RL

HomeAll PostsRL
Tadeusz A. Lipien (Ted Lipien)
Cold War, Congress, Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Iran, Poland, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, Ukraine, VOA

Why are US-funded USAGM journalists defending Russia, Iran over the Hamas massacre? – Ted Lipien Op-Ed in The Hill

October 13, 2023

My new op-ed in The Hill includes comments on the latest barbaric attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians—defenseless Jewish women, children, and the elderly. I discuss the hard-to-understand and explain defense of propaganda and disinformation from Iran and Russia by U.S. government-managed and funded U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) journalists, including federal employees working for the Voice of America (VOA). They went…

Read more
“Radio Broadcast Sent To Russia By State Department” photograph from the National Archives, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Description: Interior view of seven men and women taken during a radio broadcast sent to Russia from the State Department’s studios in New York. Identified as left to right: Boris Brodenov, Kathrine Elene, James Shigorin, Vladmir Postman, Mrs. Lucy Bates, Victor Franzusoff, and Mrs. Tatiana Hecker, all American citizens. Lettering on top of microphone is in Russian language. (Charles Thayer supervised the programs.) Date(s): ca. February 1947.
Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA

Why Voice of America and BBC Had No Russian-Language Broadcasts Until After WWII?

December 29, 2022

Cold War Radio Museum By Ted Lipien A partial answer to the question of why the Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had no Russian-language radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union until after the end of World War II can be found in the biography of William Benton by Sidney Hyman. William Benton (1900–1973) was a…

Read more
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and his wife Natalia Dmitriyevna Solzhenitsyn exiting from Alaska Airlines plane upon their arrival on May 27, 1994 in Vladivostok as they returned from exile in the United States. Photo by Ted Lipien.
China, Cold War, Featured, Highlights, International Broadcasting, Iran, Media, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia

Protecting Communists from Embarrassment: A History of Censorship at the Voice of America

November 22, 2022

There is a long history of censorship at the Voice of America, which shows how easily some VOA leaders, editors, and journalists were duped by propaganda from communist and other authoritarian regimes. During World War II and in some periods of the Cold War, the VOA management protected Stalin. Today’s VOA leaders protected from embarrassment Vietnam’s communist Prime Minister Pham…

Read more
Cold War, Featured, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, Public Diplomacy, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA

A Book for Experts and Students of Cold War History

October 3, 2022

Mark Pomar’s new book about the Cold War political radio could help American government officials unfamiliar with the history of U.S. international broadcasting. Mark Pomar’s book Cold War Radio [Mark G. Pomar, Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Lincoln: Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, 2022), Amazon Link] is, in my…

Read more
Cold War, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, Poland, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Jamming Was a Sign of Effectiveness of Western Broadcasts

June 10, 2022

Soviet jamming was a sign of the effectiveness of Western radio broadcasts. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were consistently jammed. The Voice of America was jammed only during some periods. Ted Lipien for Cold War Radio Museum In his book Operation Suicide: “Those Strange Bridges to Communism,” published in 1967, American journalist Eugene Lyons, a former communist sympathizer who interviewed Joseph Stalin…

Read more
Blog, Featured, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Media, Poland, RFE, RL, Russia, Ukraine, VOA, VOA80, Women

I’m proud of my Polish hometown’s aid to Ukrainian war refugees

March 15, 2022

This is an excerpt from my March 15, 2022 Washington Examiner op-ed about my Polish hometown’s (Mszana Dolna) aid to Ukrainian war refugees and a few broader propaganda warfare and U.S. international broadcasting issues. I’m proud of my Polish hometown’s aid to Ukrainian war refugees By Ted Lipien Still, over the years, his [Putin’s] propagandists have done tremendous damage to…

Read more
Three sisters, ages 7, 8, and 9, Polish evacuees from Russia, August 1942. Photos by: Lieutenant Colonel Henry I. Szymanski, U.S. Army.
Ethiopia, Featured, Glos Ameryki, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Iran, Media, OWI, Poland, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA, VOA80, Women

At Voice of America, history repeats itself — Part Two: Hidden History

November 18, 2021

By Ted Lipien As more and more questions are being asked by members of Congress and scandals reported by liberal and conservative press about the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — the tax-funded, U.S. government-managed international broadcaster — I would strongly recommend that Voice of America (VOA)  USAGM federally-employed managers and journalists read The Katyn Diaries, a book about one of World War II major genocide murders. I…

Read more
International Broadcasting, Radio, RFE, RL, VOA

Security of RFE/RL and VOA Employees in Afghanistan and Some U.S. Broadcasting History

August 16, 2021

I’m watching with great concern the perilous situation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) journalists and other U.S. international broadcasting personnel in Afghanistan. My hope is that the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has a plan for keeping them safe and getting them to a safe location. When I was RFE/RL President in December…

Read more
Segment of The Voice of America QSL card circa 1949.
China, Cold War, Glos Ameryki, International Broadcasting, OWI, Poland, RFE, RL, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Biden can combat foreign propaganda by reforming Voice of America

June 30, 2021

OPINION My op-ed in The Washington Examiner was written in response to recent media reports suggesting that leaders who have been long in charge of both the Voice of America (VOA) and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) are responsible for a management culture which allows major abuses of journalistic practices and the VOA Charter to occur, such as…

Read more
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty Building in Prague. Photo by Ted Lipien. January 17, 2021.
Featured, International Broadcasting, Radio, RFE, RL, Russia

Putin is blackmailing US taxpayer-funded Radio Liberty | Washington Examiner

June 30, 2021

by Ted Lipien in The Washington Examiner May 03, 2021 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where I served briefly as president and CEO until earlier this year, is under assault by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Through his agencies and obedient courts, he is blackmailing the media organization funded by U.S. taxpayers, issuing fines and threats of criminal prosecutions unless Radio Liberty agrees…

Read more
Digital Journal, International Broadcasting, Poland, RL, Russia, VOA

Op-Ed: Murder of Polish priest may offer clues in Boris Nemtsov’s case | Digital Journal, March 3, 2015 Republished

March 1, 2021

Photo of Vice U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush, and Polish Solidarity trade union leader Lech Wałęsa in Warsaw, Poland at the tomb of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko with the slain priest’s parents, Marianna and Władysław Popiełuszko and other family members, September 28, 1987. Photos and audio recordings from Warsaw by Ted Lipien, then Voice of America (VOA) Polish…

Read more
International Broadcasting, RL, Russia, VOA

Op-Ed: From Russia with Censorship 2009 – Republished 2021

February 16, 2021

One of my commentaries on media censorship in Vladimir Putin’s Russia was first published in Digital Journal on September 16, 2009 as “Op-Ed: From Russia with Censorship.” Since then, both the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Liberty (known in Russia as Radio Svoboda) have improved their Russian coverage, but Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is now facing a defining…

Read more
International Broadcasting, RL, Russia

Neglect of Media Freedom Contributed to 2006 Murder of a Russian Journalist

February 12, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin is again increasing pressure on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where I served briefly as president in December 2020-January 2021. I had worked also indirectly for RFE/RL from 1993 to 2003 in Munich Germany and at their current headquarters in Prague as International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB)-Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) regional Eurasia marketing director. Toward the…

Read more
RFE, RL

USA: Ted Lipien nowym szefem Radia Wolna Europa: Radia Swoboda

December 23, 2020

“Jako były słuchacz programów sekcji polskiej Radia Wolna Europa w PRL-u uzyskałem dostęp do informacji, których reżimowa cenzura chciała nas pozbawić. RWE odmieniła bieg mojego życia i życia milionów ludzi. Dlatego czuję się zaszczycony, że powierzono mi zadanie kierowania tą legendarną instytucją w dalszym przełamywaniu cenzury i udzielaniu głosu niesłyszanym” – powiedział PAP Lipien.

Read more