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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 legal protections available to American and Czech employees.
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, Commentary by Ted Lipien, June 04, 2009, San Francisco — President Obama’s recent announcement of a new Global Engagement Directorate that will combine “diplomacy, communications, international development and assistance” was short on specifics how this new structure might change the focus of U.S. public diplomacy and broadcasting initiatives. That’s hardly surprising, considering that the White House has to deal with many other seemingly more pressing problems.…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, May 11, 2009, San Francisco — The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency responsible for managing U.S. international broadcasts made a number of misleading statements in its Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request to the U.S. Congress. The BBG repeatedly states that the Voice of America (VOA) Russian service responded with “comprehensive coverage”…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, May 8, 2009, San Francisco — Understanding Government website — undestandinggov.org — has published an in-depth report on the management crisis at the Voice of America (VOA) and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which runs U.S. international broadcasting operations. The report refers to the work of FreeMediaOnline.org and GovoritAmerika.us in support of independent journalism in media-at-risk countries. WILL…
No in-depth reports from the Voice of America or high-resolution photos from the State Department, but one can now find sexy images on the VOA Russian website. The Clinton-Lavrov meeting and the First Lady’s visit to the State Department revealed a sorry state of U.S. public diplomacy and international broadcasting. It took hours after Secretary Clinton and her Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov had finished their joint press conference in Geneva before the…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, March 4, 2009, San Francisco Senator Richard Lugar is right about past mistakes that had crippled U.S. public diplomacy, but new actions by the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors also continue to silence America’s voice abroad Closed Down American Centers and Crippled Voice of America In an insightful and candid article posted on the Foreign Policy magazine blog,…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 29, 2009, San Francisco — President Obama may have been surprised to find out that the Voice of America, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as largely responsible for “telling America’s story” to the world, no longer has programs in Arabic of any kind due to actions taken by the Bush Administration and…
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, January 23, 2009, San Francisco — In a move that may signal a return to a more serious approach to pubic diplomacy, the U.S. State Department website no longer prominently features an announcement for the “Democracy Video Challenge” contest. Such contests were promoted by a series of Bush Administration’s political appointees at State as a new and exciting way of influencing public…
Anna Karapetian, a journalist from Armenia who in radio broadcasts funded by the U.S. government reported on human rights abuses in her country, is one of many people around the world who see Barack Obama’s inauguration as a hopeful beginning of a new era of change in Washington. Ms. Karapetian hopes that with Mr. Obama’s strong commitment to protecting workers’ rights, the new administration will…
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…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog The Federalist Commentary, January 8, 2009, San Francisco — This commentary is by The Federalist, one of our regular contributors with inside knowledge of US government bureaucracy. The Worst of Times by The Federalist “US international broadcasting is being led by people not interested in its mission or in sustaining its programs.” This applies…
U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors Silenced Voice of America Radio in Ukraine One Day Before Russia Halted Gas Supplies to Europe FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 7, 2009, San Francisco — In yet another show of incredibly poor judgement combined with bad timing and ulterior bureaucratic motives resulting in a major waste of U.S. tax dollars, the Broadcasting Board of…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog The Federalist Commentary, January 6, 2009, San Francisco — This commentary by The Federalist, one of our regular contributors with inside knowledge of US government bureaucracy, is designed to open a discussion on the Free Media Online Blog about the proper role for US public diplomacy and international broadcasting in dealing with terrorism and threats to…
Did BBG End U.S. Surrogate Broadcasting in Russia on Radio Liberty in an Attempt to Appease Mr. Putin and Pursue Its Marketing Strategy? FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, December 30, 2008, San Francisco — FreeMediaOnline.org has been reporting in recent months on the intimidation of Radio Liberty (Radio Svoboda) journalists in Russia and the unwillingness of the Broadcasting Board of Governors…