国際放送ウォッチ2012-03-06T21:03:49+09:00hildegart最新の国際放送の動きを伝えるExcite BlogBBG Ready to Drop the Ax on Cantonese and Tibetan Serviceshttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/17922785/2012-03-06T21:17:19+09:002012-03-06T21:03:49+09:002012-03-06T21:03:49+09:00hildegart未分類
By Ann Noonan
March 5, 2012 6:00 A.M.
Comments
3
In December 2011, the Broadcasting Board of Governors issued a proclamation in observance of Voice of America’s 70th anniversary of Mandarin and Cantonese Services, boasting: “Mandarin and Cantonese language services have been key components of U.S. international broadcasting for all these 70 years and have brought news to China where the free flow of information is restricted.” A copy of their proclamation is available on the BBG website.
On December 6, with bipartisan support from senators and congressmen who signed a resolution to keep VOA China alive, the VOA China Branch celebrated its 70th anniversary at a festive reception in the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill. Attendees also celebrated the exemplary work of both the VOA Mandarin and Cantonese Services in bringing news and information to the people of China over the past decades.
Instead of using these opportunities to promote the successful language services and wishing the Voice of America staff continued success and growth, the public-relations opportunities were used to puff up the BBG’s image and award BBG management with $10,000 bonuses — while quietly planning to cut (off) Voice of America services from the airwaves.
During this same time, as Beijing embarked on an effort to obliterate the Cantonese language in its own domestic media, the BBG and their International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) inquired with Voice of America’s Cantonese Service staff about what kind of equipment they might have at home to use for work, suggesting that they would provide training in early 2012 for those staffers to work from home. The management selected Voice of America’s Cantonese Service to participate in a “re-location operation” exercise in case there might be a dirty-bomb attack in the Cohen Building and the Voice of America’s Cantonese staff were unable to go to work. Almost as soon as that conversation began, it ended.
This information is not available on their website.
What is available on their website is their FY2013 budget, wherein the BBG proposes to completely eliminate the Voice of America’s Cantonese Services to China. The BBG proposal completely disregards congressionally-mandated Public Law 94-350 which directed VOA to inform the people in China who speak Cantonese by providing them with news broadcasts that promote freedom and democracy. It also disregards pleadings from inside China, where postings such as these are made at great risk:
I have listened VOA in Chinese for more than 28 years, it will break my heart if the government cuts the radio broadcast China branch.
And:
As college students growing up in China, we relied daily on VOA for objective news and different world views. Stopping broadcast would mean that a window to the outside world would be shut. It is a huge loss for long term as well.
Last year the U.S. Congress soundly defeated similar attempts by the BBG to cut VOA Chinese services, but even during this election year, the BBG seems undeterred and emboldened. The latest BBG cuts were announced to the Voice of America staff on February 13, one day before China’s next president met with President Obama in the White House.
The BBG FY2013 budget also dropped the ax on Tibetan Voice of America radio broadcasts to Tibet. This comes as a real surprise, as American compassion for the people of Tibet and respect for their spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is at an all-time high.
Last March, the BBG/IBB celebrated Voice of America Tibetan services by marking their 20th anniversary. The BBG celebrated VOA’s invaluable weekly 42 hours of Tibetan-service radio. VOA’s website reported how “in Tibet, as in other parts of China, citizens have limited access to objective news.” This year National Public Radio reported that “The [Buddhist] monks [in Tibet] listen secretly to Voice of America’s Tibetan service news every night, despite feeling almost physical pain at the bleak news.”
BBG proposals to cut Tibetan services disregards another act of Congress, Public Law 101-246, signed into law on February 16, 1990, “to provide Voice of America Tibetan language programming to the people of Tibet”
One Tibetan rights leader stated: “It appears they want to run the VOA as a soulless business (for private gain) rather than as a government initiative (for public good) and that’s sad.”
The BBG proposals to isolate Tibetans and Cantonese-speaking Chinese must be demoralizing and discouraging to VOA staff.
And so the fight is on. Let’s hope that once again, the U.S. Congress will prevent these cuts from taking place. Let’s also hope that the Broadcasting Board of Governors will use what remains of their tenure to clean house and get rid of the management staffers who seem to oppose their own mission: to promote freedom and democracy and to enhance understanding by broadcasting accurate, objective, and balanced news and information about the United States and the world to audiences abroad.
— Ann Noonan is the executive director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting.
]]><![CDATA[PR: 【三井の賃貸】地図検索を使って便利にお部屋探し!!]]>
]]>2012-03-06T21:03:49+09:002012-03-06T21:03:49+09:002012-03-06T21:17:19+09:00rssad.jpa9048311ddb97695011868fea6534030Budget Request Reflects Long-Term Strategy, Changing Media Environmenthttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/17893952/2012-03-01T17:48:20+09:002012-03-01T17:34:57+09:002012-03-01T17:34:57+09:00hildegart未分類
February 13, 2012
3
Washington, DC – The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) today released its FY 2013 budget request, which contains a set of strategic measures to advance its core mission and meet the challenges of the changing global media environment within current spending constraints.
“In these times of fiscal austerity, the BBG faces tough choices,” Board members said in a message to agency employees. “And we are not alone: Every branch and each element of the federal government has had to take a hard look at itself to achieve efficiencies without sacrificing its essential work on behalf of our country.”
Noting the extraordinary coverage in the past year of the Arab Spring, conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ferment in Iran and Russia, the struggle over Tibet and other developments in China, the humanitarian disaster in East Africa, and human rights in Cuba and around the world, the Board affirmed, “U.S. international broadcasting will continue to serve people the world over who lack access to accurate, credible news and who need lifeline information. Our record audience of 187 million people in 2011 attests to the importance and success of your work. “
For FY 2013 the BBG has requested more than $720 million for U.S. international broadcasting, a decrease of 4.2 percent from FY 2012. This request supports U.S. foreign policy priorities and is grounded in the five-year strategy adopted by the Board in October 2011. The proposals in it include retooling to reach strategically important audiences from Cuba to China and build out the agency’s digital infrastructure.
The request contains $9 million in increases that would:
• create weekly television programs and related new media efforts for Egypt
• add satellite TV broadcasts to Central Asia
• elevate and expand social media
• emphasize innovation across media platforms, and
• revamp content and delivery to be more competitive.
It also contains $11.6 million in censorship-fighting Internet circumvention funding to continue the deployment of emerging technologies and partnerships with cutting-edge experts, developers and in-country networks.
The FY 2013 budget request includes program, transmission and staffing reductions at the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and the International Broadcasting Bureau, in part through efforts to restructure operations and end duplication. While four broadcast languages are proposed for elimination, the budget request preserves broad-based service in diverse vernacular languages to meet the needs of BBG audiences worldwide. The request also cuts more than $21 million in administrative and technical support costs throughout the agency and grantee organizations.
Board members acknowledged that some of the proposed changes will create anxiety, if enacted, and present very difficult circumstances for the men and women involved, but they affirmed, “We will do everything possible to limit the impact on our employees through a combination of agency buyouts, early-out authority and reducing positions via attrition.”
The BBG FY 2013 budget request is available at http://j.mp/wp6vZu.
Contact: BBG office of Public Affairs 202-203-4400
FY 2013 Budget Submission
The President’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2013, sent to the Congress February 13, 2012, includes $720 million for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a decrease of 4.2 percent from the FY 2012 appropriation level.
]]>2012-03-01T17:34:57+09:002012-03-01T17:34:57+09:002012-03-01T17:48:20+09:00rssad.jp1fe716aa1e1f687eafb27610d80f6a8aBBG Announces New Strategic Planhttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/16610853/2011-11-02T00:20:17+09:002011-11-02T00:09:41+09:002011-11-02T00:09:41+09:00hildegart未分類
October 14, 2011 | Washington, D.C. Email Print
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), at its meeting on October 13, adopted a new five-year strategic plan designed to grow and reform U.S. international broadcasting.
The Board also highlighted recent incidents of harassment and jailing of BBG journalists in Egypt and Turkmenistan.
BBG’s 2012-2016 strategic plan aims to make BBG the world’s leading international news agency by 2016, focused on both mission and impact, and targeting a 50 million worldwide audience gain. Titled “Impact through Innovation and Integration,” the plan calls for the establishment of a global news network and development of new delivery and anti-circumvention technologies. It also recommends streamlining management, evaluation of the possible consolidation of the three grantee networks into one organization, exploring possible de-federalization of the federal agency components, ending language duplication, modernizing distribution mechanisms to reflect the media audiences prefer, and repealing the ban on domestic dissemination of BBG programs contained in the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act.
The plan calls for the agency to focus not only on generating outstanding content but also embracing content generated by our audiences and creating an interactive environment in which they can converse with us and each other. To reflect the dual focus, the Board adopted the following new mission statement: “To inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”
“This plan is a response to the ever-changing world we live in,” said BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson. “To retain and increase our audiences and impact, we have to be smart and capitalize on the opportunities of digital integration and audience engagement.”
At the meeting, MBN President Brian Conniff shared a video clip showing armed Egyptian military members entering Alhurra’s Cairo studio and interrupting live coverage of the violent clashes between Coptic elements and soldiers on October 9. RFE/RL President Steve Korn discussed the case of RFE/RL contributor Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev, who was sentenced to five years in prison by the Turkmenistan government in what appears to be an attempt to silence his reporting.
“Every day our people risk intimidation, violence, arrest and imprisonment to gather and report the news,” said BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson. “The threats to BBG journalists clearly demonstrate the challenges and risks we face as we continue to battle censorship and champion media freedom.”
Governor Susan McCue highlighted the launch of the BBG’s volunteer Commission on Innovation last month in New York City. The Commission represents the BBG’s effort to tap the expertise of visionary leaders in digital media to help the Agency increase its impact among audiences abroad.
For further information about the BBG discussion, on Demand Links are:
]]>2011-11-02T00:09:41+09:002011-11-02T00:09:41+09:002011-11-02T00:20:17+09:00rssad.jp048f11c9386d9488155e50d6dcca477eS. Korean Authorities' Anti-DPRK Psychological Campaign Slammedhttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/16389611/2011-10-04T21:29:38+09:002011-10-04T21:19:39+09:002011-10-04T21:19:39+09:00hildegart未分類
Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Ministry of Post and Communications of the DPRK released a statement Saturday blasting the south Korean puppet group's despicable psychological campaign against the DPRK that has reached an extreme phase.
The statement said:
From mid-August the group of traitors aired anti-DPRK broadcasting programs toward the western areas of the DPRK including North Phyongan Province from the areas around Paekryong Island in the same frequency band as used by the TV broadcasting in the DPRK.
It has also intensified anti-DPRK radio propaganda with the same radio frequency band as used in the DPRK to dare hurt its socialist system and the dignity of its supreme leadership and shake the people's mindset.
It has worked with bloodshot eyes to intensify psychological warfare, encroaching upon the radio frequency band of the DPRK, as if it were not enough with scattering leaflets, DVDs and transistor radios in the DPRK to hurt its system.
Involved in the smear campaign are notorious intelligence and plot-breeding organizations including the Intelligence Service and institutions of the authorities including the Defense and Unification Ministries as well as ultra-right conservative media under their direct control and human scum who defected to the south.
These reckless anti-DPRK confrontation moves aimed to undermine the dignified socialist system clearly prove to what extent the group has gone in its attempt to bring down the state system in the DPRK and in its frenzy for confrontation with the DPRK.
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the DPRK together with the army, people and all other Koreans strongly denounce the puppet group's mean and despicable anti-DPRK smear propaganda as a challenge to the sovereignty, system and dignity of the DPRK and another serious provocation to it.
Psychological warfare is one form of a war against the other party.
The DPRK has already strongly demanded the puppet group halt at once the provocative and dangerous anti-DPRK smear psychological campaign that may push the north-south relations to a grave military clash.
However, the group is not only persisting in its campaign but has gone the lengths of committing radio wave-piracy defying international convention and order.
The International Treaty of Tele-communication clearly stipulates that application for the use of frequency should precede and the use of a certain frequency is possible only with the user's approval while considering it an illegal act in wanton contravention of international order to infringe upon the frequency already in official use by other country and region.
The puppet group's illegal use of the DPRK's radio and TV frequency bands is an outright violation of international convention and order and treacherous act of driving the north-south relations into extremes.
The reality proves that the group is utterly indifferent to international convention and it has neither common sense nor reason as it is buoyed by inveterate hatred for the fellow countrymen and the ambition to bring down the system in the DPRK.
It is ridiculous for the group to try to break the single-minded unity of the DPRK and bring down Korean-style socialism with such broadcasting piracy.
The army and people of the DPRK will never pardon the anti-DPRK psychological campaign of the south Korean puppet group to bring down the indestructible system in the DPRK but resolutely smash it by dint of single-minded unity and Songun.
Should the group persist in the campaign, defying the warning of the DPRK those broadcasting centers and those involved in it will never be able to escape deadly and merciless punishment by the army of the DPRK.
]]>VOA overseer creates static with switch to Internet, social mediahttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/16258234/2011-09-10T00:00:02+09:002011-09-09T23:50:42+09:002011-09-09T23:50:42+09:00hildegart未分類
By Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Obama administration is sharply restructuring the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency in charge of all U.S. government broadcasting, while being urged to increase the spread of unfettered news and information around the world.
Cuts in official U.S. radio broadcasting to Russia and the Middle East since 2001 and plans to end Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China in October have sown "chaos and confusion" in the agency, one senior agency official said.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is shifting broadcasts from radio to the Internet and social media.
Critics say the move will make programs more vulnerable to disruption by governments that oppose U.S. efforts to promote democracy and freedom.
The cuts are being made after a popular democratic uprising in Iran, the "Arab Spring" anti-government movement in the Middle East and mounting pressure inside China for democratic change.
"I have serious reservations about the direction of U.S. international broadcasting," said Blanquita Cullum, a former board governor.
"I believe the intended outcome of the BBG's strategic plan will leave many people in nondemocratic countries without access to critical news and information from our direct radio broadcasts."
Current and former officials involved in U.S. government broadcasting for several networks, including the flagship VOA, said in interviews and emails that cutting costs and the shift to online broadcasting are devastating the organization at a time when promotion of key U.S. values is urgently needed in places such as China and the Middle East.
New leadership
The nine-member BBG, an independent federal agency that includes Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a board member, directs five major networks: VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio and TV Marti, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) called Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television.
Its stated mission is to "promote freedom and democracy" through multimedia communication using "accurate, objective and balanced news, information, and other programming" about the United States around the world.
The agency has about 760 employees, and its budget request for fiscal 2012 is $767 million.
The changes began in April when Richard M. Lobo - head of the support staff working under the BBG, called the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) - was appointed BBG executive director.
An internal BBG document from June stated that the board had delegated broad power to Mr. Lobo, including day-to-day management of all agencies and authority to make decisions about "trade-offs and conflicts" for the broadcasters.
Mr. Lobo, a former public broadcasting station president in southwestern Florida, stated in a July 22 email to employees that "given today's budgetary climate, we are focused on ways to centralize leadership direction, streamline management and support functions, and eliminate duplication."
'Strategic vision'
Mr. Lobo has what he calls a "strategic vision" that is leading to major consolidations, officials said. The vision is expected to produce sharp cuts in funding and staff at the networks. Mr. Lobo also is bringing in outside consultants to join what called a "daunting effort" to draw up and implement the strategy over the coming months.
"We firmly believe that a new strategic road map and the organizational changes we are discussing will help to sharpen our mission and our focus, as U.S. international broadcasting takes on the increasingly complex challenges of a global, multiplatform media landscape in the years ahead," he said.
A BBG official said in an email that the reorganization has created "a lot of chaos and confusion."
New board members were appointed last summer, Mr. Lobo joined in March, and a new VOA director will be appointed next month.
"Big changes [are] coming, but nobody knows for sure what they'll be," the official said. "The key word is 'consolidation' with the 'radios' [RFE/RL, MBN, RFA, Marti], but nobody knows for sure how that will happen."
A former BBG official said U.S. international broadcasting is in serious trouble because of a lack of focus and mismanagement - problems that have plagued the agency for several years. The shift to Internet and social media services is rife with problems, the former official said.
Hacking
"The whole Internet strategy is bogus," this former official said, noting that Iranian hackers shut down some 40 VOA Internet broadcast sites for five hours in February.
"It demonstrated the vulnerability of relying on Internet broadcasting. One can only imagine what the Chinese can do."
The Iranian VOA hacking followed by two weeks the disclosure that VOA is ending all radio broadcasts to China this year in favor of Internet broadcasting and some radio through the heavily jammed Radio Free Asia.
The decision was made after China refused to permit VOA to use China-based ground stations to transmit its programs, even though the Obama administration provided China with broad access to U.S. airwaves for its state-run media.
BBG spokeswoman Letitia King said the strategic review has been under way for a year and has not been completed. The plan is looking for ways to make international broadcasting more efficient and to reduce duplication and overlap, she said.
On the cutbacks in radio, Ms. King said: "The board has made clear that they recognize the value of radio and television as really important media worldwide."
New media are an extension of news and information outlets, but are "by no means the central boulevard for broadcasting," she said.
'Painful' but 'necessary'
A BBG report outlining the "realignment strategy" for shortwave and medium-wave radio broadcasts stated that "the process and transition will be as painful as they are necessary."
According to the report, the radio outlets face tight budgets, an "onerous" federal labor structure and aging technology. The draft strategy calls for using more joint facilities, overturning legislative obstacles and "de-federalizing" the workforce - shifting from federal workers to contractors, a process likely to involve large-scale layoffs.
Plans to cut short- and medium-wave radio broadcasts are projected to save $75 million annually and be carried out in phases by closing VOA stations in the Philippines, on the Pacific island of Saipan, in Germany and in North Carolina, and scaling back Kuwait-based stations. The goal is to cut $82 million by 2014, the report said.
Under a section on "higher-profile eliminations," the report revealed plans to cut broadcasts to Cuba, China, Iran and Pakistan.
Yet broadcasting uncensored news and information to those regions is more critical than ever, current and former BBG officials said.
Some shortwave outlets to be kept under the plan include radio beamed into North Korea, Burma, Tibet, Pakistan's tribal areas, Afghanistan, Africa and in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Risk of losing audience
However, the report stated that BBG's new focus is on creating a "global newsroom" using "inter-entity connectivity, content sharing and virtual studies." New media, such as Facebook and Twitter, will be expanded through "robust Internet connectivity."
The former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the board has failed to properly analyze the risks of the Internet strategy.
For example, targeting audiences in China with Internet access fails to address the fact that China's security services use 50,000 Internet police to monitor electronic traffic.
The Chinese are unlikely to tune in to U.S. broadcasting and risk losing Internet access or even being arrested for listening to banned news on the Internet, the former official said.
The lessons of Russia and the Middle East also appear to have been ignored in the reorganization. Internal VOA surveys have shown that the BBG's decision in 2008 to end all direct radio broadcasts to Russia was a disaster because most of VOA's audience was lost after listeners declined to listen to the radio on the Internet.
U.S. broadcasts to the Middle East also are lacking. Mrs. Clinton recently suggested that the United States has lost the "information war" against terrorism in that region.
Media gap
Critics traced the problems to a decision in 2002 to give up VOA broadcasting and launch the U.S.-funded radio and television.
"We have not really kept up with the times," Mrs. Clinton said in March. "We are in an information war, and we cannot assume that this youth bulge that exists not just in the Middle East, but in so many parts of the world really knows much about us."
The current and former officials said the Arabic-language stations have failed to garner wide audiences in the Arab world, where Al Jazeera, often sympathetic to Islamic terrorists, has flourished.
"We've had this intense media effort for the last 10 years, and we don't have a lot to show for it," the former official said.
Another part of the proposed reorganization is to move BBG operations out of the large headquarters building in Southwest Washington, the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, and relocate employees to the Dulles Town Center area in Northern Virginia.
To counter the cut in Chinese broadcasting, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, helped pass an amendment last month to a House bill that would add $13.7 million to VOA's budget for Chinese broadcasting.
Ms. Cullum said large numbers of people around the world do not have access to the Internet. In China, she said, access is limited to large cities and to the affluent population.
"There is an audience throughout the world who do not have access to the Internet, which is the intended foundation under the BBG strategic plan," she said.
"Where will they go when we are not there? We know the Internet has vulnerabilities. If VOA relies largely on this method of distribution, it is setting itself up for failure."
The Obama administration is sharply restructuring the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency in charge of all U.S. government broadcasting, while being urged to increase the spread of unfettered news and information around the world.
Cuts in official U.S. radio broadcasting to Russia and the Middle East since 2001 and plans to end Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China in October have sown "chaos and confusion" in the agency, one senior agency official said.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is shifting broadcasts from radio to the Internet and social media.
Critics say the move will make programs more vulnerable to disruption by governments that oppose U.S. efforts to promote democracy and freedom.
The cuts are being made after a popular democratic uprising in Iran, the "Arab Spring" anti-government movement in the Middle East and mounting pressure inside China for democratic change.
"I have serious reservations about the direction of U.S. international broadcasting," said Blanquita Cullum, a former board governor.
"I believe the intended outcome of the BBG's strategic plan will leave many people in nondemocratic countries without access to critical news and information from our direct radio broadcasts."
Current and former officials involved in U.S. government broadcasting for several networks, including the flagship VOA, said in interviews and emails that cutting costs and the shift to online broadcasting are devastating the organization at a time when promotion of key U.S. values is urgently needed in places such as China and the Middle East.
New leadership
The nine-member BBG, an independent federal agency that includes Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a board member, directs five major networks: VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio and TV Marti, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) called Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television.
Its stated mission is to "promote freedom and democracy" through multimedia communication using "accurate, objective and balanced news, information, and other programming" about the United States around the world.
The agency has about 760 employees, and its budget request for fiscal 2012 is $767 million.
The changes began in April when Richard M. Lobo - head of the support staff working under the BBG, called the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) - was appointed BBG executive director.
An internal BBG document from June stated that the board had delegated broad power to Mr. Lobo, including day-to-day management of all agencies and authority to make decisions about "trade-offs and conflicts" for the broadcasters.
Mr. Lobo, a former public broadcasting station president in southwestern Florida, stated in a July 22 email to employees that "given today's budgetary climate, we are focused on ways to centralize leadership direction, streamline management and support functions, and eliminate duplication."
'Strategic vision'
Mr. Lobo has what he calls a "strategic vision" that is leading to major consolidations, officials said. The vision is expected to produce sharp cuts in funding and staff at the networks. Mr. Lobo also is bringing in outside consultants to join what called a "daunting effort" to draw up and implement the strategy over the coming months.
"We firmly believe that a new strategic road map and the organizational changes we are discussing will help to sharpen our mission and our focus, as U.S. international broadcasting takes on the increasingly complex challenges of a global, multiplatform media landscape in the years ahead," he said.
A BBG official said in an email that the reorganization has created "a lot of chaos and confusion."
New board members were appointed last summer, Mr. Lobo joined in March, and a new VOA director will be appointed next month.
"Big changes [are] coming, but nobody knows for sure what they'll be," the official said. "The key word is 'consolidation' with the 'radios' [RFE/RL, MBN, RFA, Marti], but nobody knows for sure how that will happen."
A former BBG official said U.S. international broadcasting is in serious trouble because of a lack of focus and mismanagement - problems that have plagued the agency for several years. The shift to Internet and social media services is rife with problems, the former official said.
Hacking
"The whole Internet strategy is bogus," this former official said, noting that Iranian hackers shut down some 40 VOA Internet broadcast sites for five hours in February.
"It demonstrated the vulnerability of relying on Internet broadcasting. One can only imagine what the Chinese can do."
The Iranian VOA hacking followed by two weeks the disclosure that VOA is ending all radio broadcasts to China this year in favor of Internet broadcasting and some radio through the heavily jammed Radio Free Asia.
The decision was made after China refused to permit VOA to use China-based ground stations to transmit its programs, even though the Obama administration provided China with broad access to U.S. airwaves for its state-run media.
BBG spokeswoman Letitia King said the strategic review has been under way for a year and has not been completed. The plan is looking for ways to make international broadcasting more efficient and to reduce duplication and overlap, she said.
On the cutbacks in radio, Ms. King said: "The board has made clear that they recognize the value of radio and television as really important media worldwide."
New media are an extension of news and information outlets, but are "by no means the central boulevard for broadcasting," she said.
'Painful' but 'necessary'
A BBG report outlining the "realignment strategy" for shortwave and medium-wave radio broadcasts stated that "the process and transition will be as painful as they are necessary."
According to the report, the radio outlets face tight budgets, an "onerous" federal labor structure and aging technology. The draft strategy calls for using more joint facilities, overturning legislative obstacles and "de-federalizing" the workforce - shifting from federal workers to contractors, a process likely to involve large-scale layoffs.
Plans to cut short- and medium-wave radio broadcasts are projected to save $75 million annually and be carried out in phases by closing VOA stations in the Philippines, on the Pacific island of Saipan, in Germany and in North Carolina, and scaling back Kuwait-based stations. The goal is to cut $82 million by 2014, the report said.
Under a section on "higher-profile eliminations," the report revealed plans to cut broadcasts to Cuba, China, Iran and Pakistan.
Yet broadcasting uncensored news and information to those regions is more critical than ever, current and former BBG officials said.
Some shortwave outlets to be kept under the plan include radio beamed into North Korea, Burma, Tibet, Pakistan's tribal areas, Afghanistan, Africa and in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Risk of losing audience
However, the report stated that BBG's new focus is on creating a "global newsroom" using "inter-entity connectivity, content sharing and virtual studies." New media, such as Facebook and Twitter, will be expanded through "robust Internet connectivity."
The former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the board has failed to properly analyze the risks of the Internet strategy.
For example, targeting audiences in China with Internet access fails to address the fact that China's security services use 50,000 Internet police to monitor electronic traffic.
The Chinese are unlikely to tune in to U.S. broadcasting and risk losing Internet access or even being arrested for listening to banned news on the Internet, the former official said.
The lessons of Russia and the Middle East also appear to have been ignored in the reorganization. Internal VOA surveys have shown that the BBG's decision in 2008 to end all direct radio broadcasts to Russia was a disaster because most of VOA's audience was lost after listeners declined to listen to the radio on the Internet.
U.S. broadcasts to the Middle East also are lacking. Mrs. Clinton recently suggested that the United States has lost the "information war" against terrorism in that region.
Media gap
Critics traced the problems to a decision in 2002 to give up VOA broadcasting and launch the U.S.-funded radio and television.
"We have not really kept up with the times," Mrs. Clinton said in March. "We are in an information war, and we cannot assume that this youth bulge that exists not just in the Middle East, but in so many parts of the world really knows much about us."
The current and former officials said the Arabic-language stations have failed to garner wide audiences in the Arab world, where Al Jazeera, often sympathetic to Islamic terrorists, has flourished.
"We've had this intense media effort for the last 10 years, and we don't have a lot to show for it," the former official said.
Another part of the proposed reorganization is to move BBG operations out of the large headquarters building in Southwest Washington, the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, and relocate employees to the Dulles Town Center area in Northern Virginia.
To counter the cut in Chinese broadcasting, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, helped pass an amendment last month to a House bill that would add $13.7 million to VOA's budget for Chinese broadcasting.
Ms. Cullum said large numbers of people around the world do not have access to the Internet. In China, she said, access is limited to large cities and to the affluent population.
"There is an audience throughout the world who do not have access to the Internet, which is the intended foundation under the BBG strategic plan," she said.
"Where will they go when we are not there? We know the Internet has vulnerabilities. If VOA relies largely on this method of distribution, it is setting itself up for failure."
Congressional lawmakers are scrambling to prevent America's international media arm from going off-air in China, arguing that a plan to shift much of its reporting to the Internet won't do much good in a country notorious for its web censors.
The group at the heart of the dispute is Voice of America -- part of the network of U.S. government-backed broadcasters that together reach more than 100 countries -- the American institution that has beamed news around the world since the '40s. Reflecting a broader shift from radio to digital media, a plan unveiled earlier this year called for overhauling Voice of America's China services to bring most of its media off air and online.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, argues that it only makes sense to go digital in a country with the largest Internet-using population in the world. Board officials claim the existing shortwave radio broadcasts don't have the audience they used to and that the Chinese government is jamming them anyway. In changing platforms, the board projects it will save $8 million and eliminate about 45 positions.
But critics of the move, including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., say the United States is setting itself up to cede vital territory in the battle of information abroad.
"We've used Voice of America to pump in Democratic messages for years," Rohrabacher spokeswoman Tara Setmayer said. "Now it's another area where it looks like we're succumbing to the wants of the communist Chinese."
A House panel moved last month to try and save those radio and TV broadcasts. The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted unanimously for a bill containing a provision that would allocate nearly $14 million exclusively for Voice of America's Mandarin and Cantonese radio and satellite TV stations.
"Such funds may not be used for any other purpose," the provision says.
The language, if approved, may not compel Voice of America to sustain its China broadcasts, but the thinking is that $14 million will be hard to turn down. Lawmakers are racing against the clock to get the language included in the complementary appropriations bill, given that the changes in China are scheduled to take place in October.
In a bipartisan letter to the House Appropriations Committee in May, Rohrabacher and several House colleagues urged the panel to follow suit as it crafts the funding bill. They argued that the radio and satellite broadcasts remain "one of the best ways to communicate directly" with the Chinese people.
"We believe the administration's proposal will hinder indigenous democracy movements in China and damage the long-term security of our own country," they wrote. "Sacrificing U.S. broadcasting abilities while China's authoritarian regime expands its broadcasting and public diplomacy efforts in the United States is the wrong answer."
The debate comes as the United States fights to be heard overseas. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned earlier this year in congressional testimony: "We are in an information war and we are losing that war."
A Rohrabacher aide said the restructuring only hurts the United States in that war. "It's very penny wise and pound foolish," the aide said.
BBG spokeswoman Letitia King declined to comment on the implications of the budget process, noting it is still in the works.
But she disputed critics' claims, saying the underlying goal is to reach "new and bigger audiences in China, where government-controlled media don't provide full and accurate information."
Under the plan, VOA Mandarin would move from radio and television to a "web-only platform," where some audio and video programs would continue to be posted. Funding would also increase for mobile device content. Separately, the affiliated Radio Free Asia would continue to broadcast in Mandarin.
In addition, the board would eliminate VOA's Cantonese Service. According to the board's proposal, Radio Free Asia would continue to broadcast in Cantonese.
Justifying the changes, King said shortwave radio listening has become "almost nonexistent" in China.
The BBG cited a survey showing one-tenth of 1 percent of Chinese listen to VOA in Mandarin, with radio ownership on the decline. Another survey showed computer and Internet usage on a steep upswing.
Though expanding on the Internet raises concerns about censors, King said the Chinese can use proxy servers to access their websites already and noted that the BBG has been developing anti-censorship technology to evade Chinese filters.
"Using mobile proxies under development now, VOA expects its reach in China to increase," King said.
Indeed, the Broadcasting Board of Governors has been testing technology in order to bust through Chinese web censors to deliver news. A round of recent testing demonstrated how certain technology can get around those filters via email, as well as transmit proxy web addresses which users can access to browse an uncensored version of the Internet.
But Ted Lipien, a former VOA executive who now runs Free Media Online, complained in an op-ed earlier this year that aside from the threat of censorship, two-thirds of China's population does not even have Internet access. He accused the BBG of turning its back on human rights activists who rely on radio for information.
Print Close
]]>BBC World Service audience drops after cutshttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15939095/2011-07-14T00:11:42+09:002011-07-14T00:03:47+09:002011-07-14T00:03:47+09:00hildegart未分類
Date: 12.07.2011
Category: World Service
BBC World Service audiences have fallen 14m in the past year, largely as a result of service closures and platform changes due to cuts to central Government grants.
The overall audience estimate for the year is 166m, down from 180m last year. The World Service, currently funded by the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office, had its budget cut in the Government's Spending Review and in January announced that five language services would close along with significant platform changes to other services.
However, there were solid improvements in some core areas of World Service which partly offset the effects of the cuts.
World Service online audience figures have risen by 40% over the past 12 months. The 2010/11 figures indicate that there are 10m weekly unique users of World Service websites, a 3m increase from 2009/10.
World Service English audiences are up 10% on the previous year with a total weekly reach of 43m and the audience in the US has risen to 10m. This follows record audience figures in the UK of 1.79m for the first quarter of 2011 – a reach of 3.5% among all UK adults.
There were also increases in the audience figures for the World Service's Arabic television service. BBC Arabic TV had a strong year with audience growth of 2m taking it to 13.5m viewers.
Peter Horrocks, Director BBC Global News, said: "We've had to make considerable changes to the World Service over the past year due to the cut in our funding from the Government and this was always going to result in a drop in our audience figures.
"The World Service has been looking hard at the best way to provide impartial news and information to our audiences going forward, and it's encouraging to see improvement in key areas. The strong international journalism from the World Service, particularly during the Arab Spring, has been a key part of the significant increases for online, English radio and Arabic television.
"We are also pleased to see that we are doing so well in the UK with audiences accessing World Service through digital radio, freeview and live streaming online.
"We will continue to look for the best fit for the audience – online, radio, tv, mobile – wherever it suits them best."
BBC World Service's Annual Review is also published today.
BBC World Service Press Office
]]>BBC World Service audience drops after cutshttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15939090/2011-07-14T00:11:20+09:002011-07-14T00:03:25+09:002011-07-14T00:03:25+09:00hildegart未分類
Date: 12.07.2011
Category: World Service
BBC World Service audiences have fallen 14m in the past year, largely as a result of service closures and platform changes due to cuts to central Government grants.
The overall audience estimate for the year is 166m, down from 180m last year. The World Service, currently funded by the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office, had its budget cut in the Government's Spending Review and in January announced that five language services would close along with significant platform changes to other services.
However, there were solid improvements in some core areas of World Service which partly offset the effects of the cuts.
World Service online audience figures have risen by 40% over the past 12 months. The 2010/11 figures indicate that there are 10m weekly unique users of World Service websites, a 3m increase from 2009/10.
World Service English audiences are up 10% on the previous year with a total weekly reach of 43m and the audience in the US has risen to 10m. This follows record audience figures in the UK of 1.79m for the first quarter of 2011 – a reach of 3.5% among all UK adults.
There were also increases in the audience figures for the World Service's Arabic television service. BBC Arabic TV had a strong year with audience growth of 2m taking it to 13.5m viewers.
Peter Horrocks, Director BBC Global News, said: "We've had to make considerable changes to the World Service over the past year due to the cut in our funding from the Government and this was always going to result in a drop in our audience figures.
"The World Service has been looking hard at the best way to provide impartial news and information to our audiences going forward, and it's encouraging to see improvement in key areas. The strong international journalism from the World Service, particularly during the Arab Spring, has been a key part of the significant increases for online, English radio and Arabic television.
"We are also pleased to see that we are doing so well in the UK with audiences accessing World Service through digital radio, freeview and live streaming online.
"We will continue to look for the best fit for the audience – online, radio, tv, mobile – wherever it suits them best."
BBC World Service's Annual Review is also published today.
BBC World Service Press Office
]]>Horn of Africa chief suspended over critical commentshttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15916110/2011-07-10T00:21:23+09:002011-07-10T00:13:32+09:002011-07-10T00:13:32+09:00hildegart未分類
July 8th, 2011 Print Print Email Email
Goto comments Leave a comment
The Voice of America (VOA) has been accused of censoring itself and suspending its Horn of Africa Chief, David Arnold, over fallout with the Ethiopian government. The suspension of Mr. Arnold was directly related to his comments in a news report that was broadcast on VOA Amharic service on June 23rd, informed sources told Addis Voice.
Mr. Arnold was part of a seven-member delegation headed by three Board of Broadcasting Governors (BBG), Susan McCue, Dana Perino, and Michael Meehan, who met officials in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Southern Sudan from June 21 to June 28. BBG, an agency of the US government, oversees all of its civilian international broadcasts in 59 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 165 million people across the world.
Arnold had revealed that the Ethiopian government demanded VOA to deny platform to its vocal critics as a precondition to cooperate with VOA. The blacklist, drawn up by the Government Communication Affairs Minister, Bereket Simon, included Prof. Pawlos Milkeas, Prof. Beyene Petros, Dr. Merera Gudina, Getachew Metaferia, Dr. Berhanu Nega, Girma Mogess, former Minister of Defense Seye Abraha and the Eritrean Minister of Information, Ali Abdou. “The list goes on,” Arnold told VOA Amharic.
He had said that the mission of the BBG delegation was “to make sure that they address some of the issues in Ethiopia concerning free press because for many years the government has objected to some of our broadcasts.” He also pointed out that the BBG governors discussed with Ethiopian officials the constant jamming of Voice of America transmissions in Amharic, Oromiffa and Tigrigna.
In what appears to be an unprecedented move in VOA’s history, bosses ordered the removal of the audio as well as text files of the news report in question from VOA’s website and archive pages in less than 24 hours after Ethiopian officials lodged complaints about the report on “confidential” matters, it was learn.
It emerged that the meeting between the BBG delegation and Ethiopian government officials was fraught with problems and tension as Mr. Simon and his cohorts have reportedly launched a scathing attack against the media organization in a 41-page long litany of complaints about VOA broadcasts.
Mr. Simon was said to have complained that the June 23rd report ruined ongoing talks. He threatened to cancel further talks with the delegation and cease any future cooperation. Before the VOA chief was suspended, he was reportedly admonished for expressing critical views and airing sensitive information without seeking clearance from the delegation.
In an email sent to Addis Voice, VOA’s Director of Public Relations, David Borgida denied allegations of censorship. “VOA always strives to be accurate in its reporting. That includes material on our websites. There was a misinterpretation of what went on during a recent meeting between Ethiopian government officials and visiting BBG Governors, and so the recent item you cite, which appeared on the website of the VOA Amharic service, was taken down.”
Asked to explain why VOA did not publicly issue corrections instead of deleting the whole content, Mr. Borgida declined to comment.
Addis Voice also asked why the Horn of Africa chief was suspended. “”We do not comment publicly on personnel matters,” he said.
When I pressed Borgida to explain if the “personal matter” included his comments contained in the news report in question, Borgida said that VOA would not give any further statements on this matter.
But Addis Voice has confirmed from two reliable sources that VOA bosses were not pleased with Arnold’s comments on sensitive issues that they felt needed clearance.
The renowned Ethiopian artiste Tamagne Beyene is one of first people to notice the removal of all the contents of the June 23rd VOA Amharic broadcast from the online archive page. He says that the measure taken by VOA is unjustifiable and a pure act of censorship.
Tamagn asked VOA to come out of the closet and tell its listeners the truth why the news was deleted and a highly experienced staff member was suspended for reporting the truth.
“This is a classic case of censorship and shooting the messenger. If this is not censorship, what else can VOA call it?” he asked.
“This case of suspension and censorship has shocked so many people at VOA. Some people are wondering how a professional journalist like Arnold with over three decades of experience can be suspended and censored to assuage the anger of a dictatorial regime in Ethiopia,” said one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Arnold only reported the truth accurately. I am personally confused to witness politics overriding the First Amendment, which is as one of the pillars of the Constitution of the United States,” the source added.
“The Minister [Bereket Simon] is willing to consider any new initiatives but he is going to wait to see if we change the way we broadcast,” Arnold had said.
Arnold had dismissed the demand as contrary to the mission of VOA and basic principles of free press. According to him, Simon, not only complained about the contents of VOA broadcasts but also pointed out that the Ethiopian government had problems with some of the journalists working for VOA. During the 2005 election turmoil in Ethiopia, the government charged five VOA journalists, along with local journalists and opposition leaders, with high treason. The charges were dropped in the course of the trial under pressure from the U.S. government.
During their visit, the delegation posted pictures and brief accounts of their experience on a dedicated blog, VOA on the Road Africa. In Ethiopia, the delegation that included four VOA staffers including the English to Africa Chief, Sonya Laurence Green, talked to senior Ethiopian government officials on issues related to the persistent jamming of VOA its transmissions and press freedom violations.
Alemayehu Gebremariam, a constitutional law attorney and professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, says: “Disclosure of a few names from an illegal list of names prepared by a foreign government to be blacklisted by the VOA presents no basis for legal or administrative action against him.
“Telling the truth in a news broadcast is not a crime. That is what Mr. Arnold has done. Journalists are censured and punished for reporting the truth in places like Iran and Ethiopia,” he noted.
Prof. Gebremariam further pointed out that the First Amendment guaranteed American citizens and inhabitants of the U.S. the absolute right to publicly criticize, denounce, condemn and berate any government institution or leader with impunity.
He said: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, which simply means that no government official or institution has the power to restrict, censor, suppress, restrain, muzzle or blackball any American citizen or inhabitant of the U.S. from exercising their right to free speech or restrain the independent press from performing its institutional functions.”
In March 2010, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi publicly threatened to jam VOA. “We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda,” Zenawi told reporters in Addis Ababa.
“We have to know before we make the decision to jam, whether we have the capacity to do it. But I assure you if they assure me at some future date that they have the capacity to jam it, I will give them the clear guideline to jam it,” he added.
The government of Ethiopia has now developed a capacity to jam shortwave and satellite TV broadcasts. A few weeks ago, the Ethiopian Satellite Television issued a statement urging the government of China to stop providing technology and technical support that has enabled the Meles regime to jam its transmissions to Ethiopia.
In October 2010, Human Rights Watch released a special report, Development Without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repressions in Ethiopia, that accused western governments of complicity in repressions by turning a blind eye to the fact that “development aid flows through, and directly supports, a virtual one-party state with a deplorable human rights record.”
The Meles regime, which is a key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, receives over 3 billion dollars in aid annually from Western donors. One-third of the money comes from the coffers of the U.S. treasury in the form of relief and development aid.
———–
Related links
Removed webpage
www.voanews.com/amharic/news/amh_voa_ethiopia_6_23_11-124452979.html
Deleted but cached on Google
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9KEkXuDtGoAJ:www.voanews.com/amharic/news/amh_voa_ethiopia_6_23_11-124452979.html+www.voanews.com/amharic/news/amh_voa_ethiopia_6_23_11-124452979.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=gmail&source=www.google.com
Cached webpage JPEG (attached)
http://addisvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/VOA-deleted-page.jpg
Missing page: Where is June 23?
http://addisvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/VOA-June-23-file-missing.pdf
Removed news report (Amharic audio)
http://addisvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/VOA-removed-audio-file.mp3
VOA on the Road Africa
http://voaontheroadafrica.tumblr.com/
——
Abebe Gellaw can be reached for comment at editor@addisvoice.com
]]>Horn of Africa chief suspended over critical commentshttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15916032/2011-07-10T00:12:31+09:002011-07-10T00:04:38+09:002011-07-10T00:04:38+09:00hildegart未分類
July 8th, 2011 Print Print Email Email
Goto comments Leave a comment
The Voice of America (VOA) has been accused of censoring itself and suspending its Horn of Africa Chief, David Arnold, over fallout with the Ethiopian government. The suspension of Mr. Arnold was directly related to his comments in a news report that was broadcast on VOA Amharic service on June 23rd, informed sources told Addis Voice.
Mr. Arnold was part of a seven-member delegation headed by three Board of Broadcasting Governors (BBG), Susan McCue, Dana Perino, and Michael Meehan, who met officials in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Southern Sudan from June 21 to June 28. BBG, an agency of the US government, oversees all of its civilian international broadcasts in 59 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 165 million people across the world.
Arnold had revealed that the Ethiopian government demanded VOA to deny platform to its vocal critics as a precondition to cooperate with VOA. The blacklist, drawn up by the Government Communication Affairs Minister, Bereket Simon, included Prof. Pawlos Milkeas, Prof. Beyene Petros, Dr. Merera Gudina, Getachew Metaferia, Dr. Berhanu Nega, Girma Mogess, former Minister of Defense Seye Abraha and the Eritrean Minister of Information, Ali Abdou. “The list goes on,” Arnold told VOA Amharic.
He had said that the mission of the BBG delegation was “to make sure that they address some of the issues in Ethiopia concerning free press because for many years the government has objected to some of our broadcasts.” He also pointed out that the BBG governors discussed with Ethiopian officials the constant jamming of Voice of America transmissions in Amharic, Oromiffa and Tigrigna.
In what appears to be an unprecedented move in VOA’s history, bosses ordered the removal of the audio as well as text files of the news report in question from VOA’s website and archive pages in less than 24 hours after Ethiopian officials lodged complaints about the report on “confidential” matters, it was learn.
It emerged that the meeting between the BBG delegation and Ethiopian government officials was fraught with problems and tension as Mr. Simon and his cohorts have reportedly launched a scathing attack against the media organization in a 41-page long litany of complaints about VOA broadcasts.
Mr. Simon was said to have complained that the June 23rd report ruined ongoing talks. He threatened to cancel further talks with the delegation and cease any future cooperation. Before the VOA chief was suspended, he was reportedly admonished for expressing critical views and airing sensitive information without seeking clearance from the delegation.
In an email sent to Addis Voice, VOA’s Director of Public Relations, David Borgida denied allegations of censorship. “VOA always strives to be accurate in its reporting. That includes material on our websites. There was a misinterpretation of what went on during a recent meeting between Ethiopian government officials and visiting BBG Governors, and so the recent item you cite, which appeared on the website of the VOA Amharic service, was taken down.”
Asked to explain why VOA did not publicly issue corrections instead of deleting the whole content, Mr. Borgida declined to comment.
Addis Voice also asked why the Horn of Africa chief was suspended. “”We do not comment publicly on personnel matters,” he said.
When I pressed Borgida to explain if the “personal matter” included his comments contained in the news report in question, Borgida said that VOA would not give any further statements on this matter.
But Addis Voice has confirmed from two reliable sources that VOA bosses were not pleased with Arnold’s comments on sensitive issues that they felt needed clearance.
The renowned Ethiopian artiste Tamagne Beyene is one of first people to notice the removal of all the contents of the June 23rd VOA Amharic broadcast from the online archive page. He says that the measure taken by VOA is unjustifiable and a pure act of censorship.
Tamagn asked VOA to come out of the closet and tell its listeners the truth why the news was deleted and a highly experienced staff member was suspended for reporting the truth.
“This is a classic case of censorship and shooting the messenger. If this is not censorship, what else can VOA call it?” he asked.
“This case of suspension and censorship has shocked so many people at VOA. Some people are wondering how a professional journalist like Arnold with over three decades of experience can be suspended and censored to assuage the anger of a dictatorial regime in Ethiopia,” said one of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Arnold only reported the truth accurately. I am personally confused to witness politics overriding the First Amendment, which is as one of the pillars of the Constitution of the United States,” the source added.
“The Minister [Bereket Simon] is willing to consider any new initiatives but he is going to wait to see if we change the way we broadcast,” Arnold had said.
Arnold had dismissed the demand as contrary to the mission of VOA and basic principles of free press. According to him, Simon, not only complained about the contents of VOA broadcasts but also pointed out that the Ethiopian government had problems with some of the journalists working for VOA. During the 2005 election turmoil in Ethiopia, the government charged five VOA journalists, along with local journalists and opposition leaders, with high treason. The charges were dropped in the course of the trial under pressure from the U.S. government.
During their visit, the delegation posted pictures and brief accounts of their experience on a dedicated blog, VOA on the Road Africa. In Ethiopia, the delegation that included four VOA staffers including the English to Africa Chief, Sonya Laurence Green, talked to senior Ethiopian government officials on issues related to the persistent jamming of VOA its transmissions and press freedom violations.
Alemayehu Gebremariam, a constitutional law attorney and professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, says: “Disclosure of a few names from an illegal list of names prepared by a foreign government to be blacklisted by the VOA presents no basis for legal or administrative action against him.
“Telling the truth in a news broadcast is not a crime. That is what Mr. Arnold has done. Journalists are censured and punished for reporting the truth in places like Iran and Ethiopia,” he noted.
Prof. Gebremariam further pointed out that the First Amendment guaranteed American citizens and inhabitants of the U.S. the absolute right to publicly criticize, denounce, condemn and berate any government institution or leader with impunity.
He said: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, which simply means that no government official or institution has the power to restrict, censor, suppress, restrain, muzzle or blackball any American citizen or inhabitant of the U.S. from exercising their right to free speech or restrain the independent press from performing its institutional functions.”
In March 2010, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi publicly threatened to jam VOA. “We have been convinced for many years that in many respects, the VOA Amharic Service has copied the worst practices of radio stations such as Radio Mille Collines of Rwanda in its wanton disregard of minimum ethics of journalism and engaging in destabilizing propaganda,” Zenawi told reporters in Addis Ababa.
“We have to know before we make the decision to jam, whether we have the capacity to do it. But I assure you if they assure me at some future date that they have the capacity to jam it, I will give them the clear guideline to jam it,” he added.
The government of Ethiopia has now developed a capacity to jam shortwave and satellite TV broadcasts. A few weeks ago, the Ethiopian Satellite Television issued a statement urging the government of China to stop providing technology and technical support that has enabled the Meles regime to jam its transmissions to Ethiopia.
In October 2010, Human Rights Watch released a special report, Development Without Freedom: How Aid Underwrites Repressions in Ethiopia, that accused western governments of complicity in repressions by turning a blind eye to the fact that “development aid flows through, and directly supports, a virtual one-party state with a deplorable human rights record.”
The Meles regime, which is a key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, receives over 3 billion dollars in aid annually from Western donors. One-third of the money comes from the coffers of the U.S. treasury in the form of relief and development aid.
———–
Related links
Removed webpage
www.voanews.com/amharic/news/amh_voa_ethiopia_6_23_11-124452979.html
Deleted but cached on Google
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9KEkXuDtGoAJ:www.voanews.com/amharic/news/amh_voa_ethiopia_6_23_11-124452979.html+www.voanews.com/amharic/news/amh_voa_ethiopia_6_23_11-124452979.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=gmail&source=www.google.com
Cached webpage JPEG (attached)
http://addisvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/VOA-deleted-page.jpg
Missing page: Where is June 23?
http://addisvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/VOA-June-23-file-missing.pdf
Removed news report (Amharic audio)
http://addisvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/VOA-removed-audio-file.mp3
VOA on the Road Africa
http://voaontheroadafrica.tumblr.com/
——
Abebe Gellaw can be reached for comment at editor@addisvoice.com
]]><![CDATA[PR: 一番人気端末を一番お得に使い倒せ！]]>
]]>2011-07-10T00:04:38+09:002011-07-10T00:04:38+09:002011-07-10T00:12:31+09:00rssad.jpdc56e2acfdf3d8a4d2314a7c38df5a88Implementation of the N Korean Human Rights Acthttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15865574/2011-07-01T16:10:25+09:002011-07-01T16:02:49+09:002011-07-01T16:02:49+09:00hildegart未分類
June 3rd, 2011 - 10:26 UTC
by Andy Sennitt.
Robert R King, US Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issue, testified yesterday before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act. This is what he said about broadcasting:
“Given the closed nature of North Korean society, broadcasting is one of the more effective means of sharing information about the outside world with residents of the country. To increase the flow of independent information into, out of, and within the country, the US government funds Korean-language broadcasting into North Korea by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and supports independent and defector-run broadcasts through the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
“In FY 2010, the BBG expended $8.5 million for a ten-hour-daily schedule of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasts, transmitted via shortwave and mediumwave during peak listening hours. RFA broadcasts 3.5 hours of original programming and 1.5 hours of repeat programming; VOA broadcasts four hours of original and one hour of repeat programming with daily news updates.
“With the FY 2009 ESF appropriation, the Department of State provided approximately $1 million from the Human Rights and Democracy Fund to support independent broadcasts into North Korea. These broadcasts are produced by North Korean defectors, now living in South Korea, and provide news and information with a more authentically North Korean voice.
“The BBG continues to explore avenues to expand broadcast capability into North Korea, and the Department of State is exploring opportunities using new media to reach North Koreans. Reports indicate that North Koreans are listening to foreign broadcasts in increasing numbers, even at serious risks to their personal safety.”
(Source: US Department of State)
]]>Implementation of the N Korean Human Rights Acthttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15865572/2011-07-01T16:10:13+09:002011-07-01T16:02:37+09:002011-07-01T16:02:37+09:00hildegart未分類
June 3rd, 2011 - 10:26 UTC
by Andy Sennitt.
Robert R King, US Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issue, testified yesterday before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act. This is what he said about broadcasting:
“Given the closed nature of North Korean society, broadcasting is one of the more effective means of sharing information about the outside world with residents of the country. To increase the flow of independent information into, out of, and within the country, the US government funds Korean-language broadcasting into North Korea by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and supports independent and defector-run broadcasts through the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
“In FY 2010, the BBG expended $8.5 million for a ten-hour-daily schedule of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasts, transmitted via shortwave and mediumwave during peak listening hours. RFA broadcasts 3.5 hours of original programming and 1.5 hours of repeat programming; VOA broadcasts four hours of original and one hour of repeat programming with daily news updates.
“With the FY 2009 ESF appropriation, the Department of State provided approximately $1 million from the Human Rights and Democracy Fund to support independent broadcasts into North Korea. These broadcasts are produced by North Korean defectors, now living in South Korea, and provide news and information with a more authentically North Korean voice.
“The BBG continues to explore avenues to expand broadcast capability into North Korea, and the Department of State is exploring opportunities using new media to reach North Koreans. Reports indicate that North Koreans are listening to foreign broadcasts in increasing numbers, even at serious risks to their personal safety.”
(Source: US Department of State)
]]>BBC Statement in response to Foreign Affairs Committee reporthttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15811491/2011-06-22T21:11:09+09:002011-06-22T21:03:43+09:002011-06-22T21:03:43+09:00hildegart未分類
Date: 13.04.2011
Category: World Service
The BBC today issued the following statement:
The BBC welcomes the FAC's strong support for the World Service and the value it brings in promoting British values and providing a widely respected and trusted news service. It is of course for the Government and Parliament to decide on the priorities for public spending.
The cuts being made to the World Service are a consequence of last autumn's Spending Review and the BBC regrets the scale and pace of cuts that have been necessary. If, in the light of the FAC report, the Government is prepared to re-open aspects of the Spending Review settlement the BBC will be pleased to engage with them constructively. We look forward to the Government's response to the Committee's recommendations.
The BBC is committed to the long-term future of the World Service and hopes to reinvest when responsibility for funding transfers to the licence fee in 2014.
BBC Press Office
]]>BBC Statement in response to Foreign Affairs Committee reporthttp://broadcast.exblog.jp/15811490/2011-06-22T21:11:00+09:002011-06-22T21:03:33+09:002011-06-22T21:03:33+09:00hildegart未分類
Date: 13.04.2011
Category: World Service
The BBC today issued the following statement:
The BBC welcomes the FAC's strong support for the World Service and the value it brings in promoting British values and providing a widely respected and trusted news service. It is of course for the Government and Parliament to decide on the priorities for public spending.
The cuts being made to the World Service are a consequence of last autumn's Spending Review and the BBC regrets the scale and pace of cuts that have been necessary. If, in the light of the FAC report, the Government is prepared to re-open aspects of the Spending Review settlement the BBC will be pleased to engage with them constructively. We look forward to the Government's response to the Committee's recommendations.
The BBC is committed to the long-term future of the World Service and hopes to reinvest when responsibility for funding transfers to the licence fee in 2014.
BBC Press Office
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