FreeMediaOnline.org September 6, 2010 — In an unusual case of government insider expose, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employee Kim Andrew Elliott reported in his private blog that the taxpayer-supported Federal agency in charge of US international broadcasting, including television and radio programs to the Middle East — which in the past aired views of Holocaust deniers — is…
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…
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, December 22, 2009, San Francisco — The BBG has long been considered one of the worst managed Federal agencies. The current Bush-era members of the bipartisan Board in charge of U.S. international broadcasting are expected to be replaced soon by President Obama’s nominees who now await confirmation by the U.S. Senate. (You would not know…
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The Murder of Georgi Markov: The Mystery Remains – Are Radio Liberty Journalists Now Safe?
Thirty-one years ago this week, on 7 September 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian émigré journalist who wrote for Radio Free Europe, BBC and Deutsche Welle, was assaulted in broad daylight on London’s Waterloo Bridge. Markov’s murder happened during the Cold War, but in more recent years the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and of numerous other journalists in Russia, as well…
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Independent US Bloggers Beat Voice of America and Radio Liberty in Delivering Uncensored News to Russia
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, September 6, 2009, San Francisco — Neither the Voice of America nor Radio Liberty, both US government-funded international broadcasters, provided Internet users and radio listeners with a Russian translation of an article about Vladimir Putin which sparked a major controversy over censorship both in Russia and in the US. Conde Nast, the publisher of…
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has put all the eggs of broadcasts to Russia from the U.S. in one basket. FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, Commentary by Ted Lipien, July 10, 2009, San Francisco — Established in 1942 in response to wartime emergency, the Voice of America (VOA) has been the official U.S. broadcaster, funded by American taxpayers…
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Radio Hole-in-the-Head: Radio Liberty: An Insider’s Story of Cold War Broadcasting by James Critchlow
While surrogate broadcasting was effective during the Cold War, even then it faced some serious problems, which BBG [The Broadcasting Board of Governors, a controversial Federal agency in charge of US international broadcasts] members chose to ignore when they developed their grandiose broadcasting plans for the Middle East. They could have learned about these problems and how to avoid them…
Contrary to what BBG [The Broadcasting Board of Governors, a controversial Federal agency in charge of US international broadcasts] members believe, including its most recent chairman [James K. Glassman], traditional independent radio and television journalism can be successfully merged with Web 2.0 concepts and can achieve high audience ratings without resorting to questionable management techniques, marketing practices and crude propaganda.…