The Foreign Service Journal, October 2009

56 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9 lamic languages. America’s message will be heard and seen.” The strat- egy shift triggered debate, which continues to this day, over whether an attempt to attract larger audi- ences through methods such as pop music programming subverts the larger, traditional mission of broad- casters to be a forum for information and ideas. The BBG’s strategic plan reaffirmed a central aspect of U.S. public diplomacy — the promotion of freedom and democracy — which it would pursue by disseminating “factual and balanced news and information.” Having de- termined through audience surveys that it had expanded the listening area for U.S. international broadcasting from 100 million to 175 million between 2002 and 2007, the BBG released an updated strategic plan for 2008 to 2013 emphasizing ways of gauging the impact on those audi- ences. It retained the mission of promoting freedom and democracy and added a new goal: to “enhance under- standing through multimedia communication of accurate, objective and balanced news, information and other pro- gramming about America and the world to audiences over- seas.” The post-9/11 broadcasting emphasis reflects areas of greatest concern to U.S. national security. The board scrapped the Arabic service of VOA and replaced it with Radio Sawa (Radio “Together”), geared to young audi- ences through a pop music format, in which newscasts are embedded. The board says surveys have consistently shown Radio Sawa is a ratings hit in much of its broadcast region in the Middle East and North Africa. And in 2003, the board terminated RFE/RL’s Persian- language Radio Azadi (Radio “Liberty”) and put in its place Radio Farda (Radio “Tomorrow”). Initially, Farda also em- phasized pop music, but has since steadily moved to in- crease the amount of news and current affairs program- ming and bolster its Internet presence. Alhurra came one year later, followed by VOA’s Aap Ki Dunyaa (“Your World”) in Urdu to Pakistan, and VOA’s Radio Deewa (Radio “Light”) in Pashto to Pakistan’s tribal areas near its border with Afghanistan. Music and enter- tainment programming are also important features of Aap Ki Dunyaa, although it has shifted to more news coverage at times of major developments. To supporters, the changes spearheaded by boardmem- bers like Pattiz injected dynamism into a stodgy broadcast system and made sense as a way of stirring in- terest in the huge under-30 popula- tion in many Muslim target states. The approach resonated among a number of members of Congress, gaining powerful allies like then- Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the cur- rent vice president. “How do you get these people to listen? It sure as hell isn’t [with] a news program,” Biden told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting in 2003. “Does anybody in [the United States] between the ages of 15 and 30 tune in in any numbers to public broadcasting? It’s an incredibly important means of communication. What do they do? They listen to rock stations.” But critics say the BBG has abandoned the worthy practice of targeting elite audiences within countries of concern, and muddled the mission of U.S. broadcasting. A 2007 report by the McCormack Tribune Conference Se- ries, whose participants included a number of former top VOA and RFE/RL officials, labeled U.S. international broadcasting “an illogical patchwork, an archipelago of broadcasting organizations lacking clear individual mis- sions and lacking a normal separation between manage- ment and oversight.” A Foray into Television Questions about the mission also surround the latest, and most expensive new arena for U.S. broadcasting — satellite television. There, too, BBG officials stress the im- portance of editorial independence and objectivity. In the case of VOA’s Persian News Network, which provides eight hours of original programming daily, the added resources and editorial model appeared to be having the intended ef- fect of attracting an Iranian audience, especially during the tumultuous days following the June 2009 presidential vote. PNN, along with BBC Persian TV, was deluged with e- mails and other messages during the height of the demon- strations, and both stations attracted the scorn of Iranian authorities. VOA officials emphasized their commitment to balanced coverage. “We don’t have in our charter, ‘pro- mote democracy, change the world’,” VOA spokeswoman Joan Mower told the Los Angeles Times . The largest U.S.-funded television broadcaster, Alhurra, has had fewer such watershed moments. In its first five years the station has confronted perceptions that it is too F O C U S Some critics dismiss these stations as window dressing for an incoherent public diplomacy strategy.