BBG Recognizes Achievements of Fired Radio Liberty Journalists
BBG Watch Commentary

In a new sign of disputing actions by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) president Steven Korn, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which has authority over the U.S.-funded media freedom broadcaster, has issued a press release honoring achievements of several former Radio Liberty Russian journalists whom Korn had fired or forced to resign last September.
Those mentioned in the press release include professionals responsible for making the old Radio Liberty website one of the most cited radio news source in Russia: Lyudmila Telen, Elena Vlasenko, and Kristina Gorelik. BBG Watch applauds the BBG and members of its Board of Governors for recognizing these outstanding journalists and hopes that this is the first step to rehabilitating them and restoring their jobs and programs at Radio Liberty. The press release does not mention, however, that Telen and Gorelik had been fired by RFE/RL and that Vlasenko resigned in protest.
But there have been widespread reports, particularly in the Russian media, that the BBG had asked Korn to leave his post at RFE/RL for destroying the Russian Service Moscow bureau.
BBG Watch has learned that directors of the independent and nonpartisan NGO, the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org), were contacting BBG members and staff over Christmas urging them to recognize the awards for the fired Radio Liberty journalists with a press release.
The BBG press release honors three former Radio Liberty journalists who are among dozens of staffers who were fired or resigned in protest to show solidarity with their colleagues. Korn and his top deputies, vice president for content Julia Ragona and vice president for administration Dale Cohen who had organized the dismissals, claim that all journalists left voluntarily and were treated with great respect.

But Lyudmila Alexeeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and other Russian and American human rights activists, including Freedom House president David Kramer, have strongly condemned the “callous and insensitive” firing of Radio Liberty journalists and programming changes introduced by Masha Gessen. She was appointed by Korn to be the new director of the Russian Service. Kramer said that “nothing short of major change is required, meaning a complete housecleaning of the top leadership. The damage they have done is immeasurable.” The Freedom House president has called for “rehiring/rehabilitating some, if not all, of those who were laid off.”
Korn, Ragona, Cohen and Gessen have accused the fired journalists of being resistant to change and incapable of leading a digital transformation. They are making these claims despite overwhelming evidence that the fired journalists have far greater achievements in digital reporting and are far better known in Russia and more respected as media professionals than Gessen and her new team.
The new Radio Liberty and its website redesigned by Gessen are being boycotted by most independent journalists, human rights leaders, and democratic political figures opposed to the Kremlin. According to Russian media reports, which cite openly available statistics, the Radio Liberty Russian website has lost more than half of its visitors since last September.
The BBG press release reflects some of the achievements of the former Radio Liberty journalists who were fired or resigned in protest:

“The Moscow Helsinki Group recognized former RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Kristina Gorelik for her human rights reporting. Former RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Elena Vlasenko was a finalist for the Andrei Sakharov Award for Journalism as an Act of Conscience; certificates for this award were issued to finalists and the news organizations that published their work. Lyudmilla Telen received the Honor, Dignity & Professionalism award from the Russian Union of Journalists for her work, starting in the 1970s and 1980s with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper and later with RFE/RL and Sovershenno Sekretno.”

The Andrei Sakharov Award for Journalism as an Act of Conscience specifically lists the fired Radio Liberty Internet team. Gessen refused to cover the Sakharov awards on the Radio Liberty website, claiming that that they are “unfortunately low profile” in today’s Russia. Her comment was condemned by media freedom activists who accused her of helping President Putin to marginalize such human rights events by refusing to cover them on Radio Liberty.
In Russian media interviews, Gessen attacked the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting executive director Ann Noonan, accusing the head of the U.S. civil society NGO and other CUSIB directors of being publicity seekers and scandal mongers. CUSIB directors are all unpaid volunteers who contribute their own time and money. CUSIB does not solicit public or private donations. In a presentation to the BBG last week, Noonan criticized RFE/RL president Steven Korn and defended the fired Radio Liberty journalists, including fully qualified staffers with disabilities who were dismissed and later replaced with less qualified non-disabled employees. CUSIB lobbied BBG members to issue a press release on the awards and is demanding a full rehabilitation of the fired journalists and their immediate return to work at Radio Liberty.
Critics point out that while in Gessen’s news judgement the Sakharov awards were not worthy of coverage, she has kept for many days on the Radio Liberty Russian home page a story about topless bars, drugs and a professor from an American university who traveled to Argentina to be with an attractive woman he met online.
Korn and Gessen apparently believe that such stories will help Radio Liberty place content on other media outlets in Russia because they are more likely to accept them and the Kremlin’s censors less likely to prevent such placement. RFE/RL under Korn’s leadership has also produced what have been described as “pathetically smutty videos” with semi-naked women, causing an uproar in Kazakhstan, a conservative and largely Muslim nation. The videos were later removed from the RFE/RL website.

Some RFE/RL journalists who questioned the management’s new programming strategy had their employment contracts terminated while other like web editor investigative journalist Anastasia Kirilenko resigned in protest. The latest Radio Liberty Russian Service journalist who just received news from Masha Gessen that her contract will not be renewed is Elena Polyakovskaya. She is a multimedia journalist and graduate of the famous Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, a film school in Moscow, and speaks Russian, Ukrainian, English and French. Many of the previously fired journalists were also multimedia professionals. Some specialized in video production for the Internet. The RFE/RL management, which fired them, claims that they plan to increase the use of video on the Radio Liberty website.
The BBG press release lists currently employed RFE/RL journalists who continue to report on human rights stories despite difficult conditions:

“Journalists for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who work under difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions received a measure of encouragement with recognition by regional and international groups. RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service correspondent Khadija Ismayilova was honored by the International Women’s Media Foundation with its Courage in Journalism Award, and Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev, a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Turkmen language service, won a Hellman/Hammett grant for his fearless reporting in Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most closed societies.
The Institute of War and Peace Reporting honored journalists from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service for their work on women’s rights issues.
The Champion of Tolerance Award from the United Nations Development Programme and the Georgian Public Defender’s Office this year went to RFE/RL’s Georgian Service.
And Radio Farda journalist Vahid Pour Ostad was highly commended by the AIB for his report Enferadi (Solitary Confinement).
The BBG press release also honors achievements of journalists at Voice of America, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Asia, and Office of Cuba Broadcasting.”

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Official BBG Press Release
 

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