The Foreign Service Journal, September 2013

54 SEPTEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL André de Nesnera F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award, 2003 Regarding VOA Reporting Briefly describe the dissent that your AFSA award rec- ognized. I was honored to receive the 2002 Tex Harris Award while serving as news director for the Voice of America. The AFSA award citation sums up the reason for the award: “VOA correspondents work under a congressional charter requiring them to be ‘accurate, objective and comprehensive.’ VOA’s loyalty to that charter was put to the test when intense pressure from the Department of State and the Broadcast- ing Board of Governors/International Broadcasting Bureau was put on VOA not to broadcast a news report that included excerpts from a post-9/11 interview with the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Despite those pressures, Mr. de Nesnera authorized the release of the news report. His efforts to defend VOA’s charter and preserve the integrity of its news broadcasts demonstrate the qualities of intellectual courage and constructive dissent that exemplify the spirit of the Tex Harris Award.” The VOA News Division also received the 2002 Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications, the only univer- sity bestowing such an award for individual journalists and news organizations. In hindsight, was dissenting the right choice? There is no question in my mind that dissenting was the right choice. The journalists in the news division of the Voice of America are guided by a 1976 charter that is public law and states, inter alia, that “VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective and comprehensive.” Our charter is the cornerstone of the work we do each day and must be defended when there are attempts to circumvent it. We must continue to be objective, to present all sides of a story and to tell the unflinching, unvarnished truth. That is the basis of our credibility. We cannot permit anyone to spin a story, omit a fact, slant a viewpoint. Over the years we have earned our reputation by our integ- rity. We maintain it by our honesty. Our worldwide audience of listeners and viewers knows when we’re telling the truth and when we’re not. n André de Nesnera has been with the Voice of America for more than 30 years, currently serving as senior analyst at VOA’s Washington headquarters. He is responsible for political, military and strategic analysis of major news events. He opened VOA’s Geneva bureau in 1984 and was elected president of the United Nations Press As- sociation, a position he held for three consecutive one-year terms. In 1989 Mr. de Nesnera became the first VOA correspondent perma- nently accredited in the former Soviet Union. He then served as senior European correspondent based in London (1994-1998) and senior national security correspondent based in Washington, D.C. (1998-2000). From 2000-2004 he was VOA’s news director; during his tenure he stewarded the newsroom’s coverage of the 9/11 attacks and the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Edmund McWilliams Christian A. Herter Award, 2003 Regarding Military Aid to Indonesia Briefly describe the dissent that your AFSA award rec- ognized. The award I received made reference to my close work with those who were not in the political, social and economic power structure. While not referenced, my several dissents while in Jakarta were all related to the U.S. military-to-mil- itary relationship with the Indonesian military. I believed that Embassy Jakarta had long avoided candid reporting on the Indonesian military, especially with regard to its human rights abuse, its lack of accountability and its cor- ruption. In hindsight, was dis- senting the right choice? Yes, I believe it was the right choice. The criminal- ity of the Indonesian mili- tary became increasingly evident toward the end of my tour and in the follow- “We must continue to be objective, to present all sides of a story and to tell the unflinching, unvarnished truth.” —André de Nesnera Ed McWilliams.