FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, 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…
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…
FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, GovoritAmerika.us, Commentary by Ted Lipien, August 18, 2009, San Francisco — Ever since the United States Information Agency (USIA) was dismantled in a foolish post-Cold War cost-cutting move, the U.S. State Department and American diplomats abroad have not been able to present a coherent message to foreign audiences quickly and effectively. The latest example is…
I included here more information about “Wojtyla’s Women,” my book on Pope John Paul II and feminism. In the book, I discuss at some length the attempts of the Polish communist secret police and the KGB to recruit agents among Pope John Paul II’s friends, as well as their attempts to influence the reporting of journalists working at Radio Free…
Wojtyla’s Women: How They Shaped the Life of Pope John Paul II and Changed the Catholic Church was cited in a news story I wrote about the shutting down of the Voice of America radio broadcasts to Russia just days before the Russian troops attacked Georgia. The Senate staff of Barak Obama’s vice-presidential running mate, Senator Joe Biden, was said…
By Ted Lipien Originally published on Blogger News Network (BNN), October 12, 2006 Neglect of Media Freedom Issues in Russia Contributed to Murder of Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya | BNN Oct. 12, 2006 FreeMediaOnline.org Dublin, CA – Mixed signals from Washington have helped President Putin’s crackdown on independent media in Russia and may have contributed to the recent slaying of…