In answers to written questions from Senator Richard Lugar submitted during her Senate confirmation process, Hillary Clinton said that “telling America’s story is largely the task of the VOA.” What she may not have been told by her briefers is that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages the Voice of America, has completely eliminated or severely restricted VOA…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, January 13, 2009, San Francisco — State Department videos embarrass the U.S. among audiences abroad while the Department’s top promoter of Public Diplomacy 2.0 pushes to eliminate Voice of America radio journalism in favor of TV and Internet propaganda advertising and broadcasting based on Cold War models. While I was an elementary school…
ProPublica.org, a nonprofit investigative journalism website, reported that a study commissioned by the U.S. government concludes that Alhurra, Arab-language television to the Middle East managed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) fails to meet basic journalistic standards and is seen by few. The BBG was refusing to make public the highly critical study but made it available today on its website after a copy of…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, November 23, 2008, San Francisco — In a letter that takes exception to the scathing criticism from the Public Diplomacy Council, a Washington, D.C-based nonprofit NGO, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which manages U.S. government-funded international broadcasts, insists that Congress had approved BBG’s decision to terminate Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to several countries, including Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and India. On orders…
FreeMediaOnline.org, August 23, 2008, San Francisco — In a move seen as a foreign policy embarrassment for Senator Obama’s vice-presidential running mate, the Senate staff of Senator Joe Biden was said to be involved in stopping the Voice of America (VOA) radio programs to Russia just 12 days before Moscow launched its military attack on Georgia. VOA is an international broadcasting service funded by…
FreeMediaOnline.org, August 22, 2008, San Francisco — A former Voice of America executive suggested that the BBG should be encouraged to repair the damage it had caused U.S. international broadcasting in Eurasia. I agree. The suggestion was that the Board should take positive actions on its own rather than wait for Congress to force them to reverse the program cuts affecting Russia, Georgia,…
Published October 12, 2006 on Blogger News Network Neglect of Media Freedom Issues in Russia Contributed to Murder of Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya By Ted Lipien FreeMediaOnline.org Dublin, CA – Mixed signals from Washington have helped President Putin’s crackdown on independent media in Russia and may have contributed to the recent slaying of a prominent investigative Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.…
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