The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

18 SEPTEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL for every American diplomat, to recognize how our founders understood unalienable rights,” Secretary Pompeo said in a speech at the National Constitution Center there. “Foremost among these rights are prop- erty rights and religious liberty.” Secretary Pompeo created the advi- sory commission in July 2019 to provide “advice on human rights grounded in our nation’s founding principles and the prin- ciples of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” according to the State Department website. It was greeted with skepticism from parts of the human rights community from the outset. Release of the report initiated a two- week public comment period. 50 Years Ago Radio Is Alive and Well R adio informs, interprets, teaches, persuades and entertains, all for a penny’s worth of battery electricity a day. It hurdles the barriers of censorship and illiteracy. Many in the world are illiterate, but few are deaf. There are about 850 million radio sets in the world today. One out of three can pick up short wave. If the present trend continues, over one billion radio sets will be in use by 1980, perhaps 300 million of them capable of receiving short wave. All major and many small nations broadcast interna- tionally. The total air time of all American broadcasters (government and private) transmitting to foreign audi- ences—2,240 hours a week—exceeds that of all other nations. This astounding total includes the output of American radio stations like Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and RIAS, which program exclusively for audi- ences in Eastern Europe and the USSR, and also the world-wide American Forces Radio Network, which broadcasts only in English. The Voice of America, a part of the United States Information Agency and the official radio of the United States Government, is the largest and most comprehensive of the various American broadcasters. It airs 830 hours a week in 35 languages—well behind Radio Moscow, Radio Peking and even the national radio of the United Arab Republic. Radio Moscow and its sister station, “Radio Peace and Progress,” must be viewed as the single biggest world broadcaster with 1,920 hours a week going out in 82 languages. Radio Peking follows with nearly 1,500 hours in 38 languages, and UAR Radio has 1,040 hours in 29 languages. With all this international broadcasting going on, it is easy to see that the airwaves are jammed and the com- petition for the limited number of available frequencies is fierce. In fact, the most striking recent development in international broadcasting—regular satellite radio transmissions are still in the future—has been the rapid increase in the number and power of both medium and short wave transmitters in the world. —FSIO Richard G. Cushing, excerpted from his article of the same title in the September 1970 FSJ . for foreign nationals working for VOA in Washington. Not only would this deprive the agency of a wealth of talent and expertise, but it may leave scores of pro- fessionals who have dedicated their lives to furthering American ideals with no choice but to return to the very regimes on which they have been reporting. Writing in June in The Atlantic , Anne Applebaum observes: “In a world where airwaves are flooded with authoritarian disinformation, the effectiveness of Amer- ican messaging depends on the perceived credibility and independence of the mes- sengers. Anything that resembles ‘Trump TV’ or even just old-fashioned propa- ganda will have neither. America’s interna- tional broadcasters are an important part of the face we present to the world. Thanks to congressional negligence, presidential malice and general indifference, that face has just gotten uglier.” Pompeo Unveils Unalienable Rights Report A rguing against a “proliferation” of human rights and claiming that “more rights does not necessarily mean more justice,” Secretary of State Mike Pom- peo unveiled a draft report of recommen- dations fromhis Commission on Unalien- able Rights on July 16 in Philadelphia. “It’s important for every American, and