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Twitter and internet freedom: distinguish democracies from dictatorships

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Russia and the West: why democracy threatens Putin

New York, January 17, 2012–Unidentified gunmen killed broadcast journalist Mukarram Khan Aatif in a mosque north of Peshawar today, according to news reports. Aatif was a correspondent for private TV station Dunya News and also worked for Deewa Radio, a Pashto-language channel of the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of America, news reports said.

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Gunmen kill Pakistani journalist who reported on Taliban

New
York, January 13, 2012–The decision of prominent Chinese writer Yu Jie to seek exile in the United States this week is an indication of the intensifying hardships that face dissidents who criticize Communist Party rule, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Under pressure at home, Chinese writer chooses exile

New York, January 13, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday’s attack in Moscow on Dododzhon Atovulloyev, exiled publisher and editor-in-chief of the Tajik pro-opposition newspaper Charogi Ruz.

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In Russia, unknown attacker stabs exiled Tajik journalist

Last week, President Obama signed into law a bill that expands sanctions against Belarus, whose authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko continues to imprison his opponents and critics. Lukashenko unleashed the latest crackdown hours after the flawed December 2010 presidential vote, which declared him winner of a fourth term. Repression in Belarus is ongoing. Last week, authorities further tightened their grip on the media by restricting access to blacklisted websites. On Monday, a district court in Minsk jailed an independent reporter for filming a one-man protest vigil in front of the KGB headquarters.

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Blog: What US can’t accept in Belarus, it supports in Uzbekistan

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‘Paranoid’ Kremlin tries to curb opposition, as pro-democracy US envoy sworn in

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Soviet Fall, Arab Spring

New York, December 23, 2011 — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns China’s harsh sentencing of online journalist and activist Chen Wei, who was handed a nine-year prison term on Friday for “inciting
subversion.”

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Chinese writer-dissident given nine years for online posts

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Chen as Tank Man – Chen Guangcheng: Send a Christmas Card to Blind Chinese Human Rights Activist

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Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on 70 years of VOA broadcasting to China

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Václav Havel – a Memorial Tribute

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Russia – Free expression activist gunned down on Memorial Day for slain journalists

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is a broad-based, international coalition that opposes forced abortion and sexual slavery in China. According to BBG Watch, an independent media freedom website, CUSIB supports radio and television broadcasting to China by the Voice of America (VOA) and radio broadcasting by Radio Free Asia (RFA) so that news such as this one are not blocked by the Chinese Internet censors and those in China who want to receive uncensored news do not risk being monitored by the cyber police.

“Batman” star Christian Bale traveled nine hours from Beijing to visit blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng. Bale said, “What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say ‘thank you,’ and tell him what an inspiration he is.”

Bale never got the chance. He was roughed up and forced away from Chen’s village, according to a CNN report.

Bale was in Beijing China for the premier of “The Flowers of War,” a drama about the 1937 Rape of Nanjing. About his attempt to visit Chen, Bale stated, “I’m not brave doing this . . . This was just a situation – I can’t look the other way.”

Congressman Chris Smith with CUSIB Advisory Board Member Reggie Littlejohn in front of a large image of Chen Guangcheng created to support the Chen Guangcheng Sunglasses Campaign to win his freedom

Littlejohn contrasted Bale’s actions with those of Relativity Media. “Christian Bale has used his star power to shine a light on the unjust treatment of Chen Guangcheng. In contrast, Relativity Media filmed “21 and Over” in Linyi, where Chen is languishing under house arrest. They did nothing to help Chen. I hope that moviegoers will demonstrate their concern for Chen Guangcheng at the box office. We encourage people to boycott “21 and Over,” said Reggie Littlejohn.

Christian Bale is not the only one who has focused attention on Chen Guangcheng. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke have both recently spoken on his behalf. “We urge Ambassador Locke to visit Chen Guangcheng,” stated Littlejohn.

The flow of Chinese citizens to visit Chen despite the risk of beatings and detention, and the Chinese and international “Sunglasses” campaigns, have raised the visibility of Chen’s case as well. These campaigns can be found here and here.

Chen Guangcheng exposed the systematic use of forced abortion and sterilization in Linyi City in 2005. For four years, three months, he was jailed, tortured and denied medical treatment. Since his release he has languished under strict house arrest.

Watch the 3-minute Free Chen video here.

Sign a petition to free Chen here.

Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)

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. CUSIB supports Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) radio broadcasts to China as the only effective and safe way of news delivery that can defeat censorship of the Internet and the monitoring of pro-democracy activists by the Chinese secret police.

New York,
December 15, 2011–Today’s murder of Gadzhimurad Kamalov, founder of the independent newspaper Chernovik in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan today is a lethal blow to press freedom, said the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Killing of Chernovik founder in Dagestan must be investigated

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Putin’s ‘Ceausescu moment’? Maybe not, but ……

Oleg Kashin, a correspondent for the Russian business daily Kommersant, by his home on a central Moscow street, a 10-minute walk from the Kremlin. The two had
hidden steel rods in bouquets of flowers.

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Blog: Impunity still reigns in beating of Oleg Kashin

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Russia – Global journalists’ community joins IFJ to mark memorial day for dead colleagues

The BBG manages VOA, Radio Free Asia (RFA) and other U.S. government-funded broadcasters.

Reggie Littlejohn said that countless women and children in China are victims of forced abortions and human trafficking under the one child policy. She also talked about human rights activists like Chen Guangcheng who are imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese government.

Ted Lipien spoke about the importance of the work of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia journalists who bring uncensored news to the people in China.

Timothy Shamble noted that the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union did not eliminate totalitarian and authoritarian ideologies in countries like Russia and China or the need for assisting the victims of human rights abuses with radio and television broadcasts from the United States.

The Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated by President George W. Bush on June 12, 2007. The dedication ceremony featured the unveiling of the “Goddess of Democracy,” a bronze replica of a statue erected by Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China in the spring of 1989. Many world leaders visit the memorial site to pay their respects and lay wreaths. It is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and New Jersey Avenue, NW on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

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. CUSIB opposed the Broadcasting Board of Governors plans to end Voice of America radio and television programs to China. These programs were saved thanks to an amendment introduced by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. The amendment received wide bipartisan support.

On December 6, 2011, Congressman Rohrabacher hosted a reception on Capitol Hill to mark the 70th anniversary of VOA broadcasting to China. The Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, attended the reception and recorded a special video message about the importance of VOA news broadcasts for the people in China.
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CUSIB members honor victims of human rights abuses in China, stress importance of VOA and RFA broadcasts

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Can US show same ‘moral leadership’ as Liu Xiaobo?

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What Russia’s election was really about……..

Link to the video of the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, congratulating the Voice of America (VOA) on the 70th anniversary of VOA broadcasting to China

On Dec. 6, 2011, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher hosted a large reception on Capitol Hill to mark the 70th anniversary of VOA broadcasting to China. He had earlier introduced an amendment that saved VOA radio and TV programs to China. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also attended the reception as did Congressman Chris Smith, also a strong supporter of VOA and an outspoken critic of human rights abuses by the Chinese communist regime. Ros-Lehtinen, Rohrabacher, and Smith thanked VOA China Branch employees for their work.

No current BBG member attended the reception, although all of them had been invited. A former Republican BBG member, Blanquita Cullum, who had published an op-ed in The Washington Times critical of the decision to end VOA broadcasts to China, spoke at the reception about the importance of VOA radio for the victims of human rights abuses in nations governed by dictatorial and authoritarian regimes and for those who experience severe economic hardships and political upheavals.

Sources have told BBG Watch that BBG’s Republican member Ambassador Victor Ashe was planning to attend the Capitol Hill reception but was travelling to Greenville, North Carolina, to visit the BBG radio transmitting station, which BBG executives and some of the other BBG members want to close down as part of their plan to privatize the Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti and to merge Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV into a large corporate bureaucracy.

Critics point out that this large bureaucracy would still be funded by American taxpayers but run by some of the current BBG executives with less oversight from Congress and less independence for the so-called “surrogate broadcasters” such as RFA and RFE/RL than under the current arrangement. VOA and Radio and TV Marti would lose their semi-official status, which is feared by authoritarian regimes such as the one in Cuba, but would also continue to be funded by American taxpayers.

Ashe was quoted as saying that his trip to Greenville was very productive and that the transmitting facility is performing a “valuable service.” BBG executives had tried to discourage him from going on this trip. The executive staff had advised BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson, a former CNN executive and author of the best selling biography of Steve Jobs, that Congress would not object to the plan to end VOA broadcasting to China. BBG members seem now split on the wisdom of the advice they have been getting from their staffers.

Ambassador Ashe has been lately critical of BBG plans to reduce VOA radio and television broadcasting to countries without free media. He has been meeting also with groups of employees and raising employee morale issues.

Sources also told BBG Watch that Michael Meehan, one of BBG’s Democratic members, was also planning to attend the reception. The BBG was represented by Jeff Trimble, the Deputy Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), who — according to BBG Watch sources — had earlier advised BBG members to end VOA radio and TV transmissions to China, as well as to Russia in 2008. VOA broadcasts to Russia were terminated and never resumed. Sources also told BBG Watch that VOA Director David Ensor was travelling abroad and could not attend the Capitol Hill reception. Neither VOA nor BBG has issued a press release to mark the 70th anniversary of broadcasting to China or to highlight the unprecedented expression of support for VOA Chinese radio and TV programs from the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and other members of Congress.

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Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs says Chinese people need Voice of America broadcasts

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Bialiatski Conviction Latest Human Rights Abuse in Belarus

Independence of surrogate broadcasters and their ability to concentrate their news gathering operations on specific countries with a focus on human rights abuses were the key elements of the U.S. international broadcasting model developed by such giant figures of American foreign policy and public life as General Dwight Eisenhower, the author of the policy of containment George Kennan, General Charles Douglas (C.D.) Jackson who later became President Eisenhower’s advisor on countering Soviet propaganda, the hero of the Berlin Airlift General Lucius Clay, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and former Under Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew, U.S. intelligence specialist Frank Wisner,  CIA Director Allen W. Dulles and many other distinguished Americans. Even young Ronald Reagan was involved in helping to support Radio Free Europe’s independent journalistic activities in defense of freedom. Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Clinton likewise supported the dual model of U.S. international broadcasting with the surrogate radios and the Voice of America operating under different rules and independently of each other, each having a distinct mission that served to advance U.S. interests and to support democracy abroad in different ways.

The current BBG plan to eliminate the independence of surrogate broadcasters, centralize news gathering  –  using centralized controls which made the Voice of America far less effective in Eastern Europe than RFE/RL until the Reagan Administration took office — and eventually to privatize the Voice of America and Radio and TV Marti was, by contrast with the earlier plan, developed by anonymous BBG bureaucrats.  They are clearly the only group that will benefit from their own proposal — not BBG members, not BBG journalists, not audiences abroad, not victims of human rights abuses, and certainly not the American people.  Keep in mind that these same bureaucrats proposed earlier this year to end all Voice of America radio and television broadcasts to China. Congress wisely rejected their proposal. They now want to do even greater damage to U.S. international broadcasting and public diplomacy abroad.

The BBG also plans to ask Congress to remove the Smith-Mundt Act’s restrictions on domestic distribution of its programs. This proposal is another reason behind the centralization of news gathering. When such a centralized system existed – but only at the Voice of America prior to the 1980s – VOA foreign language journalists literally had to beg the central VOA newsroom for coverage of country-specific and region specific news. The central newsroom at VOA wanted to operate like a newsroom at any domestic American media outfit. The  surrogate broadcasters, on the other hand, were providing much better, specialized news coverage due to the independence they enjoyed then but may soon lose. The BBG merger plan now threatens to destroy the ability of the surrogate broadcasters to specialize in certain topical and regional reporting.  The BBG proposal will also destroy the current special role of the Voice of America  — as it developed and improved over the years — as the voice of the American people and their public diplomacy messenger abroad. 

What the architects of U.S. international broadcasting wanted to avoid at all cost, BBG bureaucrats want now to put in place for their own benefit and possibly to please the BBG Chairman Walter Issacson, a former CNN executive who has a vision of U.S. international broadcasting as a large CNN-like operation. Having just published a biography of Steve Jobs, he obviously had very little time to think through his idea, although to his credit he has attended all BBG public meetings unlike some of the other members of the part-time Board. The part-time nature of the bipartisan Board may also explain why the bureaucrats and not its members have been in charge of developing the strategic plan. Chairman Isaacson and the Board may also be facing legal issues of a different nature than those addressed in the Baker & McKenzie report. One of the top BBG executives, who until now enjoyed Chairman Isaacson’s full support and was one of the few who enthusiastically embraced the planned consolidation, reportedly wrote in an email that the part of the organization under his control could use getting rid of “old white guys.” Other executives are known to have reservations about the proposed merger but are afraid to voice them publicly. Much larger public policy issues, however, are at stake.

The Baker & McKenzie analysis does not address any of the public policy issues, and their lawyers would probably would not be qualified to do so.  However, they should have warned Chairman Isaacson and the BBG that any proposal to place essential government functions and public institutions under the control of private corporate bureaucrats will not be nearly as easy as the study seems to suggest from a purely legal point of view.

At their last meeting, the BBG promised to release the Baker & McKenzie analysis but so far has failed to do so.  We are making public parts of the report because of its significance for public policy. The analysis was paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Interestingly and apparently without intending to do so, the Baker & McKenzie legal analysis gives BBG members, who also serve on the boards of directors of the surrogate broadcasters, very good legal reason not to support the proposed merger that would inevitably harm and diminish these entities. At least two and perhaps three of the eight BBG members, not counting the Secretary of State who is an ex officio member, seem to understand the dangers behind the proposal. Comments made at public BBG meetings suggest that Ambassador Victor Ashe who is a Republican, as well as two Democrats, Michael Meehan and Susan McCue, may have second thoughts about what the executive staff put forward for the Board’s approval. Perhaps after reading the legal analysis as well as the earlier study done by Deloitte, other BBG members will realize that what they are dealing with are not primarily management and legal issues but public policy issues of great importance for foreign affairs, America’s image and human rights.

This is what the legal analysis points out in the Director Fiduciary Duty section:
 
“Regardless of the ultimate transaction structure, the individual members of the Board of Broadcasting Governors, as corporate directors of each of the Private Grantees, owe fiduciary duties of care and loyalty to each Grantee. The duty of care requires a director to inform himself or herself of the available facts concerning a transaction and its alternatives, and being so informed, to then act with due care in the discharge of the director’s responsibilities. The duty of loyalty requires a director to act in the best interests of the corporation and avoid self-dealing.”

In the Federal Legal Authority Analysis, the study makes getting Congressional approval for the merger appear painless and easy when in fact — as the BBG found out with their China plan — Congress is not likely to accept an effort by bureaucrats to expand their power if important government functions and foreign policy interests are threatened:
 
“In our opinion, subject to the qualifications discussed below, the BBG may continue, without amendment to the International Broadcasting Act, to make grants to consolidated entity equivalent to the grants currently made to the three Private Grantees. This would constitute a reprogramming and the Appropriations Act requires that the Committees on Appropriations be notified 15 days in advance of such reprogramming of funds. It is our opinion that the reprogramming of funds to provide grant funds to one consolidated grantee would be permissible and consistent with the International Broadcasting Act so long as the consolidated grantee will continue to perform the broadcasting and related functions currently performed by each of the Private Grantees.”

The Labor and Employment section provides an equally upbeat analysis:

“It does not appear that the proposed Transaction would pose any significant legal issues from a labor and employment law perspective with regard to current employees. In the United States, as a general rule, compensation, healthcare, retirement, pension and other benefits currently provided by the Grantees to employees may be changed as long as “vested rights” of employees are respected and the terms of the RFA’s collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) with the Newspaper Guild-Communication Workers of America (“CWA”) are taken into account as discussed below. To the extent any
individual employees or executives are subject to an employment contract, the contractual obligations may result in additional costs in completing the Transaction if the Transaction would trigger a ‘termination.’”

In Transaction Structure section, the law firm gives the BBG various options for executing the merger but without going into any public policy concerns or possible difficulties:

“There are three basic ways that individual legal entities can structure a transaction to consolidate their operations under a single entity. First, one or more of the entities can merge into another existing entity, with that entity surviving; the non-surviving entities cease to exist at the effective date of the merger. Second, the entities can consolidate by each merging into a separate, newly created entity; in such a consolidation, the separate legal existence of each individual entity ends upon the effectiveness of the transaction and the newly created entity inherits the rights and obligations of each entity party to the consolidation. Third, one or more of the entities can transfer some or all of their assets to a single designated entity, either newly created or already in existence; following the sale, each seller entity then dissolves or continues to exist with minimal assets.
 
It is also possible to use a combination of the techniques described above. For example, one entity might transfer most of its assets to a second entity (while keeping title to an asset that is difficult or time-consuming to transfer), while the third entity is merged into the second entity. Once the first entity’s final asset is able to be transferred to the second entity, the first entity can dissolve.
 
These structuring considerations are routine and are typically addressed once due diligence has been performed on each participating entity’s assets and liabilities. In
determining the appropriate structure for the Transaction the BBG should consider

(i) the corporate governance implications for the surviving entity in its state of incorporation,
 
(ii) the difficulty of transferring any important assets held by any of the Grantees,

(iii) the preservation of the brands and individual culture at each Grantee and

(iv) any statutory considerations raised by the relevant Grantee authorizing statutes. We note that, as discussed above, the International Broadcasting Act does not dictate one transaction structure over another. We note that a consolidation structure – one where there is a newly created consolidated entity – is sometimes used to reinforce the collaborative nature of a transaction and avoid the perception that one entity is absorbing another and being favored over another.
 
Following a merger or consolidation, many companies opt to operate the constituent business operations as distinct divisions within one legal entity. This structure often allows companies to maximize the desired efficiencies while minimizing the impact of the transaction on brand value and operating culture. Thus, there could be a newly created entity with a broader, non-regional name and with three separate operating divisions named RFE/RL, RFA and MBN.”

The law firm does deserve some credit for advising the BBG that it “should carefully consider which transaction structure allows maximum efficiencies while preserving the brand and operating culture of each Grantee.”

Of course, the legal analysis does not address the question whether the whole proposal would be good for American taxpayers and American interests abroad. Keep in mind that the BBG has not said how much the implementation of its five year strategic plan will cost. A separate study done by Deloitte indicated only minor savings from the merger itself but did not address any additional spending that BBG executives may be planning, as they most certainly do.

There is very little doubt that the BBG merger and privatization plan will be in the long run far more costly for U.S. taxpayers than the current arrangement. Turning the BBG into another NPR-like structure will not only shortchange foreign audiences and human rights victims abroad, it will also create yet another area of political controversy at home. The Administration and the Congress would be wise to put a stop to this proposal before it even gets off the ground. If, upon further reflection, the BBG would withdraw its plan, it would be even better. If they are politically smart, all BBG members should take that action and save themselves and the American people a lot of headaches and unnecessary expenses such the legal costs involved and the $1.3 Deloitte consulting contract, which includes $150,000 for travel. That money could be better spent on producing radio and TV broadcasts to countries like China and Russia.

Free Media Online president Ted Lipien who had worked for the Voice of America and U.S. international broadcasting for over 30 years in various journalistic, managerial, marketing and executive positions, provided FreeMediaOnline.org and BBG Watch websites with the following analysis:

“The decentralized model of U.S. international broadcasting with independent surrogate broadcasters and the Voice of America, each having a different mission and operating under different rules, served well the needs of the United States Government, the American people and radio listeners behind the Iron Curtain, as it now also serves information needs in countries like Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. It worked initially much better for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, but once the Voice of America’s editorial independence was protected by law in 1976 and VOA news reporting decentralized during the Reagan Administration, the dual arrangement became even more effective in promoting human rights, media freedom and understanding of America. After the United States Information Agency was abolished and the Broadcasting Board of Governors was created, this successful model was first weakened and may now be completely dismantled, with the Voice of America and U.S. public diplomacy being the primary losers. It would be great to have a BBC-like, journalistically  independent international and domestic multimedia broadcaster, well-funded and easily identified abroad as the voice of the American people and to some degree the U.S. Government but also able to offer targeted and hard-hitting news and commentary to countries without free media. But for a variety of historical and political reasons, this is not a good model for the United States. Privatization, centralization of news gathering and the removal of at least informal links between the Voice of America and the foreign policy community and U.S. public diplomacy will harm the cause of supporting media freedom, human rights and democracy. U.S. national security interests abroad will also be harmed by this proposal.
 
Someone, somewhere — whether they are U.S. diplomats, political figures, corporate officers, or journalists — will have to decide what goes into U.S. Government-funded broadcasts and to where they should be directed. No one with any knowledge of the history of successful public diplomacy wants to see interference with journalistic freedom. U.S. ambassadors and other State Department officials should not exercise a veto power over what goes on the air. But a complete divorce of U.S. international broadcasting from the experience of the U.S. Government’s foreign affairs community may not be good either for America and the world. The system of checks and balances that developed between U.S. Government broadcasters and Government officials toward the end of the Cold War, although far from perfect, gave the United States the ability to send both authoritative and journalistically bold messages targeted to specific countries. It might be wise to study this history before deciding on a new arrangement.”

To keep its bloated bureaucracy in times of tight budgets, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executive staff resorts to cuts in radio and TV broadcasts and closing down of BBG’s foreign language services. Not surprisingly, these cuts affect foreign-speaking journalists but leave the administrative staff in place. Thus, more and more BBG managers — they add bureaucratic positions even while broadcasters lose theirs — oversee fewer and fewer foreign language programs. The United States loses the ability to influence public opinion in strategically important countries — the BBG even proposed to cut Voice of America radio and TV to China — but that hardly concerns BBG bureaucrats and long as they get to keep their jobs.

Another tactic used by the BBG management to save money and their jobs is to replace permanent VOA employees with full-time contract employees. These men and women, mostly foreign-born, are shamelessly exploited by the BBG management. They are denied not just the basic benefits such as vacation and sick leave that should come with full-time employment — they work regularly scheduled hours, 40 and more hours a week. They are also not protected against arbitrary dismissal.

The BBG uses these tactics not just against the Voice of America (VOA) contract employees in Washington, DC, where they constitute 45 percent of the VOA workforce. BBG managers have employed the same personnel practices against the foreign-born journalists employed by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Prague, the Czech Republic, where RFE/RL has its headquarters. The idea is to prevent these contract employees from organizing and complaining about discrimination and poor working conditions. What is even more outrageous is that Czech citizens employed by RFE/RL in Prague are protected by the Czech labor laws. The BBG makes sure, however, that foreign-born journalists brought to Prague by RFE/RL are exempt from these laws, can be fired at will and would not be able to challenge their dismissal.

A journalist living in Prague has sent us this update on the lawsuits brought against RFE/RL and the BBG by two former employees who are fighting for their rights.

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

Anna Karapetian

A human-rights lawsuit brought in Prague by Armenian journalist Anna Karapetian against American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is again before the Czech Supreme Court. The date of the trial has not yet been set. It is the sixth time her case will be heard by the Czech judges. In the ongoing court ping-pong, where the ball is human fate, RFE/RL is represented by a Wall-Street law firm, White & Case.

By now, the score is 3:2 for RFE/RL. But the moral parameters as measured by personal suffering and the international media reaction cannot be expressed in numbers. Armenian newspaper AZG (People), published in Yerevan, wrote: “The most devious anti-American mind would not have been able to design an international media campaign so devastating to RFE/RL and, by natural extension, to America’s image and trustworthiness abroad, as the American RFE/RL managed to cause on its own.”

Wall Street lawyers have argued in Czech courts that RFE/RL may apply to foreign personnel outside the United States American labor laws allowing the use of the “employment-at-will” doctrine, i.e. terminations without any stated reason. To its Czech employees, RFE/RL was forced by local trade unions to apply Czech legislation, which excludes arbitrary terminations.

Snjezana Pelivan

The Anna Karapetian’s lawsuit is not the only one of its kind. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has received a legal complaint from a Croatian citizen, Snjezana Pelivan, also a former RFE/RL employee. She charges that the Czech Republic tolerates discrimination based on national origin by RFE/RL, an American employer. Her case is also pending.

In the Czech courts, Anna Karapetian, an Armenian, instructs an American institution that by the will of the U.S. Congress dictated by respect for the legal sovereignty of foreign countries, American labor laws are not applicable to foreigners working for American employers abroad. She has told the Czech courts that time and again that, without a single exception, U.S. courts, heeding to the will of Congress, refused to apply U.S. labor laws to foreigners employed by American companies overseas.

No doubt that the practice of arbitrary terminations, even if it contradicts the will of Congress and the laws of the United States and the Czech Republic, suits the bureaucrats managing RFE/RL. It also prevents its foreign employees, who constitute the vast majority of its editorial staff, from staging any open protests against unfair treatment and poor working conditions. DS Magazine published in Slovakia wrote that at RFE/RL “Everybody knows that any protest will end in a termination.” However, it is also obvious that the American management at RFE /RL in Prague would never dare to defy the will and laws of the U.S. Congress unless it was directed to do so from above.

In fact, RFE/RL stands for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a U.S. Federal agency that supervises all non-military U.S. broadcasting aimed at overseas audiences. The BBG, according to statements found on its website, “makes all major policy determinations governing the operations of RFE/RL” and “provides worldwide personnel management policies, programs, and services.” RFE/RL, the largest American civil institution abroad financed by the U.S. Congress, broadcasts in 28 languages to 21 countries and employs in Prague hundreds of foreigners.

Anna Karapetian, mother of three minor children, was one of them. In November 2006, her employment at RFE/RL Armenian Service was terminated without any preliminary warnings and no reason was given for her dismissal after 12 years of exemplary service. Simultaneously, RFE/RL management requested her to sign a letter stating that she accepts the termination and will not question it in courts. She refused to exchange her dignity and human rights for the hush money. In retaliation, the American employer, who in 1995 had invited Anna Karapetian to come to Prague, withheld her severance pay, to which she was entitled. For her family, which moved together with her from Yerevan to Prague, she was the only breadwinner.

In July of 1996, Hillary Clinton, the First Lady at that time, visited RFE/RL and called for the global “alliance of democratic values.” Hillary Clinton’s speech was translated into all RFE/RL broadcasting languages. Anna Karapetian was the journalist was translated the speech into Armenian. On April 4, 2009, Hillary Clinton again spoke in Prague to a packed RFE/RL audience. This time, as the Secretary of State, she was also and still is ex officio a full member of the BBG. In her own name and on behalf of President Obama, she praised the Radio for being “a ‘smart power’, which helps “to create a broad international agreement with values that respect human dignity, individual rights and responsibilities.” She thanked RFE/RL staff: “What you do here is an instrumental, essential part of everything America stands for.”

Among her listeners were hundreds of citizens and refugees from the Radio’s target countries who emotionally and politically identify with RFE/RL’s noble mission “to promote democratic values and institutions,” “strengthen civil societies by projecting democratic values,” “provide a model for local media… .” These well-informed professionals listening to these high-sounding phrases were acutely aware of the anti-discrimination lawsuits brought against RFE/RL by their former colleagues, Anna Karapetian and Snjezana Pelivan. Aware even more so because RFE/RL is denying them some of the very same values stressed so emphatically in Hillary Clinton’s address.

In his internationally circulated Open Letter to U.S. Senators, Czech Senator Jaromir Stetina, who is a member of the Czech Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security, and the Vice-chairman of Senate caucus of the governing party, noted that RFE/RL “hires its foreign employees on labor contracts, which explicitly deny them protections automatically granted to any employee in the Czech Republic. It is patently indecent, unfair, cynical and hypocritical to exploit for bureaucratic ends the sad fact that many highly qualified foreign professionals working for RFE/RL are stateless persons, dissidents, political refugees who, being cut off from their native countries, are existentially dependent on their employment with RFE/RL.” Senator Stetina personally protested human rights violations also in Cuba and Belarus. In Russia, he is a persona non grata.

In her column in The Washington Post (Radio To Stay Tuned To, 4/22/2008), Anne Applebaum described the situation of RFE/RL foreign employees in these words: “Once there (in Prague), they can’t go home, they can’t get green cards, they don’t speak Czech.”

Anna Karapetian knows that all too well. In her appeal to President Obama she wrote: “Signing a standardized RFE/RL Employment Agreement ‘governed by the applicable laws of the United States, the laws of the District of Columbia or the Policies of the Company’, all non-American journalists trustfully and proudly placed themselves under the protective hand of RFE/RL, a beacon of human rights (on air). Only after landing jobless on the streets of Prague, I discovered that I and several hundred of my non-American colleagues, mostly from the target countries in RFE/RL broadcast area, being foreigners working for an American employer outside the United States, are exempt from legal protections provided to Americans by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Civil Rights Act of 1964, District of Columbia Human Rights Act of 1977, or by any other American labor law. RFE/RL foreign employees are intentionally placed in a legal vacuum.”

Since June of last year, there are new BBG members appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Since June of this year, there is a new RFE/RL president appointed by the BBG. But RFE/RL’s shameful labor policies sanctioned by the BBG — no labor rights for foreign-born journalists — remain the same. The BBG’s pronouncements, such as its newly “revised mission statement”: “To inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy,” sound hollow to the non-American journalists employed under BBG contracts. No wonder that the international media — in English, Russian, Armenian, Croatian, Czech, Slovak… — in reaction to the lawsuits against RFE/RL (read BBG), uses these words to describe the U.S. Government’s position: hypocrisy, betrayal of ideals, violation of human rights, lawlessness, double standards, moral disaster, fraud, cynicism, and the like. These words in response to the BBG personnel policies aimed at their foreign-born journalists have a devastating impact on the international moral standing of the United States.

“BBG is responsive to U.S. foreign policy priorities,” one reads in the new “BBG Strategic Plan” proposed for the next five years. Is the convenience of unelected American bureaucrats really the actual priority of American foreign policy?

Read the original article on the BBG Watch website:

Two Women Fighting to Uphold America’s Principles at America’s Freedom Radio

WRWF released the report on Chen’s 40th birthday, Saturday November 12. The Chinese authorities imprisoned Chen for four years and three months for his study of family planning practices in China and have kept him and his family under strict house arrest since September, 2010.

The Chen Guangcheng report includes accounts of a woman forcibly aborted and sterilized at seven months; villagers sleeping in fields to evade family planning officials; officials who broke three brooms over the head of an elderly man and forced a grandmother and her brother to beat each other. There is a detailed discussion in the report of the use of quota systems and the practice of “implication” – the detention, fining and torture of the extended family of One Child Policy “violators.” The report ends with an impassioned postscript by Teng Biao.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers reports that the human rights situation has not improved in Linyi since 2005. Earlier this year, family planning officials stabbed a man to death. A woman, six months’ pregnant, recently died during a forced abortion in Lijing County, also in Shandong Province.

Reggie Littlejohn, founder of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said that “the spirit of the Cultural Revolution lives on in China’s Family Planning death machine. WRWF has chosen to release the names of the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity, so that they can be held accountable before the world,” she said.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers encourages supporters to join the Chen Sunglasses Freedom Campaign.

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

People everywhere photograph themselves wearing sunglasses in honor of Chen and send it to be posted on the WRWF website, showing they want Chen free.

Read the Chen Guangcheng Report

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Vietnam – Two citizen journalists jailed for illegally broadcasting to China

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) issued a press release on CUSIB Executive Director Ann Noonan’s speech in support of continuing Voice of America (VOA) radio and television broadcasts to China.

November 7, 2011
For Immediate Release

Women and Their Families in China Who Are Victims of Human Rights Abuses Need Voice of America Radio

On Sunday, November 6, 2011 the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) Executive Director Ann Noonan joined a panel discussion sponsored by All Girls Allowed, Inc. at New York’s Flushing Sheraton and spoke against plans to cut Voice of America (VOA) radio programs to China:

“… in China today, young fighters for democracy listen to VOA radio. … Radio listening – unlike the Internet – cannot be easily monitored or blocked. Although radio signals can be partially jammed, they can never be completely silenced – unless the U.S. Government decides to end these broadcasts, as it was proposed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). Let’s hope and pray that will NEVER happen as long as there is no freedom of expression in China or as long as the Chinese people want to learn about America.”

Following a bipartisan action in the U.S. Congress to block the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ proposal, the Federal agency which runs the Voice of America has suspended the termination of VOA radio and television programs to China but is still considering reducing radio broadcasts. Ann Noonan said that these radio programs from the United States are especially needed by women and their families. They provide critical information and give hope and encouragement to the poorest and the most oppressed segments of the Chinese society, said Ms. Noonan. Prior to joining CUSIB, she founded Free Church for China, an NGO which researches and documents religious persecution in the PRC. CUSIB has been contacting BBG members to urge them to continue VOA radio and satellite television to China.

The discussion following Ms. Noonan’s presentation focused on Chai Ling’s new book A Heart for Freedom. Ms. Ling is a Tiananmen Survivor and founder of All Girls Allowed, an organization which works to end forced abortions, gendercide, and trafficking of children in China. Other panelists included Tibetan author Jianglin Li, and former New York State Assembly member Ellen Young.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), www.cusib.org, is a nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization working to strengthen free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries with restricted media environments.

For further information contact CUSIB co-founder Ted Lipien (415) 793-1642.

 
Read the full text of Ann Noonan’s presentation for the discussion on Chai Ling’s book A Heart for Freedom:

In Word

In PDF

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Women and Their Families in China Who Are Victims of Human Rights Abuses Need Voice of America Radio

Let’s take a moment to review the VOA Charter:

“The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Voice of America must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts:

1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective and comprehensive.

2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.

3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussion and opinion on these policies.”

Gerald R Ford
President of the United States
Signed: July 12, 1976
Public Law 94-350

There you have it: the keys to mission success for US international broadcasting, which — in addition to radio — is now also using satellite television, Internet, and digital phone technology to deliver programs to its intended audiences abroad.

On the other hand, the BBG has its own mission statement:

“To inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”

They are not the same. Thus, there are questions:

What does the BBG statement mean? How is the BBG going to go about its mission statement?

And more pointedly, what is the intended outcome? What constitutes “support?”

If you asked individual members of the BBG to write down what its mission statement means, it wouldn’t be surprising if you came up with as many different explanations as there are BBG members.

In controlled societies where the American interpretation of “freedom and democracy” doesn’t exist, what is to be accomplished?

There’s a word missing from the BBG’s “new” mission statement:

Explain.

For example, how does the BBG explain US actions juxtaposed to the concepts of “freedom and democracy?” How does the BBG intend to explain how the world’s greatest democracy reaches agreements with non-democratic regimes, such as the agreement to base drone aircraft in Ethiopia? How does the BBG explain its agreement with the Ethiopian government to censor Ethiopian dissidents from Amharic or other VOA Horn of Africa Service programs?

How does the BBG explain that after years of US and Allied intervention and sacrifice to free Afghanistan from the stranglehold of the Taliban, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, says that Afghanistan would join Pakistan in a war with the United States?

Since it isn’t expressly stated, would we trust the BBG to explain any issue of consequence, in detail?

No.

The intended trajectory of the BBG’s “new” mission statement appears to be to dummy down detailed news content. Indeed, we hear that a term of art making its way around the VOA Newsroom is that the agency is going to take a “holistic” approach to news. What is that? It makes it sound as if the BBG is a repository for some kind of New Age mumbo-jumbo.

As part of this trajectory, the agency seems to intend that US international broadcasting is going to be reduced to nothing more than a social media, chit-chat website. Is that what the BBG is talking about when it says it is going to “connect” people?

This is why, as Secretary of State Clinton says, “We are losing the information war.” At the end of the day, the BBG isn’t doing the things required to maintain US credibility around the world. To all appearances, it is going down the pathway of sound-bite superficiality.

The VOA Charter is a clear articulation of what constitutes the purpose and intent of US international broadcasting, what we need to communicate to world audiences.

Here is a truism about “freedom and democracy:” these are high maintenance concepts and processes. They require constant attention. Otherwise, there can be grave consequences. The consequences can be social, economic and political. One need only pick up an American newspaper and read the variety of issues confronting American society or the democratic societies in Western Europe. You get the picture quickly of what can happen when the vigilance that freedom and democracy requires goes lax.

“Freedom and democracy” aren’t out-of-the-box, ready to work constructs. They require a plan. In the American Experience, the plan would include the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. How transferable are these foundation principles to societies with no history of these principles in their own historical record and experiences?

And at every step, even in the most ideal circumstances, there are obstacles and unforeseen events that test the strength of these processes.

What the BBG’s “new” mission statement does is to trivialize the complexities and come up with a superficial approach to those complexities.

When the rubber meets the road, another ultimate truism is that freedom is not free. It can come at great cost. Add up the number of American wars over three centuries and the beginning of a fourth (from the 18th through the present 21st centuries). We are presently in the beginning observances of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This war was and remains a defining moment in the American Experience. How is this signal event explained in the context of the BBG’s mission statement?

Consider also the various economic cycles experienced in this country, including the Great Depression and various recession cycles. How does the BBG intend to explain that free market societies, this comes as part of the package of “freedom and democracy.”

Also consider the civil rights movement and other protest movements, including the present “Occupy Wall Street.”

What the VOA Charter does is present a comprehensive definition and plan as to what US international broadcasting is supposed to do. The BBG’s “new” mission statement does neither. It is elusive and ambiguous. By deviating from the charter and attempting to substitute its own mission statement, the BBG undermines mission effectiveness of US international broadcasting. It substantially narrows the mission to one expected outcome: freedom and democracy. If this outcome is unachievable, in its effect, the BBG will have failed and thus have no mission. It is already far along in this catastrophe in Russia, the Arab and Muslim world and as it intends, in China.

“Freedom and democracy” are often used as buzz words to elicit a response or manipulate public opinion. Of late, it is often thrown around by individuals or organizations caught up in political unrest as a way of attempting to legitimize or garner support for events that have no certain outcome.

The BBG is playing the same game. In its case, the intended audience is the US Congress. Who isn’t “in support of freedom and democracy?” It is an optimum use of a phrase intended to optimize the BBG ability to get increased funding.

For this reason, members of the Congress should be wary. The record of the BBG leaves a lot to be desired, in Russia, the Middle East and if carried out, in China. Instead of giving the BBG a free pass, members of Congress need to be asking tough questions and getting factual responses. If those responses aren’t forthcoming from the BBG (and its penchant for oxymoronic phrases and other mumbo-jumbo), it should seek out answers from third parties independent of the BBG who are subject matter proficient on US international broadcasting.

Things have changed. American taxpayers do not like to be used as ATM machines involving programs they don’t understand, don’t see as important in their daily lives and are symbolic of government waste. That is today’s environment and it is an environment that needs to be communicated clearly and unequivocally to the BBG and its IBB handlers.

Not long into the unrest in Egypt that toppled the Mubarak government, Senator John Kerry opined that, “It is too early to do a victory lap for freedom and democracy in the Middle East.” The senator is correct. The BBG needs to heed these words, get itself out of its self-inflicted fog and get down to the real business of US international broadcasting as embodied in the VOA Charter.

The Federalist
November 1, 2011

The additional information comes from The Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

“Examination into the Abuse and Extralegal Detention of Legal Advocate Chen Guangcheng and His Family”

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

2118 Rayburn House Office Building

The plight of Chen Guangcheng and his family continues to attract attention inside and outside China. Chen is a self-trained legal advocate who has represented farmers, the disabled, and other groups. He is perhaps best known for the attention he drew to population planning abuses, particularly forced abortions and forced sterilizations, in Linyi city, Shandong province, in 2005. In deeply flawed legal proceedings, authorities sentenced him in 2006 to four years and three months in prison for, among other things, “organizing a group of people to disturb traffic order.” While imprisoned Chen was reportedly beaten by fellow inmates and denied medical treatment. Following his release in September 2010, Chen, his wife Yuan Weijing, and their six-year-old daughter have faced stifling conditions of home confinement and constant surveillance. Chen and Yuan reportedly have been beaten since being released, and until recently their daughter was denied schooling. Chen’s health also remains in doubt as he suffers from a digestive disorder. Authorities have continued to employ violence to prevent the growing numbers of journalists and supporters from visiting the family. Online campaigns in support of Chen have also sprung up in China, yet the government has censored terms that relate to him or his case. Witnesses will examine why the Chinese government has not permitted access to information regarding Chen Guangcheng’s circumstances and well-being nor permitted visitors to see Chen. Witnesses will also examine the criminal procedure violations related to Chen’s current detention under an illegal form of “house arrest” and Chen’s access to legal counsel.

Witnesses:

Jerome A. Cohen, Professor, New York University School of Law; Co-director, U.S.-Asia Law Institute; and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China (HRIC); Professor of Law Emerita, City University of New York School of Law

Chai Ling, Founder, All Girls Allowed

Click here to download a copy of the Commission’s full 2011 Annual Report.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 as China prepared to enter the World Trade Organization, is mandated by law to monitor human rights, including worker rights, and the development of the rule of law in China. The Commission by mandate also maintains a database of information on political prisoners in China-individuals who have been imprisoned by the Chinese government for exercising their civil and political rights under China’s Constitution and laws or under China’s international human rights obligations. All of the Commission’s reporting and its Political Prisoner Database are available to the public online via the Commission’s Web site, http://www.cecc.gov.

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Russia – Government eager to use Net surveillance software currently in test phase

New York, October 31, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the imprisonment of two Tibetan writers, one of whom was sentenced after a year of detention without trial, according to reports.

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Tibetan writers imprisoned in China

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China’s moral crisis: from Maoism to Daoism?

This report and the images were provided by Jing Zhang, president of Women’s Rights in China (WRIC). After spending five years in a Chinese prison for her political believes, she now lives in the United States. China-based WRIC volunteers shared with her their first-hand accounts of their attempt to visit Chen Guangchen, a blind civil rights activist who drew international attention to human rights issues in rural areas. Self-taught lawyer Chen exposed the systematic use of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization in implementing China’s one child policy. Time Magazine named him in its list of “2006’s Top 100 People Who Shape Our World,” in the category of “Heroes and Pioneers.” He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2006, Chen Guangchen was sentenced to four years in prison. After serving his full sentence, Chen was released from prison in September, 2010, but remains under detention at his home in Dongshigu. Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance last February.

Disabled Activists Visit Chen Guangchen; Blocked by Government

On October 14, 2011, five disability activists of Women’s Rights in China organized a visit to the blind activist and friend Chen Guangcheng in Dongshigu Village, Shuanghou Town, Jinnan County, Shandong Province. We wished to show our appreciation to the distinguished activist on the eve of the International Day for the Blind.

After we drove into Shuanghou Town to ask directions for Dongshigu Village, all passersby avoided us. Finally an elder man who was preparing to go into the fields asked us if we were looking for the blind man’s village. We said yes. He pointed us to a road under an aqueduct. There were several new buildings along the road. Several strong men stood guard at the entrance of the village.

The five activists bought some food and beverages across the road. Then the five disabled activists approached the village. Seven or eight men stood in front of the village. When they saw the activists approach, the men shouted and summoned many more men. They first took our gifts by force. The man in charge asked what we were doing there. We said that the next day would be the International Day for the Blind. We thought it proper to visit a blind friend. The headman refused to let us enter and asked where we came from. We told them that we were from distant places. Why couldn’t we enter the village? He said that not allowed meant not allowed. We asked if they were the police. He answered that they were villagers. We warned them sternly that villagers had no authority to bar us from seeing a friend.

At this time the other men who were watching started pushing us physically. Ms. Chen, who relied on her cane warned them loudly, “I can’t even stand. If you push me down, you will not hear the end of this!” As they saw we were all a group of disabled people, they stopped.

We tried to reason with them some more. “Chen Guangchen is not a criminal. You are detaining a citizen, a disabled citizen at that, indefinitely. It is illegal detention. You are also limiting the freedom of his whole family. His children can’t even go to school. So many of you with full use of your bodies against one disabled person, where is your conscience? Why are you doing this? If you don’t allow us to see him, we would petition the head of the National Disability Association, Zhang Haidi.”

One of the men sneered, “Who is Zhang Haidi? Why should we care?” Pangmei, in her wheelchair answered, “You apparently care less than Hu Jingtao.” Without saying anything more they pushed us out again. The villagers at the same time made calls that brought many cars and motorcycles, including a police patrol car, to the village.

It looked like entrance to the village was impossible. It was also growing dark. To prevent any more disadvantage, we decided to retreat first. We were not fleet of foot, so the rented van had to drive close to us. Suddenly two cars and a van cornered our vehicle and sandwiched us in the middle. They closely surrounded us as we drove out. When we stopped, they stopped, forcing us to drive at their command. From six in the afternoon to nine thirty, they stuck to us all the way from the village to the Linzi City highway entrance.

At the highway entrance, we were told that all highway exists and entrances were closed in Linzi. The weather was normal. The only reason was to prevent any more visits to Chen Guangcheng. We did not dare to stay in the city and had to follow a side road, with no rest till sun rise.

We do not think the behavior of the villagers was spontaneous but the manipulation of the police.

During the confrontation at the village entrance, a police cruiser drove right by us. Secondly, one of the black Mazda car that drove with us was staffed by plainclothes police. They constantly recorded us with camera and video. The other two cars also had their license plates covered. Thirdly, after our return to Hefei, the local national security bureau received news of our visit. Villagers alone could not have such cooperation with agents in another province.

Our banner says — Happy International Day for the Blind Chen Guangchen!

Jing Zhang

She founded Women’s Rights in China in 2007 to popularize the concept of women’s rights and advocate for the weak and underprivileged in China. As the Operations Director of All Girls Allowed, Jing directs the projects aimed at the prevention of female infanticide, the education of abandoned female orphans, the reuniting of trafficked children with their families. She has testified multiple times in the United States Congress on behalf of AGA and WRIC on the problems of China’s One Child Policy and human trafficking. In these hearings, she also presented evidence of repression these underprivileged groups suffered in the hands of the Chinese government. Jing Zhang also serves on the Advisory Board of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB)

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Why Russia’s democrats need West’s support