Senate Committee on Appropriations says VOA radio and TV to China must continue
http://www.bloggernews.net/127192
Posted on September 28th, 2011
by ted in All News, Blogosphere News, Breaking News, California News, China
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The media freedom website BBG Watch reported that the Senate Committee on
Appropriations has rejected the Broadcasting Board of Governors´ (BBG) proposal
to end
Voice of America (VOA) radio and TV broadcasts to China and criticized the BBG
for the lack
of transparency. The committee recommended $740,039,000 for U.S. international
broadcasting operations, for the operating and engineering costs of VOA, Office
of Cuba
Broadcasting (OCB), which includes Radio and TV Marti, Radio Free Europe Radio
Liberty
(RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), which
includes Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa, and the BBG in FY2012. The Obama
Administration
has asked for $754,261,000. The BBG´s FY2011 budget was $740,017,000. The BBG.
manages these U.S. government-funded entities and broadcasting operations
In a highly critical language included in a report recommending the passage of
the bill (S.
1601) making FY2012 appropriations for the Department of State, the BBG and
other foreign
operations, the Senate Committee on Appropriations expressed concern with "the
lack of
transparency" regarding the BBG proposal.
The committee noted that in addition to ending VOA radio and TV to China, the
BBG also
wanted to reduce shortwave and medium wave transmissions to Russia, Iran, North
Korea,
Vietnam, and Iraq. The committee directed the BBG to notify the committee when
BBG
broadcast hours are reduced or increased and when transmission platforms are
changed.
The committee approved funding for the continuation of these broadcasts and
transmissions,
including VOA radio and TV programs to China. The report was submitted by
Senator Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign
Operations.
In an earlier action, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs also voted by
unanimous
consent to approve an amendment proposed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) that
would
prevent the BBG from ending VOA broadcasts to China. The vote represented an
unprecendented full bipartisan rebuke to the BBG.
In describing his strategy of confronting Congress, the BBG chairman Walter
Isaacson said
in a recent interview with Congressional Quarterly that "these are battles I´m
not afraid to
have." That strategy, advocated by the BBG permanent executive staffers who
advise the
part-time Board, backfired. Having managed to terminate VOA radio and TV
broadcasts to
Russia despite strong opposition from Senator Leahy and other members of
Congress, these
executive staffers were confident they could do it again in the case of VOA
broadcasts to
China.
This time they encountered a far stronger and better organized opposition from
numerous
media freedom and human rights groups. In the interview, Isaacson also
mischaracterized
the position of his Congressional and other critics by implying that they are
so focused on
preserving shortwave radio broadcasts that they fail to understand the
importance of social
media. Most of the critics are supporters of new media technologies but
advocate a multi-
media approach to program delivery, including satellite TV transmissions to
China, which the
BBG also wanted to eliminate. In a move that may signal a an attempt at damage
control, the
BBG has abolished the positions of some of its executives who were behind the
decision to
end VOA programs to China and reduce radio and TV transmissions to other
countries
without free media.
Before these Congressional actions, the BBG plan had been criticized by Chinese
human
rights activists, Human Rights Watch, American civil rights activists,
journalists, and Chinese
American organizations.
Laogai Research Foundation, Chinese Coalition for Citizens´ Rights, Women´s
Rights
Without Frontiers, Women´s Rights in China, Free Church for China, China Aid,
Tibet House,
Free Burma Alliance, The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New York, Visual
Artists Guild,
Pasadena NAACP, National Committee Democratic Party of China, Alliance for Hong
Kong
Chinese in the US, Human Rights for Workers, and Ethan Gutmann, Recipient
Tiananmen
Spirit Award, signed a petition to Congress to save VOA Chinese broadcasts.
Free Media Online, a media freedom nonprofit, worked with current and former
BBG
employees and human rights activists to help launch BBG Watch website, which
advocates
for restoring media freedom focus and good management in U.S. international
broadcasting.
Claims by BBG members and executives that almost no one in China listens to VOA
radio on
shortwave were denied by Chinese pro-democracy activists and derided by both
Democrats
and Republicans in Congress.
The Committee does not include the funds requested for program
enhancements.
However, the BBG may propose reallocations to fund these increases in the
fiscal year 2012
spend plan. While the Committee recognizes that VOA English language and
cultural
programs are reaching audiences, particularly youth, via the Internet in the
PRC, the
Committee is concerned with the lack of clarity about the impact of the China
broadcast
restructuring proposal on all VOA radio and television programs broadcast to
the PRC and
Taiwan, and the lack of transparency of the ``optimize BBG transmission´´
proposal. The
Committee does not support either proposal and includes funding for the
continuation of
these broadcasts and transmissions.Standard rig : ICOM R75 / 2x16 V / m@h40
heads
Sennheiser
Please read and distribute this 15 year research article
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