After the first dozen days of the New Year, events in the Middle East appeared to be deteriorating daily in a procession of grim setbacks. Can this be reversed in the second dozen days of a new decade? There appears to be no substitute for honest, at times painful dialogue — with other powers informing…
Surveying the world scene as a new year and new decade dawns, many would agree, on the basis of events this past year that there aren’t many rays of hope on the horizon. 2019: —As Middle East Institute President Paul Salem describes the year past: “In the Middle East and North Africa, there were five…
As a 36-year VOA professional who retired at the end of last century, I recall vividly a day when VOA’s then record weekly global audience reached around a hundred million followers. A Voice technician, in a conversation in a Voice corridor, noted an irony in this good news. Referring to the scarce coverage in the U.S.…
Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett, in a wide-ranging conversation Nov. 6 with American University students and public diplomacy advocates, reminded her audience that VOA “is all about a free press.” Examples abound: A VOA multilingual VOA team has been in Hong Kong to report pro-democracy demonstrations in that Chinese territory. Objective journalism IS public…
“The news may be good… the news may be bad, but we shall tell you the truth.” That was the solemn pledge a Voice of America program host in New York made to listeners at the opening of the first VOA broadcast in German to war-torn Europe early in the morning on February 1, 1942.…
A ceasefire in Yemen’s civil conflict, now in its fifth year, now appears, at last, to be coming into view. The conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and been described by U.N. officials as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” “If the fighting continues through 2022,” a U.N. development report released October 10 said,…
October heralds the formation of a new management team overseeing the nation’s five taxpayer-funded networks that reach an estimated unduplicated 345 million users online, TV and radio listeners each week. The networks are the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE-RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), The Middle East Broadcast Network (NBN) in Arabic.…
John Lansing, who has headed the five U.S. overseas taxpayer-funded networks since 2015, will become president and CEO of National Public Radio on October 1. The five U.S. networks are: Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Middle East Broadcasting Network in Arabic, (MBN) and Radio-TV Marti in…
Akbar Ayazi, who emigrated to the U.S. from his native Afghanistan in 1980, served as a distinguished broadcaster and executive for the Voice of America for 27 years and for a decade at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He passed away August 25 after a long battle with lung cancer. Mr. Ayazi is survived by his…
In the 20th century, two distinguished leaders at VOA were indispensable in the growth of the nation’s largest U.S.-funded international broadcaster: former Central News editor in chief and White House correspondent Philomena (Phil) Jurey, 91, and Near East and South Asia director Salman (Sam) M. Hilmy, 89. Their work significantly amplified America’s public diplomacy during…