All posts tagged Media

US International Broadcasting and the BBG: The Numbers Game

By The Federalist | November 18, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has announced that its own surveys (These are not completely independent surveys. They are produced by a contractor, InterMedia, for whom the BBG has been for years the only major client. The two depend on one another to prove success.) show an increase in audience size. A bigger audience is always a good news, but in general the BBG’s commercial media mentality and its preoccupation with increasing its reach where it is easy at the expense of serving audiences in countries like Russia and China, where it is difficult, should raise an alarm. When countries like Russia and China prevent the BBG from broadcasting internally and use internal censorship, BBG executives respond by proposing the elimination of Voice of America radio and television broadcasts to these countries. No doubt the BBG can get bigger numbers in less authoritarian nations, but is it wise? And is it wise to propose Internet-only VOA news delivery to China, a country that has the best Internet censorship and hacking capabilities in the world?

Our regular contributor, The Federalist, also makes other points on the BBG’s audience size announcement.

US International Broadcasting and the BBG: The Numbers Game
by The Federalist

In its press release of November 15, 2011 the BBG claims an audience increase of 22 million to a projected total of 187 million people, based on its “audience data.”

Here is a short primer on “the numbers game.”

Everything starts with the questions asked in the survey. The BBG does not provide a breakdown of the questions asked in the press release or in its “research methodology.” This is important because no one can examine how the BBG collates the responses.

Typically, survey questions will provide a range of questions. Within that range will be responses that would collectively be categorized as positive and perhaps one or two responses that would be categorized as negative. Depending on the intended outcome that the BBG wants to demonstrate, one method used could be to lump all the positives together, particularly if collectively they represent a positive aggregate response.

Everyone inside the Cohen Building knows that surveys are an inexact process. This is especially the case when conducting surveys in authoritarian or controlled societies. A lot also has to do with how the survey is conducted, often over the telephone. If people live in a controlled society, the prudent thing to do is to be judicious in how one responds to anonymous surveys. Thus, depending on how things are going in the target area, the responses could be more or less of an accurate representation of respondent habits.

One would also need to know where surveys were conducted: were they concentrated in major urban population centers or did they include respondents in the interior regions of the countries surveyed?

All this being said, let us work with the numbers the BBG provides.

If the BBG numbers are accurate, an audience of 187 million people is not to be taken lightly (for reasons we will get to below).

At the same time, one needs to look at the big picture in the world of numbers. For example:

The total global population is put at about 7 billion.

Of that number, an estimated 2 billion are at the subsistence level.

In China, latest estimates place the population at over 1.3 billion.

In short, 187 million can get lost in the cacophony of the 7 billion.

Next, one should examine the statements made in the press release in support of its survey findings.

“…in Egypt, where Alhurra TV doubled its weekly audience to 15% in tandem with the Arab Spring…”

The question here is how does this compare to other broadcasters, including the regional leader, al-Jazeera TV? The BBG press release doesn’t say. This is a key point. If the BBG audience is fractionally less than that of al-Jazeera, public opinion has moved away from that projected by the United States. Further, in our view, the so-called “Arab Spring” is over. This number could be artificially inflated by momentary events.

Also, the BBG doesn’t say how Alhurra TV fares in the region as a whole. That would be important to see if Alhurra TV is making inroads elsewhere. Since the BBG press release is silent on the point, we can presume that it is not.

“Audience declines took place notably in Iran, where the government continues aggressive jamming of every BBG transmission platform, including satellite uplink jamming;”

Those pesky Iranians. They continue to prove themselves adept at interdiction technology.

But beyond that, another question is how much of the audience loss may be due more to lack of interest than as much to government counter-measures? Keep in mind that the BBG claims that its Farsi-language “Parazit” is widely popular in Iran. One would think that if this were indeed true, it would be reflected in its survey results. Coupled with other agency research on Iran, what may be more the case is that the programs no longer have resonance with an Iranian audience. Further, one must also consider the internal conflict with the Persian News Network (PNN) which some writers allege has become a toady for the regime in Tehran.

Also keep in mind that PNN, largely television based, represents a substantial budgetary “gas guzzler” for the BBG.

We’re saving the best for last.

“While radio remains the BBG’s number one media platform, reaching 106 million people per week, television’s growth puts it 97 million people. The Internet audience was approximately 10 million, with the largest online audiences measured in Iraq, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt and Iran.”

Bingo!

There’s no “while” about it. Radio is still king.

But most important of all is this:

Even if you take the BBG numbers at face value, when you examine them in the context of the BBG “strategic plan,” you can clearly see its disaster in the making.

If you eliminate radio broadcasting, as it is the clear intent of the BBG strategic plan, you lose over half of your audience. That 187 million becomes 81 million.

The television component is no bargain. It is the most expensive production and delivery broadcast medium, requiring more people, more production time, satellite time and fees, etc. In terms of cost, it is the least sustainable of the media choices available to the BBG. Plus, one should keep in mind, as the BBG press release points out, it is vulnerable to interdiction, both in terms of blocking satellite channels and in terms of downlink requirements at the receiving end. While people use satellite dishes around the world, the fact remains that certain regimes periodically confiscate private satellite dishes, in part just because they can. Also, in those places where the BBG relies upon placement on television stations (they are not really affiliates in the same use of the word here in the US), these stations often walk a fine line with the sitting governments. Put something on the air that someone doesn’t like and good-bye BBG programs or risk the loss of one’s license and even invite some jail time if the regime is offended enough.

Last but definitely not least, its global Internet audience is tagged at 10 million. If the BBG carries through with its plans to use the Internet as its sole platform for audio, video and text, it will have the equivalent of no audience.

About 70 years into US international broadcasting, how long will it take the BBG to move its Internet audience to a size approximating its current radio audience, particularly when one notes the ability of third parties to engage effectively in cyber warfare and/or, as in the case with China, to have well-established controls to block websites the government deems as undesirable. It is complete fiction to believe that the BBG will have at its command an impenetrable cyber defense against these attacks.

And there is another thing. The BBG has to pay to be posted to search engines. Lose the search engines and there goes the recognition and access.

“Audience declines took place notably in Iran, where the government continues aggressive jamming of every BBG transmission platform, including satellite uplink jamming; and Pakistan, where the media market is increasingly fragmented and use of radio is declining.”

This statement may not be truly representative of the situational reality. The truth of the matter is that all global media markets are increasingly fragmented. This is a significant issue when one considers the BBG claim that its intended outcome is to be “the leading global news network.”

With specific regard to Pakistan, audience loss may have more to do with over-heated anti-American sentiment and a whole lot less to do with the assertion that “use of radio is declining.” It is well known that the Taliban make considerable use of radio in the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is well known that the Pakistanis have become increasingly uneasy with unilateral US military actions within this territory. All of these things may have a whole lot more to do with the decline in the BBG’s audience in Pakistan.

Saying that “use of radio is declining” in Pakistan also seemingly contradicts the BBG effort with its “Radio Deewa” and “Radio Aap ki Dunyaa” projects in the region.

Let’s go back to the numbers:

The BBG is laying claim that the intended goal of its “new” strategic plan is to become the world’s leading global news network. What does that mean? How much of that 7 billion in total world population puts the BBG in the hunt to validate that claim? Hovering around 200 million according to its claimed global audience numbers, it’s a long haul to reach anything approximating a reasonable suggestion that the BBG is a “leading global news network.”

And keep in mind that if the BBG carries out its intended destruction of US Government international radio broadcasting, its audience gets cut by more than half. All of those people aren’t going to run to the Internet. That lesson was learned in Russia, contrary to the outrageous claims by the BBG of Russian audience increases. The BBG’s own research showed that its audience in Russia fell off a cliff when it ended its direct VOA Russian radio broadcasts in 2008.

The BBG has set a deadline of 2016 (its Soviet-style five-year plan) to reach its intended goals. Those goals, based on the BBG’s own numbers, would actually represent a substantially diminished audience with the loss of radio broadcasting. VOA director David Ensor essentially reiterated those goals in a recent C-SPAN television interview.

How does this intended outcome benefit the United States? How does this intended outcome represent a judicious use of US taxpayer money? Unfortunately, to all appearances the answer is” it doesn’t.

In the end, audience size aside, it all comes down to effectiveness. The BBG already a sizable “global news network” through its many and varied entities. And still, with all these assets, its penetration of global publics remains challenged.

One last thing: check the numbers of the press release:

106 million radio audience.
97 million television audience.
10 million Internet audience.

Total: 213 million.

That’s more than 187 million at the opening of the press release.

Well, we’ll give the BBG the difference. It’s still not enough to be “the leading global news network.”

Far from it.

The Federalist
November 16, 2011

###

From the BBG official website:

BBG Broadcasts Reach Record Audiences
(WASHINGTON, D.C.—November 15, 2011) U.S. government funded international broadcasters reached an estimated 187 million people every week in 2011, an increase of 22 million from last year’s figure, according to new audience data being made public by the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

“We are pleased that people the world over are responding in unprecedented numbers to our high-quality journalism and active audience engagement,” said BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson. “The ability of our broadcasters to inform, engage and connect audiences through traditional and social media alike lie behind these impressive results and will be essential to driving future audience reach and impact.”

The record numbers, released in the BBG Performance and Accountability Report (PAR), measure the combined audience of 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 (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa). The report details impact on audiences around the globe including people in the world’s most repressive media and political environments.

The BBG’s PAR follows on the heels of BBG’s latest strategic plan, Impact through Innovation and Integration, which sets an over-arching objective of making BBG the world’s leading international news agency working to foster freedom and democracy with the goal of reaching 216 million people weekly by 2016.

This year there were significant audience increases in Afghanistan, where RFE/RL and VOA together reach 75% of adults weekly; in Egypt, where Alhurra TV doubled its weekly audience to 15% in tandem with the Arab Spring; and in Indonesia, where VOA’s aggressive affiliate strategy has boosted weekly audiences to some 38 million adults.

Audiences in many other strategically relevant countries held strong. In Nigeria, VOA retains its position as a news source of record with 23 million weekly listeners. In Burma, VOA and RFA reach 26% and 24% of adults, respectively, amounting to a weekly audience of 10 million.

Audience declines took place notably in Iran, where the government continues aggressive jamming of every BBG transmission platform, including satellite uplink jamming; and Pakistan, where the media market is increasingly fragmented and use of radio is declining.

While radio remains the BBG’s number one media platform, reaching 106 million people per week, television’s growth puts it at 97 million people. The Internet audience was approximately 10 million, with the largest online audiences measured in Iraq, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt and Iran.

Download 2011 Performance and Accountability Report (PDF)

BBG 2011 Audience Overview (PDF)

BBG Research Methodology (PDF)

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NGOs defend media freedom against Kim Jong-Il's regime — Free Media Online

By BBGWatcher | October 10, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international media freedom NGO, visited the South Korean capital of Seoul in July to evaluate the level of media freedom and freedom of information in North Korea and published the results of this fact-finding visit, Free Media Online (FreeMediaOnline.org) reported. Entitled “North Korea: Frontiers of censorship,” it looks at the regime’s media control and censorship and the attempts being made by others to increase freedom of information.

Reporters Without Borders concluded that foreign radio stations, broadcasting on shortwave, continue to be the main source of independent information for the North Korean population. The flow of information is also reinforced by NGOs that send material and multimedia content across the border by various methods.

Read the original:
Defending freedom of information against Kim Jong-Il’s regime –RSF

The Reporters Without Borders report states that videos from North Korea collected by the South Korean NGO, North Korea Strategy Centre (NKSC), are used by Radio Free Asia (RFA), Voice of America (VOA) and other foreign media. The report focuses mainly on Seoul-based radio stations operated by North Korean refugees such as Free North Korea Radio, Radio Free Chosun and Open Radio for North Korea. RSF has been supporting these stations since 2009.

Radio Free Asia and Voice of America are also a source of uncensored daily news delivered to North Korea on shortwave. BBG Watch, a U.S. NGO which monitors the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) — a U.S. government agency in charge of RFA and VOA — reported, however, that Voice of America also used what was largely North Korean propaganda video after a VOA correspondent had been allowed to travel to Pyongyang. BBG Watch criticized the Broadcasting Board of Governors for issuing a press release that promoted this VOA video report from North Korea.

Original post:
Two news reports from North Korea offer vastly different accounts

Link to the video on YouTube.

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), a recently-formed NGO which supports free flow of uncensored broadcast news to countries without free media, also reported on the Voice of America video footage from North Korea.

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BBG seeking private contractors to work as journalists and stringers in English and foreign languages

By BBGWatcher | October 7, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

This announcement was posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website — link.

A second announcement solicits private contractors for support news broadcasting services — link.

The annoucements include POV Standards of Conduct and VOA Journalistic Code, which does not open, as PDF attachments.

Journalist & Stringes for English and Foreign Language News

Solicitation Number: POV-FY-12-Q1-R
Agency: Broadcasting Board of Governors
Office: Director, Office of Contracts
Location: Office of Contracts (M/CON)

Solicitation Number:
POV-FY-12-Q1-R Notice Type:
Sources Sought Synopsis:

Added: Oct 03, 2011 11:24 am

The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), Voice of America (VOA), and Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) are seeking qualified individuals for free-lance Radio, Television, Internet, and/or Multi-Media English and/or foreign language news broadcasting assignments in Washington, DC; Miami, FL; and various overseas locations that are not serviced by full-time VOA and/or OCB staff correspondents. Assignment areas include script writing, editing, on-air announcing, technical and production services, photo editing, video journalism, graphic illustrating, producing programming using state of the art multi-media platforms, and audience mail analysis. The VOA broadcasts in English and 44 other languages. These languages are as follows: Afan Oromo, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bosnian, Burmese, Cantonese, Creole, Croatian, Dari, French, Georgian, Greek, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Khmer, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Macedonian, Mandarin, Ndebele, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrigna, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese. News reports submitted by free-lance journalists will be used in broadcasting to international audiences. The following general information pertains to the above-listed free-lance assignments: 1) Assignments are performed on a contract basis at various VOA, and/or OCB domestic and overseas locations. 2) Contractor candidates may be required to undergo a background security investigation and successfully pass the IBB’s security clearance process in order to receive work assignments. 3) Contractor candidates must be willing to work on an “as-required” basis, depending on when the VOA, or OCB requires the filing of news stories. 4) Free-lance assignments are contracted for strictly on an “as needed” basis. The VOA and OCB make no guarantees on the amount of work assignments that contractors can expect to receive. 5) The Government is obligated to inspect all contractors performed work to insure that it fully satisfies the Government’s requirements. The Government is further obligated to reject all work that fails to meet Government-specified requirements.

Contractors should note that all work shall be performed in accordance with the standards prescribed in the attached “VOA Journalistic Code”. Failure to comply with these legally mandated standards may result in immediate termination of the contract for default.

The following criteria are used by the VOA and OCB to evaluate prospective contractors: (1) Newspaper, wire service, radio or television experience; (2) Experience in writing news for broadcasts; (3) Extensive knowledge of the target broadcast language(s); (4) Ability to produce work that demonstrates a keen knowledge of national and international issues; (5) Ability to explain complex issues in clear, logical terms that can be understood by VOA’s and OCB’s worldwide audiences; (6) Ability to research, select, and prepare material to provide background and highlight key elements of VOA or OCB web news reports, prepare and encode additional streamed media, and ensure compliance with copyright restrictions; and (7) Documented (i.e., education/training and/or practical experience) knowledge of the principles and practices of journalistic writing, editing, and Internet publishing.

Prospective contractors are hereby notified that the basis for award will be based on best value; with technical evaluation factors (i.e., strength of prospective contractor’s resume, approach to performing work) being more important than the prospective contractor’s proposed hourly price. Contractors shall submit their price proposals based on an hourly and/or an assignment basis.

Individuals who are interested in and believe that they have the experience and capabilities to perform one or more of the above-stated free-lance English or foreign language news broadcasting Assignment/Task Orders that are issued under a contract basis with one or more of the above-stated BBG organizations (VOA) at their respective Washington, DC; Miami, FL (for OCB) and/or overseas locations may submit written inquiries for additional information and/or submit their written statement(s) of interest, technical qualifications, desired rate (hourly or per assignment), and pertinent experience for proposing to contract for one or more of the above-listed free-lance English and foreign language news broadcasting assignments with the appropriate BBG organization(s) as follows: (a) For free-lance assignments with the VOA (Radio) in Washington, DC or overseas, submit written inquiries for additional information and/or contract technical proposals to the Voice of America (VOA), Attention: Ms. Cynthia Krasinski, VOA/C, Room 1300, Cohen Federal Building, 330 Independence Avenue (SW), Washington, DC 20237,email address: cakrasin@voanews.com; (b) For free-lance VOA (Television) assignments in Washington, DC or overseas, submit written inquires for additional information and/or contract technical proposals to VOA – TV, Attention: Ms. Donna Buchan, VOA/O, Room 2276, Cohen Federal Building, 330 Independence Avenue, (SW), Washington, DC 20237, email address: dlbuchan@voanews.com; and (c) For free-lance radio and/or television assignments with the Office of Cuba Broadcasting’s (OCB) Radio and/or TV Marti in Miami, FL or overseas, submit written inquiries for additional information and/or contract technical proposals to OCB, Attention: Ms. Mary Ann Amps, OCB/A, 4201 NW 77th Avenue, Miami, FL 33166, email address: mamps@ocb.ibb.gov. Any written inquiries and/or contract proposals responding to this Public Notice may be submitted to the above-listed respective VOA and/or OCB POCs at any time up to the December 31, 2011 expiration date of this Public Notice. This Notice is not a RFQ, RFP, or IFB.

Contractors for News Broadcasting Services

Solicitation Number: POV-FY-12-Q1-T
Agency: Broadcasting Board of Governors
Office: Director, Office of Contracts
Location: Office of Contracts (M/CON)

Solicitation Number:
POV-FY-12-Q1-T Notice Type:
Sources Sought Synopsis:
Added: Oct 03, 2011 11:34 am
The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), Voice of America (VOA), and Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) are seeking qualified individuals for free-lance Radio, Television, Internet, and/or Multi-Media English and/or foreign language news broadcasting assignments in Washington, DC; Miami, FL; and various overseas locations that are not serviced by full-time VOA and/or OCB staff correspondents. Assignment areas include script writing, editing, on-air announcing, technical and production services, photo editing, video journalism, graphic illustrating, producing programming using state of the art multi-media platforms, and audience mail analysis. The VOA broadcasts in English and 44 other languages. These languages are as follows: Afan Oromo, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bosnian, Burmese, Cantonese, Creole, Croatian, Dari, French, Georgian, Greek, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Khmer, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Macedonian, Mandarin, Ndebele, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrigna, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese. VOA is seeking qualified sources for the following types of free-lance assignments: Radio-TV Broadcast Announcers, Narrators and Personalities, Researchers, Writers, Producers, Editors, Desk Coordinators, Directors for Television, Radio and TV Production Assistants, Television Makeup-Artists, Master Control Producers, TV Master Control Technicians, Television On-Camera Talent (i.e., Program Moderator, Anchor, Host), General Studio Technicians, Video Switchers, Audio Technicians, Lighting Directors, TV Technical Support Maintenance Technicians, Non-English Language Translators, Narrators, Videotape Editors, Videotape Recycling Technicians, Videotape Recording Technicians, TV Mini-Cam Technicians, Studio Technician Director, Video Researcher/Catalogers, Camera Operators, Character Generator Operators (Chyron), TV/Radio Bookers, Promo Producer/Editors, Audience Mail Assistants (respond to incoming letters/emails from VOA Listeners around the world), and Electronic Graphic Artists. In addition, VOA is also interested in Internet Writers, Editors, Web Designers and Graphic Designers. Furthermore, the BBG’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which broadcasts radio and television programming in Spanish to Cuba, is seeking qualified sources for similar free-lance assignments on the same “as-needed” contract basis as VOA, but with OCB’s free-lance work assignment locations being Miami, FL or at overseas locations. The following general information pertains to all of the above-listed VOA and OCB free-lance assignments: 1) Assignments are performed on a contract basis. 2) Most VOA assignments require working in Washington, DC; while some assignments require working at IBB studios at overseas locations. Most OCB assignments require working in Miami, FL; while some assignments require working at overseas locations. 3) Contractor candidates may be required to undergo a background security investigation and successfully pass the security clearance process in order to receive work assignments. 4) Contractor candidates must be willing to work on an “as-required” basis, depending upon the VOA’s or OCB’s broadcasting needs. Some broadcasting activities require working irregular hours – such as very early in the morning or late in the evening – depending on the broadcasting schedule. 5) Videotape editor candidates should have at least two (2) years experience as a videotape editor in either a commercial or Government television production facility, utilizing modern computerized editing systems and videotape machines. 6) Free-lance assignments are contracted for strictly on an “as needed” basis. The VOA and OCB make no guarantees on the amount of work assignments that contractors can expect to receive. 7) The Government is obligated to inspect all contractors performed work to insure that it fully satisfies the Government’s requirements. The Government is further obligated to reject all work that fails to meet Government-specified requirements. Contractors should note that all work shall be performed in accordance with the standards prescribed in the attached “VOA Journalistic Code”. Failure to comply with these legally mandated standards may result in immediate termination of the contract for default. The following criteria, depending on the type of broadcasting services being contracted, are used as appropriate by VOA and OCB to evaluate prospective contractors: (1) Radio or television broadcast or Internet news experience, including translating and adapting broadcast scripts. Please specifically note that for broadcasting work, the VOA requires that prospective contractors take a voice and writing test. For translation or camera work, VOA requires that prospective contractors take a translation and/or on-camera test; (2) Extensive knowledge of the target broadcast language(s) and the ability to adapt English material into the target language; (3) Ability to produce work that demonstrates a keen knowledge of national and international issues; (4) Ability to explain complex issues in clear, logical terms that can be understood by VOA’s and OCB’s worldwide audiences; (5) Ability to operate highly specialized and complex broadcast television equipment, such as audio consoles, character generators, wave-form monitors and vectorscopes, and videotape machines; (6) Highly developed production skills, such as: assembling/coordinating material, monitoring program segments for proper sequencing and integration, ensuring continuity, editing broadcast scripts as necessary, etc. ; (7) Ability to research, select, and prepare material to provide background and highlight key elements of VOA or OCB web news reports, prepare and encode multimedia enhancements, and either prepare or request and coordinate the preparation and encoding of additional streamed media, and ensure compliance with copyright restrictions; (8) Documented knowledge (i.e., education/training and/or practical experience) of the principles and practices of journalistic writing, editing, and Internet publishing; (9) Computer skills required; (10) Ability to operate a wide variety of digital broadcast equipment; and (11) Ability to read and analyze incoming correspondence to determine information requested and prepare a responsive and personalized respond.Prospective contractors are hereby notified that the basis for award will be based on best value; with technical evaluation factors (i.e., strength of prospective contractor’s resume, approach to performing work) being more important than the prospective contractor’s proposed hourly price. Contractors shall submit their price proposals based on an hourly and/or an assignment basis.All sources interested in and believe that they have the experience and capabilities to perform one or more of the above-stated free-lance Assignment/Task Orders that are issued under a contract basis with one or more of the above-stated BBG organizations (VOA) at their respective Washington, DC; Miami, FL (for OCB); or overseas locations may submit written inquiries for additional information and/or submit their written statement(s) of interest, technical qualifications, desired rate (hourly or per assignment), and pertinent experience for proposing to contract for one or more of the above-listed free-lance assignments with the appropriate BBG organization(s) as follows: (a) For free-lance assignments with the VOA (Radio) in Washington, DC or overseas, submit written inquiries for additional information and/or contract technical proposals to the Voice of America (VOA), Attention: Ms. Cynthia Krasinski, VOA/C Room 1300, Cohen Federal Building, 330 Independence Avenue (SW), Washington, DC 20237, email address: cakrasin@voanews.com; and (b) For free-lance VOA (Television) assignments in Washington DC or overseas, submit written inquires for additional information and/or contract technical proposals to VOA-TV, Attention: Donna Buchan, VOA/O, Room 2276, Cohen Federal Building, 330 Independence Avenue (SW), Washington,
DC 20237, e-mail address: dlbuchan@voanews.com; and (c) For free-lance radio and/or television assignments with the Office of Cuba Broadcasting’s (OCB) Radio and/or TV Marti in Miami, FL or overseas, submit written inquiries for additional information and/or contract technical proposals to OCB, Attention: Ms. Mary Ann Amps, OCB/A, 4201 NW 77th Avenue, Miami, FL 33166, email address: mamps@ocb.ibb.gov. Any written inquiries and/or contract proposals responding to this Public Notice may be submitted to the above-listed respective VOA-TV and/or OCB POCs at any time up to the December 31, 2011 expiration date of this Public Notice. This Notice is not a RFQ, RFP, or IFB.

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BBG’s Commission on Innovation holds first meeting in New York as BBG ignores advice on human rights reporting from its own journalists

By BBGWatcher | September 26, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

BBG Commission on Innovation meeting in New York, September 2011The BBG is bragging about its commission on innovation, which is great, but what the BBG needs even more is a commission on sensitivity to human rights abuses and assaults on media freedom abroad. BBG members could, of course, listen to some of their journalists who had experienced life under totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

But, of course, this is not the way BBG members think and operate. It’s far better for them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to private contractors and consultants and to organize meetings in New York or Prague. In fact, the BBG wants to fire 45 Voice of America journalists who specialize in human rights reporting to China. No doubt that the money saved by getting rid of these reporters, who understand the mission of U.S. international broadcasting far better than BBG executives, will pay for even more BBG commissions and outside consultants.

We offer here very good advice for BBG members and their executive staff from a VOA Chinese Branch reporter. We think that members of the BBG’s Commission on Innovation could also benefit from watching this video. The advice from the VOA journalist is free. It’s always been available and free if the BBG would only listen.

The video shows a group of remarkable journalists from the Voice of America Mandarin and Cantonese radio, TV, and Internet services directing pointed questions to former VOA Director Dan Austin and making persuasive arguments against the Broadcasting Board of Governors decision to end all on-the-air radio and TV news broadcasting in their languages to China.

It’s now up to the U.S. Congress to save VOA from the BBG’s effort to destroy the Voice of America as a broadcasting organization. VOA radio broadcasts to Russia had already been terminated by the BBG in 2008, resulting in an over 80% drop in audience reach.

The BBG claims that Internet-only program delivery strategy prepares VOA for the future by targeting new media and a younger audience when in fact BBG’s own research shows that it has been a failure in Russia and is not likely to reach a vast new audience in China.

VOA Chinese Service journalists point out that the BBG with the support of VOA Director Austin (he has since resigned) are terminating VOA radio broadcasts that have a larger audience in China and higher name recognition than Radio Free Asia (RFA) and BBC. The BBG plans to give VOA shortwave frequencies to RFA.

One cannot be but impressed with professionalism and expert knowledge of these journalists when they point out to Director Austin that 750 million of Chinese have no Internet access and that the regime in Beijing can block and censor Internet access for those who have it. Director Austin keeps repeating that the strategy will bring a new audience when in fact — as the members of his Chinese services point out — they already have extensive Internet presence. It was obvious from his answers that neither he nor the BBG has a plan to deal with any future blocking of the Internet in China.

Director Austin insisted that the Chinese government is unlikely to block the Internet completely, but as one of the VOA Chinese Branch journalist pointed out, he saw his friends being killed next to him in 1989 on the Tienanmen Square and has no doubt that the Chinese government is fully capable of doing everything possible to prevent the free flow of information if its authoritarian rule is threatened. He also pointed out that while shortwave radio transmissions can be jammed in some limited areas, it is the only way of securely communicating with the Chinese people.

BBG Press Release: BBG’s Commission on Innovation Holds First Meeting in New York

September 23, 2011 | New York

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is tapping the expertise of visionary leaders to respond to the rapidly evolving digital landscape. A newly-formed BBG Commission on Innovation launched on September 22 in New York City. The Commission brings together leaders who have proven success in digital media to help shape world-class platforms to reach U.S. international broadcasting’s unique overseas environments.

“The Commission will expand the innovation work at the BBG and bring great minds from outside fields to focus on international media,” said Susan McCue, co-chair of the BBG’s Communications and Outreach Committee. “Yesterday’s introductory meeting was filled with game-changing ideas and approaches, and this is just the start of a dialogue about how to better serve, connect and engage with our audiences abroad.”

The Commission on Innovation draws leaders from the commercial, academic, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Members of the commission include author Clay Shirky; Evan Williams, Co-founder of Twitter; Randi Zuckerberg, former Marketing Director of Facebook; June Cohen, Executive Producer of TED Media; Paola Antonelli, Design and Architecture Senior Curator at the Museum of Modern Art; Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs at Microsoft; Michael Maness, Vice President of Journalism & Media Innovation at the Knight Foundation and Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation.

The Commission will continue to meet throughout the year and focus on a variety of topics affecting international media distribution, content development and audience access.

Members of the BBG’s Commission on Innovation include:

Akhtar Badshah, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Global Community Affairs

Alec Ross, Special Advisor for Innovation, US State Department

Andrew McLaughlin, Executive Director, Civic Commons

Andrew Rasiej, Founder, Personal Democracy Forum

Ben Scott, Policy Advisor on Innovation, US State Department

Chris Hughes, co-founder, Facebook

Clay Shirky, Professor & Author, New York University, ITP

Evan Williams, Co-Founder, Twitter

Hari Sreenivasan, Correspondent & Managing Digital Editor, PBS NewsHour

James Montgomery, Controller of Digital & Technology, BBC Global News

Jan Chipchase, Executive for Global Insights, Frog Design

Jeff Davidoff, Chief Marketing Officer, ONE

June Cohen, Executive Producer for Media, TED

Michael Maness, Vice President Journalism & Media Innovation, Knight Foundation

Mark McKinnon, Public Strategies Inc.

Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation

Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture & Design, MoMA

Premal Shah, President, Kiva

Randi Zuckerberg, CEO, R-Z Media

Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation

Rob Bluey, Director, Center for Media & Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation

Rob Glaser, Founder & Chairman, RealNetworks Inc.

Vivek Kundra, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society & Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics & Public Policy, Harvard University

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BBG plan for VOA will harm human rights activists in China — Politburo Media Review

By BBGWatcher | September 25, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

BBG Watch — BBG Politburo Media Review (also on BBG Watch Hot Tub Blog)

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) wants to end all Voice of America radio and TV broadcasts to China on Oct. 1. BBG members should read these recent news stories which may show that they and their executive staff have no first-hand or other direct experience of what life under authoritarian regimes is like and what dissidents, pro-democracy activists, and those who are the most oppressed expect from the United States.

A recent BBG statement on threats to free media around the world did not mention China while at the their last meeting BBG members were ecstatic about a VOA English teaching video in Mandarin, which the Chinese cyber police allowed on the Internet in China.

Apparently, the Chinese censors are not offended by words like “All of the icky stuff that comes out of your face!!, eye gunk, sleepies, earwax, booger, snot, drool, slobber, pimple/zit/blemish” — which the delightful and very talented Jessica Beinecke teaches the Chinese youth to use.

We’re not saying that such videos have no place in VOA programs to China, but BBG members could have perhaps benefitted from also watching this video.

Direct link to this video.

Compare the previous video with the next one, which BBG members loved so much that they forgot to include China in their statement condemning assaults on free media. Quite a contrast!

Direct link to this video.

OK. Keep producing such videos that the Chinese cyber police will allow.

By the way, since this is our first BBG Watch Politburo Media Review, we looked at the Voice of America English website and did not find any China-related human rights stories. But we did find this story, Meet Tara (Again), Graduate Student from China and Fashionista, no doubt highly recommended by your social media private consultants whose only experience of human rights violations was probably limited to being denied computer access by their American parents.

OK, Meet Tara has some redeeming content, although not much. But what will happen, BBG members, to “Free Chen Guangcheng” video and VOA radio and television interviews with those Americans who are trying to help him and thousands of other political prisoners in China?

You want to end VOA satellite TV to China on October 1, as well as radio. Do you really think that the heavily jammed and not very well-known Radio Free Asia is enough? RFA does not have satellite television programs and neither will VOA after Oct. 1.

Does that mean that Voice of America will represent American views on China with content such Yucky GUNK!, since this is about the only material that the Chinese censors will allow on the Internet. And what happens when they ban it when it becomes too popular.

We will be posting these media roundups, which we call BBG Politburo Media Review, to help focus BBG members’ attention on the real information needs of people living under authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

Just as Soviet Politburo members used to receive digests of Radio Liberty and Voice of America news reports, we believe that BBG members are also entiled to uncensored news that offer a more realistic picture of life outside the Beltway and outside of the United States than they can get from their executive staff, even if such information is already readily available.

National Endowment for Democracy

China’s protests ‘could crystallize into broader movement’

http://www.demdigest.net/blog/2011/09/chinas-protests-could-crystallize-into-broader-movement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DemocracyDigest+%28Democracy+Digest%29

Reporters Without Borders

ACTIVISTS ATTACKED WHILE TRYING TO VISIT HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER UNDER HOUSE ARREST http://en.rsf.org/chine-activists-attacked-while-trying-to-20-09-2011,39533.html

Women’s Rights in China

Former Chinese political prisoner says Voice of America must not retreat from China

http://www.usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch/2011/08/22/voa-cannot-retreat-from-china/

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

Personal Prison Prepared for Forced Abortion Opponent Chen http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=419

Amendment for Blind Activist Chen Guangcheng Passes Today

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=316

Urgent: China’s Blind Forced Abortion Opponent Needs Your Help (New Chen Guangcheng Video)

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=296

Obama Kowtows to Beijing — Voice of America Broadcasting into China to be Slashed

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=80

Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers:

“I believe that the VOA Mandarin Service has been singled out for the chopping block precisely because of its effectiveness – it has been the leading international broadcaster into China for nearly 70 years and has an enormous following inside China. VOA has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese Communist Party by exposing, for example, the persecution of human rights lawyers and the use of forced abortion to enforce China’s hated One Child Policy. My interview about China’s One Child Policy on VOA’s Mandarin Service generated an ardent and wide-ranging discussion, in which people from all over China called in to comment and discuss. The interview gave Chinese citizens a national forum in which to debate passionately held beliefs – an opportunity they otherwise would not have had, but for VOA.”

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Rep. Rohrabacher Introduces Bill to Counter Communist Chinese State Media Advantage in the U.S.

By BBGWatcher | September 15, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Rep. Dana RohrabacherRep. Rohrabacher also had introduced earlier an amendment, approved unanimously by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, that would prevent the Broadcasting Board of Governors from implementing its plan to end all Voice of America radio and TV broadcasts to China as of October 1.

The BBG plan has been criticized by Chinese human rights activists, Human Rights Watch and other U.S. human rights organizations, American civil rights activists, journalists, and Chinese American organizations.

Claims by BBG members and executives that almost no one in China listens to VOA radio on shortwave were denied by Chinese pro-democracy activists and derided by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

BBG executives also want to terminate VOA Chinese satellite TV news programs to China, which have had more members of Congress as guests than any other VOA broadcasts.

However, the new VOA director David Ensor, who was selected by the BBG, said recently that he wants to expand VOA satellite TV broadcasts in Chinese. He also said that within the first five weeks on the job he had already threatened to resign.

He did not say what caused him to threaten to quit but the BBG executive staff has been for years accused of bad management and the agency rated by employees as one of the worst workplaces in the federal government.

Rep. Rohrabacher’s amendment and his latest bill are seen by BBG employees as an effort to help them do their job in the face of enormous obstacles from BBG managers as well as the State Department which has done little to pressure the Chinese government to stop jamming of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia broadcasts and to allow a greater number of VOA journalists to work in China.

***PRESS RELEASE*** Rep. Rohrabacher Introduces Bill to Counter Communist Chinese State Media Advantage in the U.S.
Disparity of 650 Visas to 2 During FY 2010

Washington, Sep 13 - Today, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Randy Forbes (R-VA), and Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced H.R. 2899, the Chinese Media Reciprocity Act of 2011. The bill would require the Department of State to issue the same number of visas to Chinese state-media workers as China issues to American journalists working for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

During Fiscal Year 2010 approximately 650 Chinese citizens entered the United States on I Visas (international journalist visas), compared to only two American BBG journalist’s granted permission to be stationed in mainland China.

“There is a very alarming disparity between the number of Chinese state media workers whom we grant visas to and the number of visas the Chinese grant to their American counterparts,” said Rohrabacher.

“We would welcome any free and independent Chinese reporters if such a thing existed. Every one of these reporters is an agent of the Chinese government and works for a news organization under control of the Communist Party in China. Chinese news agencies operating in the USA are not subject to censorship or purposeful disruption and they are free to broadcast as much communist propaganda as they like on U.S. soil.”

“By contrast, our two U.S. correspondents in China are routinely harassed by Chinese police and have been assaulted and detained by Chinese officials seeking to block their work. Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have been regularly jammed by the Communist Chinese for years.”

H.R. 2899 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to ensure open and free journalism access in China by enforcing the established reciprocal relationship between the number of visas issued to state media workers from each country. The bill would also require revocation of a sufficient number of I visas issued to Chinese state media workers 30 days after its enactment in order to reach parity with the number of visas issued by China for BBG employees seeking entry to China.

Rep. Rohrabacher offered a similar amendment to the FY 2012 U.S. Department of State Authorization Bill, which passed during the full committee markup over the summer.

Rohrabacher is a member of the China Caucus and senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

###

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BBG Sided with Ethiopian Regime Against VOA Journalist

By BBGWatcher | July 22, 2011 | Media Reports | 3 Comments

Poster for a protest demonstration against censorship at the Voice of America.Protest Rally Against Censorship at the Voice of America by the Broadcasting Board of Governors Leaders of the Ethiopian American community joined by free media advocates are planning a protest rally on Monday, July 25, in front of the Voice of America (VOA) building in Washington, DC amid charges of censorship of VOA news programs to Ethiopia by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). According to Voice of America broadcasters who spoke on the condition that their names not be revealed because they fear reprisals, the BBG has tried to silence VOA journalist David Arnold who encouraged reporting that upset BBG members as well as officials of the Ethiopian regime. VOA journalists have complained of their reports being removed by the management from VOA websites and of being prevented from covering important political events. In a situation reminiscent of Soviet and East European communist media controls, a high-level manager reportedly forbade VOA Africa Division journalists to take written notes during a staff meeting in which complaints about censorship were raised. The BBG is a presidentially-appointed bipartisan group which runs VOA and other government-funded U.S. international broadcasters and is supposed to promote freedom of expression and anti-censorship efforts around the world, but has been accused of negotiating with repressive regimes, terminating VOA radio and TV programs to countries that restrict media freedom, including Russia and China, and firing VOA journalists who specialize in human rights reporting. BBG and VOA managers have been putting pressure on broadcasters to limit political reporting in favor of human-interest stories as a way of persuading various regimes to allow placement of such reports on local stations and websites. Numerous government surveys have rated the BBG as one of the worst-managed federal agencies. Independent journalists fighting censorship abroad have accused the BBG of being confused about its mission.

The latest charges of censorship at the Voice of America and the Broadcasting Board of Governors first surfaced in investigative reports by exiled Ethiopian journalist Abebe Gellaw who was recently a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University and a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution in California. He publishes the Ethiopian American news website Addis Voice. His website and many others are banned in Ethiopia.

Addis Voice reported that BBG and VOA officials have tried to silence and punish Voice of America journalist David Arnold, the chief of the Horn to Africa Service, for disclosing the Ethiopian regime’s demands for censoring VOA broadcasts made in Addis Ababa during a recent meeting with visiting BBG members. Since his exile from Ethiopia, Mr. Gellaw’s articles and interviews have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Guardian, and the Far East Review.

In June 2011, three BBG members appointed by President Obama went to Ethiopia where they met with officials of the Ethiopian regime to discuss their complaints of anti-regime bias in VOA news programs. According to reports in Ethiopian American media, BBG members were presented a list of Ethiopian dissidents, political exiles and foreign critics whom the regime wants to ban from Voice of America radio broadcasts, apparently as a condition for lifting the local jamming of these programs. The names were included in a document describing the objections of the Ethiopian regime to VOA news reports. Addis Voice obtained the document and made it available online.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and other media freedom organizations have accused the Ethiopian regimeof Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in power since 1991, of imprisoning journalists, jamming Voice of America and other foreign broadcasts, and blocking many foreign and independent news websites.

Voice of America Horn of Africa Service Chief David Arnold was dismissed from his position after he disclosed information about the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its dealings with the Ethiopian regime, which the BBG wanted to keep secret.Ethiopian American media reported that BBG officials, who apparently wanted to keep the content of their negotiations in Addis Ababa secret, suspended the chief of the Voice of America Horn of Africa Service David Arnold from his position after he had informed his VOA colleagues about the Ethiopian regime’s demands. BBG officials accused Mr. Arnold, a highly-regarded journalist with decades of reporting experience, of engaging in misinformation but later allowed him to return to work after Ethiopian American media reports brought about a storm of criticism and raised charges of censorship. According to reports in the Ethiopian American media, it is not clear, however, whether he will keep his old job and be safe from further harassment by BBG members and their executive staff.

Phone calls, faxes and emails protesting censorship of the Voice of America news, the dismissal of VOA journalist David Arnold, and the BBG’s plan to end VOA radio and TV broadcasts to China and to fire journalists specializing in human rights reporting can be directed to the following institutions:

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman; Howard L. Berman, Ranking Member

U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, John F. Kerry, Chairman; Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member

Committee to Protect Journalistsinfo@cpj.org

Reporters Without Bordersclc@rsf.org

Index on Censorshipenquiries@indexoncensorship.org

Mr. Arnold was part of a delegation headed by three Broadcasting Board of Governors members — Susan McCue, Dana Perino, and Michael P. Meehan.

A VOA report on the visit, which included information disclosed by Mr. Arnold, was removed from the VOA website, reportedly soon after Ethiopian officials complained about it to the BBG staff. Subsequently, VOA executives also banned news coverage from a meeting of Ethiopian political exiles which was held in Washington, D.C. area, suggesting that the BBG mission to Ethiopia continues to have an impact on the bureaucrats who are eager to please BBG members and their executive staff.

Abebe Gellaw reported that the controversy over censorship at the Voice of America took a bizarre twist last week when the Director of Africa Division forbade staffers from taking notes at a meeting she held with employees of the Horn of Africa Service. The manager in charge of VOA programs to Africa told staff to do more people-oriented programming and cut down on the number of stories focused on political affairs.

Free Media Online president Ted Lipien

Free Media Online president Ted Lipien

Free Media Online (FreeMediaOnline.org) president Ted Lipien, who once served as acting associate director of the Voice of America, said that “siding of some of the Broadcasting Board of Governors members with the repressive Ethiopian regime against a highly respected VOA journalist represents an appalling new low in the history of this failed body, which had terminated VOA radio broadcasts in Arabic and Russian, plans to end soon VOA radio and TV programs in Mandarin and Cantonese to China, and has been consistently rated in government-wide surveys as one of the worst-managed federal agencies.” The BBG plans to fire about two dozen Voice of America journalists who specialize in human rights reporting to China after an earlier round of firings at the VOA Russian Service.

“Most BBG members, nominated because of their political loyalty and private sector experience, do not know how to deal with enemies of press freedom and are all too eager to listen to dictators’ complaints against independent journalists without realizing the negative impact of their actions on victims of political repression,” Lipien said.

Broadcasting Board of Governors member Michael P Meehan

BBG member Michael P. Meehan

Free Media Online had opposed President Obama’s nomination of Michael Meehanto the BBG after allegations that he had shoved a reporter who tried to ask a question of his party’s candidate for a political office. According to sources, Meehan was instrumental in the efforts to discipline Mr. Arnold. “BBG members saw Mr. Arnold not as a journalist but as a bureaucratic minion who betrayed them by exposing their naivete,” Lipien said.

Voice of America sources have told Free Media Online that attempts to punish VOA journalists by BBG members and their staff have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among the media professionals employed by the U.S. government-funded organizations run by the BBG.

“The BBG’s attempts to discipline Mr. Arnold for doing his job as a journalist is even more outrageous in light of the fact that in 2005 the Ethiopian regime charged five journalists working for the VOA Amharic Service with treason and threatened them with the death penalty,” Lipien said. The charges were later withdrawn after pressure from the U.S. government and human rights NGOs.

“The BBG should be in business of supporting media freedom, not secretly negotiating with suppressors of free press in countries like Ethiopia, Russia, and China, and censoring and punishing its own journalists. The goal of U.S. public diplomacy ought to be reaching out to the victims of political repression abroad, not trying to improve relations with dictatorial regimes. The job of dealing with dictators should be left to professional State Department diplomats, who are hopefully both tough and experienced. The idea that political operatives and private businessmen from the U.S. can somehow persuade dictators to soften their grip on the media had been tried by naive individuals numerous times when the Soviet Union still existed and had always failed while making the life of dissidents and independent journalists more difficult and more dangerous,” Lipien said.

“Sending not one but three BBG members to Ethiopia with a large entourage to negotiate with enemies of press freedom was counterproductive and a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ money,” Lipien added. “It made the enemies of press freedom feel good and took away hope from the victims of human rights abuses and the journalists who try to defend them. If it were otherwise, BBG members and executives would not have resorted to censorship and intimidation against their own journalists.”

Lipien suggested that the BBG represents now a greater danger to journalistic independence at the Voice of America than State Department diplomats ever did when VOA was part of the now-defunct United States Information Agency (USIA). This is highly ironic — according to him — because one of the reasons the U.S. Congress created the BBG was to establish a better firewall between VOA journalists and administration officials. “While I worked as a journalist at VOA, lower-level State Department and USIA officials sometimes tried to influence our reporting but these attempts were relatively rare and we were able to ignore most of them before they escalated into a real fight. The BBG, on the other hand, has a much greater direct power over VOA journalists, as Mr. Arnold has found out, and is far less accountable. State Department diplomats were also more aware that it is illegal to interfere with journalistic independence of Voice of America reporters — something that some of the BBG members, some of their executive staffers, and some VOA managers don’t seem to understand, as strange as it may be,” Free Media Online president said.

Lipien also said that compounding the problem is the incompetence of the entrenched BBG executive staff, which feeds the eagerness of BBG members, derived from their private sector experience, to make deals with dictators to establish local program placement in the hope of increasing audience ratings. This is a failed strategy, which the BBG staff also uses to justify eliminating VOA radio and TV broadcasts to countries like China and Russia when their local program efforts inevitably fail, Lipien observed. He listed as examples of the most spectacular failures of the BBG executive staff giving airtime to Holocaust deniers, ending VOA radio programs to Russia just 12 days before the Russian military attack on the Republic of Georgia, their refusal to resume these programs, planning to end VOA radio and TV broadcasts to China on the anniversary of the establishment of the communist regime in Beijing, and their decision to send BBG members to negotiate with dictators who only stay in power because of their repression of free media.

In a move that is likely to endanger human rights activists, the BBG executive staff has been advocating Internet-only VOA news delivery to China despite Beijing’s effective Internet censorship and its ability to discover identities of individuals trying to access Western news websites. BBG bureaucrats with links to private sector contractors have been making promises of piercing China’s Internet firewall and yet have been unable to protect Voice of America’s own websites from successful attacks by hackers, most likely from China and Russia.

The Ethiopian American organizers of the protest rally against the Broadcasting Board of Governors are warning that the BBG wants to turn the Voice of America into the Voice of China. The rally is scheduled for 9 AM, Monday, July 25, in front of the Voice of America building at 330 Independence Avenue, S.W. in Washington, D.C. just below the Capital Hill. Free Media Online is asking members of Congress to investigate the charges of censorship by BBG members and to protect Voice of America journalist David Arnold and his colleagues from further reprisals.

This report was originally published by FreeMediaOnline.org Logo. FreeMediaOnline.org San Francisco, CA, USA, July 24, 2011.

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BBG Internet strategy downplays human rights reporting

By BBGWatcher | April 5, 2011 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Image from VOA Russian Service web post "What American women think about sex." Such stories are designed to beef up page views.

Image from VOA Russian Service web post "What American women think about sex." Such stories are designed to beef up page views.

An independent outside expert evaluation of the Voice of America (VOA) Russian news website content, ordered by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) which manages VOA and other U.S. government-funded radios, suggests that VOA is confused about its mission and fails to counter the Kremlin’s propaganda. The evaluator, a highly respected independent journalist who fights media censorship in Russia, believes there is a deliberate downplaying of human rights news coverage on the VOA Russian website. He also concluded that the VOA Russian Service has a “pro-Russia bias,” or more accurately, a “pro-Putin” bias, and relies too much on Russian sources. A separate internal VOA program review evaluation of the Russian website confirmed a strong desire on the part of the management to offer more coverage of non-political stories.

Free media advocates have long suspected that the BBG’s strategy in recent years has been focused on providing online content, which Internet users in Russia and China would not perceive as overly critical of their countries. As part of the strategy to attract new web users by making programs less controversial and eliminating shortwave radio broadcasts, the BBG has been laying off experienced reporters and replacing them with web content generators without much experience in human rights reporting or familiarity with Western journalistic standards. Reporters specializing in human rights issues were also forced out at the Russian Service of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe after private consultants hired by the BBG staff reported that Radio Liberty programs were viewed as too combative in Russia.

The BBG’s latest proposal is to end Voice of America radio and TV broadcasts (Mandarin and Cantonese) to China in favor of Internet-only news delivery. Free media advocates are concerned that BBG executives and program advisors will force the Voice of America Chinese Branch to follow a similar path as the VOA Russian Service, with layoffs of experienced journalists and downplaying of stories that might offend the communist regime.

VOA Russian on-the-air radio and TV broadcasts were terminated in July 2008. A VOA Chinese satellite TV program set for elimination has the largest number of members of U.S. Congress as studio guests among all VOA broadcasts. Many of the guests have been highly critical of human rights abuses in China.

An independent journalist in Russia specializing human rights reporting was asked by the BBG whether the Voice of America Russian website reported on controversial issues and offered opposing viewpoints. His response was a devastating critique:

Before answering this one, I would like to present some general considerations. It seems pretty obvious that, to put it mildly, today’s Russia has big problems with freedom of the press. Even in the Russian segment of the Internet, which is not controlled by the authorities as closely as big TV channels and much of the printed media, objective information and free comment on politically sensitive issues are not readily available. Therefore, in my view, VOA should primarily concentrate on such information and comment which are relatively hard to come by elsewhere for political reasons. This applies to thematic balance and to representation of various positions as well. Of course I don’t mean to say that Russian official positions on controversial issues could be ignored or underreported; however, it would seem fair that in news coverage and comment on such issues as YUKOS affair or human rights violations in the North Caucasus some kind of special consideration be given to alternative facts and viewpoints.

Now, my impression is that VOA has been too careful in avoiding anything that might look like ‘anti-Russian’ bias. A telling example of this attitude can be found in the coverage of Vice President Biden’s visit to Moscow. The reporting focused on Biden voicing support for Medvedev’s ‘modernization,’ traveling to Skolkovo etc., all of which was amply covered by national TV channels. But Vice President’s speech in Moscow University, in which he criticized Russia’s leadership on democracy and human rights, was clearly downplayed. The report on this event was titled ‘Joe Biden to Moscow Students: Future is Yours‘; a headline as cheerful as meaningless, reminding of Soviet newspapers. What is worse, the report failed to mention that Biden spoke about the Khodorkovsky case as an example of Russia’s ‘legal nihilism’ – an important fact noted both in Russia and abroad. One might suspect that the omission was deliberate. If so, that could be regarded as a case of ‘pro-Russian’ (or, rather, pro-Putin) bias.

The independent evaluator believes that the Voice of America, and by implication the Broadcasting Board of Governors, are confused about VOA’s mission and tries hard to impress upon BBG and VOA officials that the current mission statement of VOA’s Russian Service, which has no reference to human rights reporting or fighting censorship, may be not be appropriate for U.S. government-funded broadcasts to Russia.

Asked whether there is an appropriate selection of topics on the site, or too much political or non-political coverage, the independent journalist-evaluator questioned whether managers and editors understand the mission of U.S. international broadcasting to countries like Russia.

The answer to this question depends on how one understands VOA’s mission. As I see it, the purpose of the VOA Russian website is to provide objective information and free comment, especially where these are limited for political reasons, and to promote American (or, for that matter, universal) values, such as democracy, human rights etc. Based on this, I don’t see much sense in trying to produce a comprehensive picture of all kinds of events all over the world (something like a ‘complete body of all arts and sciences’ at the Academy of Lagado in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’). It appears to me that the site should mostly (by no means exclusively!) focus on selected fields, above all Russian domestic and foreign politics, American life and U.S.-Russian relations. This would imply that political coverage should generally dominate over non-political themes. After all, modern Russians, especially Internet users, are anything but short of information about current developments in science, arts, medicine and other non-political fields and it’s hard to imagine many people turning to VOA’s website for this sort of knowledge. Besides, the Science, Health and Culture sections of the site do not look appealing at all; they should be either revamped and improved or discarded, and the latter option seems more reasonable, let alone easier.

Asked whether the journalistic quality of the website is at a high professional and informational level, the independent Russian expert pointed out that VOA relies too much on Russian media sources.
 

My answer is ‘sorry but no’. The site provides information of satisfactory quality, but it is mostly derived from other sources. Even the report about American Vice President’s meeting with Russian opposition figures was based on Ekho Moskvy and Gazeta.Ru information (VOA’s own interview with Leonid Gozman was added later.) The selection of topics and timeliness leave much to be desired.

The independent Russian journalist noted that some topics, which the Kremlin does not like to see covered by the Russian media, are also underreported by VOA.

Regrettably, some interesting topics were underreported. Thus, the story of an alleged prisoner swap scheme involving Viktor Bout, which featured prominently in independent  Russian media (Kommersant and others), was only reflected in a brief news item ( http://www.voanews.com/russian/news/Bout-swap-2011-03-10-117750703.html ) based entirely on Russian sources; an American perspective one could have expected from VOA was lacking completely. The same can be said of the scandal involving Vladimir Putin, Western stars and charity money ( http://www.voanews.com/russian/news/russia/AI-Putin-Concert-2011-03-09-117673903.html ): VOA’s website failed to provide any information or comment from the American side, missing a good opportunity to raise its profile.

As for the ‘market niche’ mentioned in the question, I’m afraid it can hardly be located at the moment.

   

The Russian journalist also questioned the overall usefulness of the VOA Russian website. Here is his response to the question: Does the content provided on this site increase understanding of topics or events, and does it provide a basis for forming opinions, making decisions and rendering judgments?
 

My general answer to this one would rather be negative. The site provides quite an amount of diverse information, but not all of it seems relevant to the interests of the audience. A clearer focus on specific issues linked to VOA’s mission is needed. Independent forming of opinions by users could also be encouraged by more perceptive comments by high-level contributors – this is where VOA’s competitive position is rather weak. There are few if any bright columns by good authors; the Poedinok (Single Combat) section ( http://www.voanews.com/russian/news/crossfire/ ) is entirely about international politics, doesn’t seem appealing to users and is updated at a slow rate. The Editorial section ( http://www.voanews.com/russian/news/editorials/ ) appears somewhat more useful; I wish it carried more on human rights and democracy in Russia.

The site could potentially excel in offering objective information on different aspects of American life – especially where such information is ignored or distorted by Russian pro-government media. To give just one example: many Russians, even among the educated class, are convinced that all talk about freedom of the press in the U.S. is mere eyewash and media are effectively controlled by the government or business interests. Systematic exposure and refutation of such myths could be one of VOA’s main goals; however, the site doesn’t seem keen on this sort of work.

         

The Broadcasting Board of Governors’ management of U.S. international broadcasting will be discussed in a Congressional hearing, “Is America’s Overseas Broadcasting Undermining our National Interest and the Fight Against Tyrannical Regimes?,” scheduled for Wednesday, April 6 by Representative Dana Rohrebacher (R-CA), Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, under the chairmanship of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. One of the invited speakers is BBG member S. Enders Wimbush, who has been strongly defending the BBG’s Internet-only strategy for the Voice of America in China, most recently in a scathing attack on Free Media Online president Ted Lipien for his op-ed in The Washington Times.

BBG member S. Enders Wimbush: Lipien writes that “the same group of BBG bureaucrats proposed reducing radio to Tibet” and “they cut VOA programs to Russia in 2008.” By “bureaucrats”, he presumably is referring to the BBG professional staff. A casual scan of Lipien’s past writings demonstrates his obsession that this small group of civil servants conspires successfully to manipulate the presidentially appointed board, even on issues that require the board’s authority, like realigning broadcasts. Apparently, in his view, the last appointed BBG had nothing to do with changes to broadcasting to Russia and proposals to change broadcasting to Tibet. It was all “the staff.” This narrative doesn’t pass the reality check. Here’s the real story: the current BBG, not the staff, agreed unanimously–Democrats and Republicans–to the realignment of U.S. broadcasting to China.

In commenting on Governor Wimbush’s response, Ted Lipien said that he is well aware that all current BBG members voted for the Internet-only strategy for VOA in China but does not believe the decision would have been made without a strong push from the BBG executive staff, which had tried earlier to reduce radio broadcasts to Tibet and had been responsible for ending VOA radio to Russia. After VOA radio to Russia was terminated just 12 days before the Russian military attack on the Republic of Georgia, BBG executives refused urgent pleas from VOA Russian Service journalists to resume radio broadcasts to the war zone and to Russia.

“Members of Congress should become familiar with the full text of the VOA Russian website content evaluation by an independent Russian journalist and prevent BBG executives from adopting the same model for China. It will result in downplaying human rights reporting, as it did in Russia, and will reduce VOA potential audience and impact. This is not a choice between radio and the Internet but a choice between maximizing impact through multimedia program delivery and the Internet-only model. The latter deliberately limits the audience in a country known for highly effective Internet censorship.” Lipien said.

This report was first published by FreeMediaOnline.org Logo. FreeMediaOnline.org Truckee, CA, USA, April 6, 2011.

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Voice of America Journalists Protest Ending of VOA Radio to China, Part One

By BBGWatcher | April 3, 2011 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Sign Save Voice of America Radio to China PetitionJoin Save Voice of America Radio to China Group on Facebook

Join Save Voice of America Radio to China Group on Facebook

All Americans, including members of Congress, who support free press and human rights, should watch this disturbing but highly informative video about the Obama  administration’s plan to end Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to China on Oct. 1, 2011, which happens to be the national holiday of the Communist regime in Beijing.

The video shows a group of remarkable journalists from the Voice of America Mandarin and Cantonese radio, TV, and Internet services directing pointed questions to VOA Director Dan Austin and making persuasive arguments against  the Broadcasting Board of Governors  (BBG) decision to end all on-the-air radio news broadcasting in their languages to China. 

It’s now up to the U.S. Congress to save VOA from the BBG’s effort to destroy the Voice of America as a broadcasting organization. VOA radio broadcasts to Russia had already been terminated by the BBG in 2008, resulting in an over 80% drop in audience reach.

The BBG claims that Internet-only program delivery strategy prepares VOA for the future by targeting new media and a younger audience when in fact BBG’s own research shows that it has been a failure in Russia and is not likely to reach a vast new audience.

VOA Chinese Service journalists point out that the BBG with the support of VOA Director Austin are terminating VOA radio broadcasts that have a larger audience in China and higher name recognition than Radio Free Asia (RFA) and BBC. The BBG plans to give VOA shortwave frequencies to RFA. One cannot be but impressed with professionalism and expert knowledge of these journalists when they point out to Director Austin that 750 million of Chinese have no Internet access and that the regime in Beijing can block and censor Internet access for those who have it. Director Austin keeps repeating that the strategy will bring a new audience when in fact — as the members of his Chinese services point out — they already have extensive Internet presence. They also pointed out to him and it was obvious from his answers that neither he nor the BBG has a plan to deal with any future blocking of the Internet in China.

Director Austin insisted that the Chinese government is unlikely to block the Internet completely, but as one of the VOA Chinese Branch journalist pointed out, he saw his friends being killed next to him in 1989 on the Tienanmen Square and has no doubt that the Chinese government is fully capable of doing everything possible to prevent the free flow of information if its authoritarian rule is threatened. He also pointed out that while shortwave radio transmissions can be jammed in some limited areas, it is the only way of securely communicating with the Chinese people.

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Voice of America Journalists Protest Ending of VOA Radio to China, Part Five

By BBGWatcher | March 30, 2011 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

VOA journalists protest against BBG's decision to end their radio and TV news broadcasts to China.

VOA journalists protest against BBG's decision to end their radio and TV news broadcasts to China.

Join Save Voice of America Radio to China Group on Facebook

Join Save Voice of America Radio to China Group on Facebook

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and Voice of America Director Dan Austin have told Congress that their plan to end VOA radio broadcasts to China in Mandarin and Cantonese as of October 1, 2011, which — by the way — is the national holiday of the Chinese Communist Party, will allow them to improve and expand Internet and new media presence for VOA in China.

The VOA Chinese Branch journalist in this video exposes the misleading nature of this argument. As she correctly points out, the VOA Chinese Branch already has a vibrant multimedia presence in China. The problem is that the Chinese government censors and blocks VOA websites and is likely to do it even more effectively in the future. BBG and VOA executives will also not admit that their decision to end VOA radio to Russia in 2008, which — by the way — happened just 12 days before the Russian military attack on the Republic of Georgia, has resulted in over 80% drop in audience reach for VOA in Russia between 2007 and the end of 2009. The promised audience gains from the Internet in Russia did not materialize.

The BBG and the VOA director have a profound misunderstanding of what VOA audience in China is, what it should be, and how to reach it.

Their audience are not young, rich Chinese who go on shopping tripts to the U.S. and can access the Internet outside of China or buy a subscription to Newsweek. Their audience are the Chinese whose basic rights are being violated, those under house arrest, 750 million Chinese without Internet access. Yet, these BBG and VOA executives think they know better and want to fire 40 plus experienced VOA Chinese Branch journalists who specialize in human rights reporting and replace them with contractors who supposedly know how to produce slick content for the Internet.

But, as we know, the Internet is censored in China and can be blocked completely if the Chinese authorities decide to do it at the most convenient time for them and the worst time for pro-democracy activists and for the United States.

BBG and VOA executives could learn something from the wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. During a five-minute reprieve from the usual Internet isolation imposed on her, Liu Xia wrote a friend that she is “miserable.”

“Can’t go out. My whole family are hostages,” Liu Xia wrote, as The Washington Post’s Keith B. Richburg reported last month. “I don’t know how I managed to get online,” she also wrote. “Don’t go online. Otherwise my whole family is in danger.”

The BBG and VOA executives could also learn something from Freedom House: “”In July, police in Xinjiang forcibly suppressed a peaceful demonstration in Urumqi by Uighurs, sparking an outbreak of violence between Uighurs and Han Chinese. The authorities responded with mass arrests and an almost complete shutdown of internet access, international phone service, and text messaging in the region that remained in effect for several months.”

BBG and VOA executives could also learn something from VOA reporters. From a VOA reporter Heda Bayron: “Freedom of expression in China is already severely curtailed. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and many foreign broadcasters, like the Voice of America, are blocked, as are many foreign news Web sites.”

For more information see Save Voice of America Radio to China Group on Facebook.

View Voice of America Journalists Protest Ending of VOA Radio to China, Part Five

View Part Four

View Part Three

View Part Two

View Part One

All Americans, including members of Congress, who support free press and human rights, should watch this disturbing but highly informative video about the Obama administration’s plan to end Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to China on Oct. 1, 2011, which happens to be the national holiday of the Communist regime in Beijing.

These videos show a group of remarkable journalists from the Voice of America Mandarin and Cantonese radio, TV, and Internet services directing pointed questions to VOA Director Dan Austin and making persuasive arguments against the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) decision to end all on-the-air radio news broadcasting in their languages to China.

It’s now up to the U.S. Congress to save VOA from the BBG’s effort to destroy the Voice of America as a broadcasting organization. VOA radio broadcasts to Russia had already been terminated by the BBG in 2008, resulting in an over 80% drop in audience reach.

The BBG and Voice of America Director Austin makes a claim that Internet-only program delivery strategy prepares VOA for the future by targeting new media and a younger audience when in fact BBG’s own research shows that it has been a failure in Russia and is not likely to reach a vast new audience.

VOA Chinese Service journalists point out that the BBG with the support of VOA Director Austin are terminating VOA radio broadcasts that have a larger audience in China and higher name recognition than Radio Free Asia (RFA) and BBC. The BBG plans to give VOA shortwave frequencies to RFA. One cannot be but impressed with professionalism and expert knowledge of these journalists when they point out to Director Austin that 750 million of Chinese have no Internet access and that the regime in Beijing can block and censor Internet access for those who have it. Director Austin keeps repeating that the strategy will bring a new audience when in fact — as the members of his Chinese services point out — they already have extensive Internet presence. They also pointed out to him and it was obvious from his answers that neither he nor the BBG has a plan to deal with any future blocking of the Internet in China.

Director Austin insisted that the Chinese government is unlikely to block the Internet completely, but as one of the VOA Chinese Branch journalist pointed out, he saw his friends being killed next to him in 1989 on the Tienanmen Square and has no doubt that the Chinese government is fully capable of doing everything possible to prevent the free flow of information if its authoritarian rule is threatened. He also pointed out that while shortwave radio transmissions can be jammed in some limited areas, it is the only way of securely communicating with the Chinese people.

###

From Free Media Online.org

“We believe that members of Congress and the American public are being grossly mislead by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials who oversee the Voice of America (VOA) and want to terminate all on-the-air uncensored news radio broadcasts to China on October 1, 2011, which happens to be the national holiday of the Chinese Communist Party. Time after time, BBG officials have shown their inability to understand market research in closed societies and failed to grasp the desperation of people living under authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

Their earlier decision to cut VOA radio broadcasts to Russia has resulted in over 80% drop in audience reach, and they have shown their inability to expand Internet audience there, just as they could not protect VOA websites from a successful Iranian cyber attack last week.

Members of Congress and American taxpayers should demand from BBG officials to explain why they want to eliminate radio broadcasts by the Voice of America, which has more listeners in China than Radio Free Asia and BBC; why they want to ignore 750 million Chinese; and what they plan to do during any future Tiananmen event in China when the regime in Beijing will completely block or censor the Internet at the most convenient time for them and the most inconvenient time for the U.S. government and pro-democracy supporters in China,” said Free Media Online president Ted Lipien.

Ted Lipien is a former BBG manager and (until 2006) former acting associate director of the Voice of America.

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