“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,…
Although diplomats and pundits have crowned Web 2.0 as the new communications king, radio remains the globe’s most trusted source for information. Consequently, America should ensure its public diplomacy strategy continues to commit resources, as well as congressional oversight, to developing its radio capabilities. The author of this article, Helle C. Dale, is Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy in the…
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…
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With VOA Left Voiceless, Obama Fails to Reach Russian Public – Jonathan Liedl, The Heritage Foundation
This post by Jonathan Liedl of the Heritage Foundation on the SZONE.US Forum includes several links to FreeMediaOnline.org reports. With VOA Left Voiceless, Obama Fails to Reach Russian Public President Obama’s foreign policy thus far has been marked by an emphasis on public diplomacy. As a result, successfully engaging foreign publics has become a top priority of his administration. The…
Bureaucratic Jamming Of U.S. Broadcasts To Russia, Georgia And Ukraine FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 7, 2008, San Francisco — Political jamming originating in Washington rather than Soviet-style electronic jamming of radio signals made it impossible for the Russian speakers in the war zone in Georgia and in Russia itself to hear Voice of America (VOA) news broadcasts during the recent crisis…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 5, 2008, San Francisco — Helle Dale, the director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, wrote a convincing article warning that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is dangerously weakening the U.S. ability to communicate with countries like Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine. The BBG had shut down…