Radio Liberty Archives

Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Poland, Russia, Video, VOA

Ted Lipien Comments About Prof. Richard Pipes for a Polish Documentary Film

By Ted Lipien July 1, 2023

A documentary film, Najważniejsza jest wolność (The Most Important Thing Is Freedom), about Prof. Richard Pipes, an American academic specializing in Russian and Soviet history, who in 1981 and 1982 served as a member of the National Security Council and advisor to President Ronald Reagan, has been released in Poland. Its creators are Polish filmmakers—director, co-writer, and camera operator Roman Anusiewicz—and…

Cold War, Featured, Highlights, History, International Broadcasting, Religion, Russia, VOA, VOA80

Religious Programs at the Voice of America

By Ted Lipien December 8, 2022

Anti-communist atheist Bertram D. Wolfe discovered that Voice of America (VOA) English writers could not write persuasively about religion in communist-ruled nations in the early 1950s. Religious programming was then and continues to be a challenge for VOA’s American-born officials and broadcasters, partly because of the wrongly perceived separation of church and state concerns and partly because of a certain…

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

Jamming Was a Sign of Effectiveness of Western Broadcasts

By Ted Lipien 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…

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

By Ted Lipien 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…

International Broadcasting, RL, Russia, VOA

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

By Ted Lipien 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…

International Broadcasting, RL, Russia

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

By Ted Lipien 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…

RL

The Year 1968 in the History of Samizdat

By Ted Lipien December 18, 2018

Cold War Radio Museum The recent death of Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva brings into focus not only her contributions to improving the lives of millions of people but also the historic role played by the American-supported Radio Liberty (RL), which together with its sister station, Radio Free Europe, contributed to breaking up the monopoly of communist…

VOA

April 17, 1943 – Voice of America airs Soviet propaganda lie on Katyn Massacre

By Ted Lipien April 17, 2018

Cold War Radio Museum Declassified documents in the National Archives show that a directive issued to on April 17, 1943 by the management of the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) ordered its Overseas Branch in charge of what were later called Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to air and promote the Soviet propaganda denial of Soviet responsibility for…

RFE

Radio Free Europe 1966: A Girl Behind Barbed Wire Fence Ad

By Ted Lipien April 1, 2018

Cold War Radio Museum The Crusade for Freedom was the name of an advertising campaign designed to get Americans to contribute money to Radio Free Europe which broadcast radio programs in various languages to the captive nations behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. The ad seen here is from 1966 and appeared in an American magazine. This particular…

Exhibitions Updates, RFE, VOA

The Obama ‘Reset’ with Russia

By Ted Lipien November 1, 2017

OPINION Cold War Radio Museum How Voice of America Censored Solzhenitsyn The Obama “Reset” with Russia By Ted Lipien Hillary Clinton seemed to have had some understanding of how Russian propaganda works when she made her critical comments about the Broadcasting Board of Governors in 2013 to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, calling the U.S.…

RFE, VOA

Radio Liberty Fails on Russian Interference

By Ted Lipien October 31, 2017

OPINION How Voice of America Censored Solzhenitsyn Radio Liberty Fails on Russian Interference By Ted Lipien The vast majority of political propaganda and disinformation in U.S. media is originated domestically by American commentators, partisan think-tanks, reporters and social media users. But all too often, U.S. government officials, as well as journalists, both government-hired as in the Voice…

Public Diplomacy

Coward Media

By Ted Lipien June 8, 2013

Commentary by Ted Lipien Istanbul, June 8, 2013. Protest signs on Taksim Square in Istanbul say “Coward Media.” The very few acts of vandalism during the initial days of the anti-government protests in Turkey were directed against TV vans of local networks. Protesters in Turkey were especially angry with CNN Turkish and NTV (MSNBC Turkish). Some of these media outlets…

Public Diplomacy

Unique Role of U.S.-Funded Surrogate Broadcasters

By Ted Lipien February 13, 2013

BBG Watch Commentary Unique Role of U.S.-Funded Surrogate Broadcasters by Ted Lipien U.S. Government-funded surrogate broadcasting, which started with the formation of Radio Free Europe in the early 1950s, was one of the most successful American inventions of the Cold War. Its effectiveness was undeniable in helping to weaken communist regimes over a period of several decades. Most journalists and…

Russia, Video

Remembering Radio Liberty in Exile Journalists on Thanksgiving

By BBGWatcher November 22, 2012

As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, BBG Watch remembers Radio Liberty journalists who were brutally fired without a warning or chose to resign in protest against the actions of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty management. These journalists are facing now an uncertain future in Vladimir Putin’s Russia without any support or protection from their former U.S. taxpayer-funded employer, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and…

Corti and Lipien in National Review – Radio Liberty silenced by Washington

By BBGWatcher October 24, 2012

BBG Watch Commentary In an article published in National Review Online, Mario Corti and Ted Lipien argue that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) executives have mislead the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and the American public on the circumstances and the reasons for the mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Moscow. The authors state that contrary to the assertions…

Tag: Radio Liberty