Wired Headline: Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam P.S. (TedLipien.com) By the way, we are taking away the thing that could prevent another one. Hope you don’t mind. Too much.
Cold War, Digital Journal, Public Diplomacy, Russia
September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland | Digital Journal Ted Lipien Op-Ed
The following is my op-ed for Digital Journal. Republishing is allowed. September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland President Obama’s announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland. By making the announcement…
Stratfor global intelligence analysis website reports that “rumors are flying late Sept. 16 that the United States could be shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland and Czech Republic. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly will hold a news conference on the issue sometime Sept. 17 or Sept. 18, and U.S. security officials are…
Digital Journal, Featured, Highlights, RFE, RL, Russia
Killings of Journalists in Russia Lead to Self-Censorship | Digital Journal
By Ted Lipien The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, has released a report on unsolved killings of journalists in Russia which identifies the Russian Federation as one of the deadliest countries in the world for the press. Published September 15, 2009 by Digital Journal The international organization of journalists ranked Russia third worldwide in the number of journalists killed and…
International Broadcasting, Russia
How Self-Censorship Works – Putin, GQ, and US Taxpayer-Supported Radio Liberty
Censorship and self-censorship have become a permanent feature of the media scene in Russia under Mr. Putin’s rule. Many Americans, however, were surprised last week that this kind of censorship with origins in Moscow has now reached corporate boardrooms in their own country and even put limits on news generated by US taxpayer supported Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to Russia.…
International Broadcasting, Russia
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty Faces Ethnic Discrimination Charges at the European Court of Human Rights – Free Media Online Blog (FreeMediaOnline.org)
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, September 9, 2009, San Francisco — A former employee of Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has asked the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to look into charges that the US taxpayer-funded radio station broadcasting to countries without free media discriminates against foreign-born journalists and other workers by denying them the same…
Cold War, International Broadcasting, Russia
The Murder of Georgi Markov: The Mystery Remains – Are Radio Liberty Journalists Now Safe?
Thirty-one years ago this week, on 7 September 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian émigré journalist who wrote for Radio Free Europe, BBC and Deutsche Welle, was assaulted in broad daylight on London’s Waterloo Bridge. Markov’s murder happened during the Cold War, but in more recent years the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and of numerous other journalists in Russia, as well…
International Broadcasting, Russia
Independent US Bloggers Beat Voice of America and Radio Liberty in Delivering Uncensored News to Russia
Update: Radio Liberty Russian website finally produced reports on the GQ story on Monday, full three days after the story broke in the mainstream media in the US, NPR no less. VOA Russian website had a very brief news item on the story by Sunday. Only on Tuesday, did the VOA Russian Service post an interview with Scott Anderson. The…
Russia
Self-Censorship About Putin at Condé Nast GQ Magazine, Limited Coverage by U.S.-Taxpayer Funded Broadcasters
The popular New York blog site Gawker is reporting that “in an act of publishing cowardice, Condé Nast has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent Russians from reading a “GQ” article criticizing Vladimir Putin.” Condé Nast publishes such widely read magazines as “Vanity Fair,” “The New Yorker,” and “Vogue.” In Russia, it publishes “GQ,” “Glamour,” “Tatler,” and “Vogue.” The Manhattan…
Buzek – Poland has a clear conscience over WW II President of the European Parliament and former Polish prime minister Jerzy Buzek, thought some of Vladimir Putin’s comments at WW II anniversary ceremony in Poland were “offensive”. Read full Polish Radio report…
Public Diplomacy, Russia
President Obama, We Are Very Sorry That Hitler Had Invaded Poland Before Labor Day Weekend
Helle Dale has written two articles on how the Obama Administration is still unable to get its public diplomacy act together. I don’t think that there was a deliberate attempt to snub Poland over the 70th anniversary observances of the start of World War II, but as the Heritage Foundation scholar points out, Poland has a lot of reasons to…
The New York Times correspondent in Moscow Michael Schwirtz reported that many Poles saw the low-level U.S. representation at the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II observances in Gdansk as a snub from the Obama Administration. Russia sent Prime Minister Putin, whose statement that the Hitler-Stalin Pact “can be condemned” was misleadingly reported by most international media…
The BBC, the Voice of America (VOA) and other international media reported that in in an apparent effort to defuse tensions on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin “expressly condemned” the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the treaty of non-aggression between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. BBC News headline read:…
From the very dawn of Soviet power and development, due to a series of tragic events, women significantly outnumbered men by about 20 mln. The Revolution of via USSR, the Birthplace of Feminism.
John Brown, a former USIA foreign service officer who is now associated with the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, has posted an article about an apparent dispute within the Obama Administration on the direction of “strategic communications.” Here are some excerpts: There seems to be yet another bureaucratic battle brewing in Washington. On one side of…