By Ted Lipien Published May 20, 2012 by Digital Journal Blind Chinese legal activist and dissident Chen Guangcheng had been secretly listening to Voice of America (VOA) Mandarin shortwave radio broadcasts while he was in prison in China. The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting – CUSIB – reported that blind Chinese legal activist and dissident Chen Guangcheng, who arrived Saturday in the…
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…
By Ted Lipien Published April 12, 2012 by Digital Journal 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 Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting reported. In a letter addressed to the presidentially appointed members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors…
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…
It seems remarkably strange that the Polish American Congress (PAC) has had no comment on its website about President Obama’s promise to President Medvedev that after this year’s US presidential elections he will have more flexibility to make concessions to Russia on the missile defense issue. This is an issue vital for Poland’s security. Any further concessions to Russia on…
by Ted Lipien I strongly urge the Broadcasting Board of Governors to reverse cuts to Voice of America Tibetan, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Lao broadcasting services. These VOA services offer uncensored news and hope to nations ruled by communist and authoritarian regimes. It’s the least the United States can do for these oppressed nations. People who are denied freedom need…
Voice of America is celebrating its 70th anniversary amid devastating programming cuts being imposed by the Broadcadting Board of Governors. One of the programs scheduled for elimination are VOA radio broadcadts to Tibet. The BBG also wants to close down the VOA Cantonese Service. The VOA HISTORY was written in the early 2000s by the VOA external affairs office.…
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…
By Ted Lipien Published March 2, 2012 by Digital Journal Moscow – Voice of America and Radio Liberty, funded by US taxpayers to promote media freedom abroad, self-censor news on two stations in Moscow to comply with Russian media law prior to Russia’s presidential elections on March 4. US government-funded media freedom broadcasters, Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Liberty (Radio Free Europe and Radio…
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…
Republished from CUSIB.org. February 17, 2012 For Immediate Release Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting Opposes Broadcasting Board of Governors’ Budget Proposal for FY2013 The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) has issued the following statement after a careful review of the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ 161-page Budget Proposal for FY2013: “The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting is outraged by the…
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…