Fw: VOA and HFBC

[Paul Rinaldo]

Gang,

For your information.

Paul


>Voice of America to Concentrate on Mideast Board Decides to De-Emphasize English Radio Broadcasts, Stress TV and the Internet
>
>By Christopher Lee
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Tuesday, February 14, 2006; Page A13
>
>The Voice of America plans to silence many of its radio broadcasts in English and several other languages as the agency concentrates more resources on the Middle East and countries central to the U.S. effort against terrorism.
>
>The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the government-owned broadcasting service, announced the moves last week, citing tight budgets and the need to focus on the most pressing national security threats. Its plans arose despite proposed budget increases of 13 percent for the U.S.-sponsored Middle East Broadcasting Networks and 5.3 percent for the VOA.
>
>(Picture)
>Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson cited "painful choices." (Bill O'leary - Twp) 
>
>"Faced with the increased costs of expanding critically needed television and radio programming to the Arab and non-Arab Muslim world, the Board has had to make some painful choices," the broadcasting board, led by Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, said in a written statement.
>
>The plans angered many employees and VOA advocates, who say the move would eliminate long-standing English-language radio broadcasts everywhere but Africa, abandon other language broadcasts in some unstable parts of the world, and potentially leave many specialized journalists out of work. The changes come as Russia, China and the Qatar-based al-Jazeera network are adding television or Internet programming in English.
>
>"I think this, coupled with other reductions, amounts to nothing less than a coup de grace for the nation's largest publicly funded overseas network," said Alan Heil, a retired deputy director of VOA and author of "Voice of America: A History."
>
>"It is incomprehensible that in our own mother tongue -- the world's major language of commerce and the Internet -- that we would be going dark in four of five continents previously reached," he added.
>
>Most painful, advocates say, is the prospective loss of News Now, the VOA's flagship English-language service. It broadcasts worldwide 14 hours a day and includes hourly news updates, correspondent reports and longer programs on science and other topics. The VOA would continue with English content on the Web and special broadcasts for limited English speakers.
>
>Also scheduled for elimination are VOA radio broadcasts in Croatian, Turkish, Thai, Greek and Georgian. Radio broadcasts in Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Serbian, Russian and Hindi would end, although television programming in those languages would continue. Russian and Georgian programming would continue on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S.-funded broadcasting service carrying stories of regional interest.
>
>The broadcasts on the chopping block generally are transmitted over shortwave radio, a medium that studies show has a diminishing audience, said Larry Hart, a spokesman for the broadcasting board. He said the board wants to expand VOA operations over the Internet and on television, a more expensive medium that will more than soak up the budget increases.
>
>At the same time, the board wants to shift resources to the Middle East, Iran and Afghanistan, regions central to the fight against terrorism where few people speak English and a free press is scarce.
>
>"What we're looking at is who could benefit most by our services, and those are people, generally, that in many cases are not English-speaking or at least are not well versed in English, that primarily get their information in their native language, and that have the least available competitive sources," Hart said.
>
>Critics say they fear that the administration is trying to put a more political stamp on VOA programming, as Tomlinson was accused of doing as a board member at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting before resigning under pressure in November.