The appointment of a new acting chief executive for America’s five taxpayer-funded overseas networks and two senior leaders of the Voice of America is a major achievement of the new Biden administration. At 2 p.m. January 20, Michael Pack, the departing CEO, announced his resignation at President Biden’s request barely two hours after Mr. Biden…
Less than a week before the end of President Trump’s term in office January 20, at least 30 VOA journalists and staff members petitioned for the immediate resignation of its new director Robert R. Reilly, and his recently appointed deputy director Elizabeth Robbins. As the Washington Post reported: “Simmering tensions between journalists and managers at…
January 6, 2021, is a day that will live in infamy, not only in the United States but among tens of millions of friends and allies abroad and millions of Americans here at home. The assault by protestors on the U. S. Capitol is an unprecedented 21st-Century challenge for our nation’s public diplomacy. WHAT WAS…
New Year resolutions that matter. There are millions of these, circulating the globe. Here are some of my favorites — past and present. All are a public diplomacy challenge to the U.S. and its allies, as noted below. 1.The tragedy of COVID-19 continues to be overwhelming, especially in developing countries. New York Times columnist Nicholas…
In a lead editorial entitled “The Plague Year,” The Economist minces no words: “Like the COVID-19 endemic, climate change is impervious to populace denials, global in the destruction it causes and will be far more costly to deal with in the future if it is neglected now. “Something good can come from the misery of…
From a tiny Persian Gulf country to brightly decorated homes throughout America, new friendships span faith traditions and signal hope and peace for countless millions in the year ahead. Washington Post correspondent Steve Hendrix visits Dubai to observe the arrival in brightly illuminated market squares of an unprecedented tour by an estimated 10,000 Israeli Jews,…
Linked via ZOOM, two dozen veteran practitioners and scholars of the impact of the nation’s five overseas international broadcasters joined December 16th in discussion of the networks’ future under a Biden administration. Among the expert panelists as lead participants: Amanda Bennett and David Ensor. Former Voice of America Directors Martha Bayles and Peter Pomerantsev, scholars…
“Freedom of information is a fundamental human right, and the touchstone of all the freedoms, as well, to which the United States is consecrated. This is our touchstone as well. We seek a free flow of information with others, across Iron Curtains and stone walls.” — President John F. Kennedy, 1962 “To millions in closed…
The ingenuity of hopeful humanity, from a 27-year-old environmental activist in India to President-elect Joseph Biden in United States. Both have faith that a bright day for weary, afflicted humans the world over must follow a grim winter for mounting victims of the greatest pandemic tragedy (COV-19) this century. According to Washington Post reporter Taniya…
President-elect Biden has taken a promising first step to ensure that the five networks uphold that reputation by naming former Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel and Time Magazine columnist as director of a Biden transition team for international broadcasting and other foreign policy assets. America’s five U.S. overseas government multimedia networks face a crucial…