FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien. September 12, 2008, San Francisco — The model website, which the staff of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) says will be used to create a new interactive platform as replacement for broadcasting VOA radio programs to Russia, has solicited no comments from international users despite being up for a few weeks. All VOA…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 11, 2006, San Francisco — FreeMediaOnline.org has learned that several members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors refused to take a vote Thursday to restore Voice of America radio programs to Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and other countries. VOA radio to Russia was shut down by the BBG on July 26, just 12 days before Russian…
A New Website Hides a Tale of Fewer Radio Programs to Tibet, China, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog Commentary by Ted Lipien, September 10, 2008, San Francisco — Websites tell their tales, and the newly redesigned, flashy website of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) tells a tale of hubris, waste, and reduced access to uncensored radio news for those who…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 8, 2008, San Francisco — Perhaps Paula Zahn, formerly of CNN and ABC, could have explained to the White House, the U.S. Congress and the American people why the Voice of America (VOA) Russian-language radio programs were not being heard in the war zone in Georgia, or in Russia itself, when the Russian troops invaded their small neighbor on…
FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, Commentary by Ted Lipien, September 8, 2008, San Francisco — A country like Russia either needs surrogate broadcasting or it doesn’t. Many countries, however, need balanced and objective news from the Voice of America that surrogate broadcasters living overseas are not trained to provide. If a country also needs a genuine surrogate broadcaster — as it is the case now with…
Bureaucratic Jamming Of U.S. Broadcasts To Russia, Georgia And Ukraine FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, September 7, 2008, San Francisco — Political jamming originating in Washington rather than Soviet-style electronic jamming of radio signals made it impossible for the Russian speakers in the war zone in Georgia and in Russia itself to hear Voice of America (VOA) news broadcasts during the recent crisis in the…
FreeMediaOnline.orgCommentary by Ted Lipien, September 4, 2008, San Francisco — While the White House mobilized in just a few days to put together a $1 billion aid package for Georgia, and President Bush sent Vice President Dick Cheney on a trip to the region, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all civilian U.S. international broadcasts, is still in the mode of defending the shutting down…
What Would Barack Obama Say If He Knew… Commentary by Ted Lipien FreeMediaOnline.org, San Francisco, August 29, 2008 — Why would U.S. taxpayers want to help a nationalist Russian politician spread his racist and anti-immigrant views on a radio station, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)? Radio Liberty is based in Moscow and Prague but is managed by the bipartisan broadcasting Board of…
FreeMediaOnline.org, August 23, 2008, San Francisco — In a move seen as a foreign policy embarrassment for Senator Obama’s vice-presidential running mate, the Senate staff of Senator Joe Biden was said to be involved in stopping the Voice of America (VOA) radio programs to Russia just 12 days before Moscow launched its military attack on Georgia. VOA is an international broadcasting service funded by…
FreeMediaOnline.org, San Francisco, August 21, 2008 — In a move seen as a foreign policy and public diplomacy blunder, in which the Senate staff of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) is said to be involved, the Voice of America (VOA), an international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government, stopped its radio programs to Russia just 12 days before Moscow launched its military attack on Georgia. According to a…