BBG Watch Commentary Kristina Gorelik (Кристина Горелик), fired last September by American taxpayer-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) along with dozens of her colleagues, has received today the Moscow Helsinki Group prize for “journalistic activity aimed at promoting human rights values.” The prize was presented on the International Human Rights Day, December 10. At Radio Liberty, Gorelik specialized in human…
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, BBG Watch remembers Radio Liberty journalists who were brutally fired without a warning or chose to resign in protest against the actions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty management. These journalists are facing now an uncertain future in Vladimir Putin’s Russia without any support or protection from their former U.S. taxpayer-funded employer, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and…
BBG Watch Commentary In an article published in National Review Online, Mario Corti and Ted Lipien argue that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) executives have mislead the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the American public on the circumstances and the reasons for the mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. The authors state that contrary to the assertions…
This was sent to us by Jane Doe. “I always love reading your very insightful posts. You have great information!! I’ve been struck by the frequent references to the former CNN employees now running BBG. Has anyone at BBG looked at CNN’s ratings recently? Is that really the model BBG wants to emulate??? Keep up the good work.” CNN’s ratings…
At the meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in Miami on April 20, the federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting decided to reverse its earlier decision on Voice of America (VOA) program cuts to China and Tibet. In expressing his full support for restoring funding for these broadcasts, BBG Governor Ambassador Victor Ashe said: This will…
Annette Lantos, the wife of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, has joined efforts to oppose the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) proposals to cut Voice of America (VOA) services, the independent, nongovernmental Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting reported today on its website www.cusib.org. Mrs. Lantos’s April 4, 2012 letter to the BBG begins: “I write in support of Voice of…
This article by the Committee for U.S. international Broadcasting (CUSIB) Executive Director Ann Noonan was published in National Review. We republish it from CUSIB’s website. BBG Ready to Drop the Ax on Cantonese and Tibetan Services By Ann Noonan March 5, 2012 In December 2011, the Broadcasting Board of Governors issued a proclamation in observance of Voice of America’s 70th anniversary…
This report is republished from Free Media Online and BBG Watch. In a Digital Journal news commentary, Op-Ed: America’s radios dancing to Putin’s tune in Moscow, former Voice of America acting associate director and journalist Ted Lipien revealed that Voice of America and Radio Liberty, funded by US taxpayers to promote media freedom abroad, self-censor news on two stations in…
“More than 30 years have passed since Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about the “Soft Voice of America” in an article that first appeared in National Review on April 30, 1982. Incredibly, today we appear again to be headed in the direction bemoaned by Solzhenitsyn all those years ago. While the budget for international broadcasting has certainly grown since Cold War days,…
Ted Lipien, a former Voice of America (VOA) acting associate director, has been warning for some time that marketing and staffing policies pushed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executives have changed the focus of VOA and other BBG broadcasters from serious, accurate and well balanced journalism to ratings-chasing entertainment and sloppy reporting produced by inexperienced, poorly paid, otherwise…
NPR’s Michele Kelemen, a former employee of Voice of America, reported on the recent VOA Russian Service interview with a leading Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny which he later described as “100 percent fake” and complained that VOA “went nuts.” The fake interview may have been created by Kremlin supporters who have been known to hijack email accounts of anti-Putin…
In a Washington Times Op-Ed, a Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting member Ted Lipien warned about a pro-Putin bias in the Voice of America Russian programs. Lipien reported that a highly respected independent journalist in Russia hired by the Broadcasting Board of Governors to evaluate the VOA Russian website concluded last year that it has a pro-Kremlin bias and downplays…
Republished from the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) website: In an article published in American Diplomacy, a quarterly electronic journal of commentary, analysis, and research on American foreign policy and its practice, the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) director Ted Lipien warns against diminished public stake in U.S. international broadcasting. Lipien, a former acting associate director of the…
Celebrated Voice of America Breakfast Show host Pat Gates Lynch died after a struggle with cancer Sunday at her home in Fort Belvoir. From the mid-50s until 1969, Pat served for about 15 years as host and interviewer on the VOA Worldwide English Breakfast Show, which drew significant audiences around the world that even surpassed at times those of jazz…
This report was prompted by the news of the Voice of America Croatian Service being forced off the air and the Internet on the orders of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials. VOA Croatian radio and TV broadcasts and online news content have served an important information and public diplomacy function, representing U.S. views, policies, interests, and concerns while…