed by the Senate and represents Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at BBG meetings, made valuable suggestions to BBG members about the importance of public input into government decision-making process.

Ashe asked the public to share their suggestions with him by sending them to his personal email address:

“I would encourage everyone who is listening, talk to your friends and share this among them once it goes on the website. It is an official document. It’s not a bootleg document. And share your ideas with us.

If you want to share them personally with me, my email is: vhashe@aol.com.

I’m more than happy to hear from you. I’m only one member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. My views only reflect myself. But if you want me to share whatever you send to me with my colleagues, I will more than happily do it.

But again, we want this process to be open, transparent — all the stakeholders at the table. And if we do that in good faith, in good conscience, at the end of the day — whatever the outcome is, wherever the vote falls — we will have a better product. We will have more of buying-in by the process than if we don’t.”

To demonstrate his commitment to transparency, Ashe disclosed at the open meeting the cost of his recent trip to Asia (between $7,000 and $7,500), during which he visited BBG radio transmission facilities and held discussions with U.S. embassy personnel and government officials in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. He said that he was the first BBG member visiting Laos in an official capacity. Laos has a communist-run government and government-controlled media. Ashe, who supports continued VOA and RFA shortwave radio broadcasts to Laos, noted the extensive Chinese economic presence and influence in the country.

Ashe also spoke about an unprecedented meeting the BBG’s Governance Committee had in March with representatives of the employee unions and contractors. Ashe was an early supporter of establishing this kind of dialogue to improve employee morale at the BBG, which is among the worst in the entire federal government. He has met personally with a number of employee groups. Speaking about the March meeting with the unions and contractors, Ashe said that it was difficult:

“We heard things we did not want to hear, but we heard things that we all agree we should hear. And I think that the result of it is that now a number of these issues are now on the table. It’s no longer hidden. It’s not in the closet. And we’re discussing them openly.”

Annette Lantos with her husband Congressman Tom Lantos

Ashe also paid tribute to Annette Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, whose recent plea in defense of Voice of America broadcasts to China, Tibet and Russia may have contributed to the BBG’s reversal of some of the broadcasting cuts. He recalled that in 2005 as U.S. Ambassador to Poland he accompanied the late Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos and his wife Annette Lantos when they visited the site of the former Nazi death camp in Auschwitz to mark the 60th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.

Ashe also announced that Edward R. Murrow’s only son, Charles Casey Murrow, will participate in the the rededication ceremony at the BBG Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in Greenville, North Carolina, in honor of the renowned broadcaster and director of the USIA (1961-1964) and in recognition of World Press Freedom Day. Ashe and Congressman Walter Jones (R – NC) also plan to attend the event. The BBG and IBB executive staff wanted to close down the facility, but Ashe insisted that the only remaining shortwave transmitting station on U.S. territory remain open.

During the meeting in Miami, BBG governors also stressed the importance of U.S. broadcasting to Latin America, but it is not clear what they plan to do about their FY 2013 budget proposal to eliminate several positions in the Voice of America Spanish Service. There was no mention at the open meeting about the FY 2013 budget proposal to eliminate dozens of VOA newsroom and English broadcasting positions and cuts and reductions in other VOA programs, including VOA Georgian, Turkish, and Greek broadcasts.

Critics point out that conducting BBG-relevant audience research through telephone and face-to-face interviews in countries like China ruled by authoritarian regimes produces unreliable and often highly misleading results which are then used my BBG strategists to justify important programming decisions.

As most BBG members were voting to approve this $50 million five year contract, they also accepted a recommendation from BBG strategic planners to end Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Tibet and to close down the VOA Cantonese Service which broadcasts to China. Critics charge that these recommendations were based on faulty audience research provided to the BBG by another contractor. Critics argue that Gallup is not expected to offer the BBG better quality research. They point out that Gallup has already informed the BBG that most people in China consider their domestic media to be largely free. China experts view this finding as unreliable.

As BBG strategists were pushing for the approval of the $50,000,000 contract, they were proposing terminating programs and firing more than 200 journalists and staffers who produce broadcasts.

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