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…
“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…
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…
The threat to the five international multimedia U.S. networks, at times, seems unrelenting. These networks are a key public diplomacy aspect of the nation’s outreach to at least 100 countries around the world. Herewith, a summary of the ongoing debate about prospects for their future. In an editorial on October 28, the Washington Post headline…
For America’s publicly-funded overseas broadcasters, it has been the most perilous summer and fall in the 78 years since the Voice of America went on the air during World War II with the pledge: “The news may be good, the news may be bad for us (the U.S.), but we shall tell you the truth.”…
The House Foreign Affairs Committee summoned Michael Pack, the CEO of five publicly-funded overseas networks, to be the principal figure at a long-scheduled hearing September 24. The problem was: Mr. Pack, though under subpoena after resisting the invitation, never showed up. The main issue: Mr. Pack’s nearly four-month leadership of the Voice of America, Radio…
Hans N. (Tom) Tuch was a highly-respected deputy and for some months, acting director of the Voice of America in the late 1970s. I recall the first day of Tom’s tenure at the Voice as controversy swirled anew around whether or not VOA correspondents were U.S. officials, or journalists. It was a day of drama…
Hans N. (Tom) Tuch, an early and persistent advocate of public diplomacy as an indispensable element in the conduct of U.S. foreign affairs, died on September 7, 2020 at his residence in Bethesda,MD. He was 95. The cause of death were complications following a recent fall. His seminal book, “Communicating with the World: U.S. Public…
Three months ago, Michael Pack was named chief executive officer of the five U.S.-funded overseas multimedia networks. They are: Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Middle East Broadcast Network in Arabic (MBN) and Radio-TV Marti in Spanish to Cuba. The five networks are supervised by the U.S.…