The Foreign Service Journal, October 2010

20 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 1 0 media organization, Xinhua News, has some 75 correspondents based in the United States and, as of the time this article was written, is preparing to open a massive new office in New York’s Times Square. • Journalists in Russia are rou- tinely abducted, tortured and mur- dered with virtual impunity. The number of Russian radio stations carrying Radio Free Europe’s Rus- sian service broadcasting has declined precipitously, from over 30 stations in 2001 to just five today. VOA dropped from 85 stations in 2003 to just one by 2009 as the Rus- sian government successfully silenced most BBG broad- casts by simply refusing to renew local radio station li- censes unless U.S. programming was dropped. The State Department should raise this issue at the highest levels and should monitor closely rising attempts to block BBG Internet sites. • In Asia, according to the human rights nongovern- mental organization Freedom House, the six countries served by Radio Free Asia are experiencing steadily dwin- dling levels of press freedom, with none currently ranked higher than 132 out of 195 nations. RFA, set up in 1994 with the hope that the post–Cold War tide of democracy and liberalization would soon sweep Asia, was originally authorized only on a temporary basis. Earlier this year, I introduced legislation to permanently authorize Radio Free Asia in recognition of the unfortu- nate reality of press freedom in Asia. Following publication of the report, Congress passed the legislation and Pres. Obama signed it in July, putting RFA on a legislative par with Radio Free Europe and Cuba andMiddle East broad- casting. This demonstrates to countries in the region and RFA listeners the high priority we place on maintaining free and open media. • The BBG’s Arabic-language Radio Sawa has an hourly format of 45 minutes of music with 15 minutes of news. Despite vocal skepticism by many when it appeared in 2002, Sawa quickly became popular with the burgeoning under-30 demographic deemed critical in that region, vir- tually none of whom had listened to VOA’s Arabic radio programming. Over time, though, as its format has been copied by local stations, Sawa’s listenership has declined by 25 per- cent. Greater funding for marketing or a change in for- mat may be needed. • While Radio Free Asia is tasked with reaching a population of more than one billion, its annual marketing budget has never ex- ceeded $7,000. Middle East Broad- casting Networks, Inc., which over- sees Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa, has seen its marketing budget fluc- tuate wildly from a few thousand dollars in 2005 and 2006 to $100,000 in 2007, back to $5,000 in 2008 and more than $1 million in 2009. Such inconsistencies play havoc with any long- term attempts to capture market share and must be ad- dressed. • The government of Iran continues to attempt to jam both VOA’s Persian News Network TV (which uses multi- ple satellite systems to prevent a total shutdown) and Radio Free Europe’s Persian-language Radio Farda. In Febru- ary the Iranian government arrested seven journalists for merely holding job interviews with Farda. Efforts to en- sure that our programming gets through should remain a high priority. In that regard, it is noteworthy that PNN’s new iPhone application, which enables videos to be down- loaded directly to VOA, has made “citizen journalists” out of thousands of Iranians. • Critics note that some BBG entities have allowed in- dividuals opposed to U.S. policy to air their views without any rebuttal or balanced context. While allowing such vit- riol to go uncontested is clearly poor journalism, such oc- currences have been rare, not the norm. Nonetheless, in order for the BBG to be credible to its audience and not just draw in those who already agree with U.S. policy, its networks must be permitted to present both sides of an argument. • The Voice of America is tasked with broadcasting news about the U.S., the world and the region in which a coun- try lies. The surrogates, on the other hand, are to focus on news from within the countries to which they broadcast. These programmatic lines are beginning to blur as VOA and the surrogates stray into each other’s core areas. • Congress should revisit the Smith-Mundt Act, passed in 1948 and later amended, which bans U.S. government broadcasting within the U.S. (for fear that the government would unduly influence its own citizens). This review is particularly warranted given the fact that the governments of Russia and China, as well as other foreign entities, cur- F O C U S One of the issues confronting the new board is the limits on the ability of U.S. broadcasters to reach their desired audiences.