In a World Press Freedom Day message yesterday May 3, President Biden warned that “the truth is under attack” and that “authoritarians” are trying to undermine the media globally. In a statement on the White House website, the president praised objective journalists around the world and urged them “to continue holding those in power to…
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.”…
Seven Senators wrote to new global media director Michael Pack threatening budget cuts if the United States-supported media are politicized. The group, in an announcement June 2, expressed “deep concern” over what they termed as a purge by the Trump administration of five senior officers of U.S. international multimedia organizations shortly after the resignation of Voice of…
The newly-installed CEO of five publicly-funded multimedia overseas networks, Michael Pack, wasted no time during his first day in office June 17 in announcing his dismissal of four civil service heads of the networks. They are: President Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a recently named specialist in Russia and Eastern Europe President Bay…
The resignation of Amanda Bennett as director of the Voice of America began a slew of developments that have captured news headlines. Bennett resigned as Michael Pack, a film-maker, was confirmed as the new Chief Executive Officer of VOA’s parent organization, the United States Agency for Global Media. Pack has since fired the directors of…
After a comprehensive survey, VOA veteran analyst Matthew Baise reports that the nation’s largest publicly-funded network has attracted more than 7.8 million page views on the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in China and other countries since January 18. According to Baise, the Voice’s coverage “has been diverse, tailored to target audiences, and highly successful.” …
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…
America has five taxpayer-funded multimedia overseas broadcasters. Practically unknown, however, is fact that 18 field reporters of those networks have been killed or missing in the last seven decades because of their service in covering events in war-torn or totalitarian countries across four continents. On May 3, the chief executive of the five networks, John…
Here is the first of a series of factual updates about United States public diplomacy and broadcasting. A link to each will be posted on our Advocacy page. GUTS: USG Broadcasting Fiscal Year 2018 spending level: $793,808,000 including capital improvements 2018 audience: 278,000,000 unduplicated users a week (TV, radio and internet) Since the end of…