International Broadcasting – February 2023
RFE/RL’s January of publicity
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty had a very good January of publicity. It started with a CBS 60 Minutes segment on January 1, with Bill Whitaker reporting (t.ly/N_em). The report discussed the history of RFE and RL and their covert CIA funding. Most of the feature examined RFE/RL’s activities now in Ukraine and Russia. The president of RFE/RL. Jamie Fly, explained that most of RFE/RL’s audience now uses online video, despite the “Radio†in its names. In fact, he acknowledged that RFE/RL may consider changing its name.
Bill Whitacre also interviewed (online only: t.ly/RLJg) Mark Pomar, a former executive of RFE/RL and VOA2, and author of the new book Cold War Radio. Pomar repeated the time-worn but never very true explanation that RFE and RL were unique in focusing on news about their target countries. Actually, most successful international broadcasting gives its audiences news about their own countries that is more credible and comprehensive than what they receive from their state-controlled domestic media. BBC2 did this for Europe during World War II, and for much of the rest of the world since WWII. VOA served a similar role in Africa, China, Iran, and many other places. Read the rest of this entry »
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Kim’s Column, February 2020
International broadcasting and events in Iraq and Iran
The big international affairs event in January was the killing of Qasem Soleimani, Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and, commander of its Quds Force, in a targeted US drone strike in Iraq, January 3. That was followed by Iranian missile attacks on US bases in Iraq on January 7.
How did US international broadcasting under the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), respond to these events? Like US international broadcasting itself, it’s complicated. Besides the United States, two countries were primarily involved: Iran and Iraq. For Iran, broadcasts in Persian (Farsi) originate from two USAGM entities: VOA Persian (TV and online) and Radio Farda (radio, TV and online), part of Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc. The extent to which these two Persian-language USAGM entities
cooperate is a good question that I can’t answer.
For Iraq, all of USAGM’s Arabic-language efforts come under its Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) Inc, consisting of Alhurra television and Radio Sawa, plus their online presences.
On the day of Soleimani’s death, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda published an analysis in English (and presumably in Persian, as well) by Mehrzad Boroujerdi, director of the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech University. His frank assessment: “By reducing the complexity of Iraqi politics to Iranian manipulations, the Americans have surely made a grave analytical mistake. They may have physically eliminated a number of
nemesis while handing Iran, on a silver platter, a major political victory in Iraq.†(bit.ly/2tpue8o)
The same day (January 3), RFE/RL issued an advisory press release (bit.ly/2TupGYT) with comments by Seyed Mehdi Parpanchi, Director of RFE/RL’s Iranian Service, Radio Farda, about the killing of Soleimani: “There is a small minority that is condemning this attack and saying that what the U.S. did is terrorism, but a majority of the people that we see on social media, especially on Twitter, on Instagram are kind of happy that this has happened.â€
This contrasts with mainstream media reaction, which was that the drone attack against Qasem Soleimani and his confederates would unite Iranian and Iraqi public opinion against the United States. But the revisionist assessment popped up in other elements of US international broadcasting.
Baking cakes to thank @realDonaldTrump
Fox News, which would want to counter the conclusion that the drone attack on Solemani and company was a public diplomacy disaster, cited three tweets by Alhurra reporter Steven Nabil @thestevennabil, including “Some Iraqis are baking cakes thanking @realDonaldTrump Trump for taking out Qassim Suleimani.â€
Meanwhile, Masih Alinejad, a contractor who hosts the hosts the Tablet talk show on VOA Persian, wrote a commentary (wapo.st/2NyokIW) in the Washington Post website.  She maintained that the Iranian protests of Soleimani’s death were largely orchestrated.  “I have more than 4 million followers on various social media networks, and I have received thousands of messages, voice mails and videos from Iranians in cities such as
Shiraz, Isfahan, Tehran and even Ahvaz, who are happy about Soleimani’s death. Some complain of the pressure to attend services for him.†Alinejad also tweeted (bit.ly/2NzCERm) a video of a demonstrator in Iran calling for her execution.
Eli Clifton of the Quincy Institute took exception to the message conveyed by Alinejad. (bit.ly/2NyELEZ) “[O]ne frequently cited Iranian voice in the mainstream media, Masih Alinejad, has been repeatedly echoing the administration’s claims that Iranians, despite all visible evidence, were welcoming Trump’s potential act of war against Iran.
“Fox News for example presented Alinejad …as an ‘Iranian journalist’ or ‘Iranian journalist and activist,’ missing a key detail about her biography: she’s paid by the U.S. government. CNN, and New York Times columnist Bret Stephens also quoted her without acknowledging her government funding.
“Alinejad works as an ‘anchor, writer, reporter for [Voice of America] Persian Service,’ a U.S. government owned television network broadcasting to Iranians, according to a publicly available description of her federal contract reviewed by Responsible Statecraft.  She received more than $305,000 in contracts for her work at Voice of America (VOA) Persia between May, 2015 and September 10, 2019, the date of her most recent contract.
“That crucial context was missing in her television appearances and other media citations in which she appeared to closely echo the Trump administration’s line that the Soleimani assassination was welcomed in the region even when there is little evidence to support the assertion.â€
Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) took up the Quincy Institute article, berating US media for not stating that Alinejad is a US government contractor. Alinejad answered Omar in a “10-tweet blast,†noting that Omar has not helped her in speaking out against Iranian human rights abuses. (bit.ly/2tgz7Ri)
VOA Editorial weighs in, none too soon
Back at the Voice of America, VOA has for several decades broadcast editorials “reflecting the views of the United States government.†These editorials are now relegated to slots on VOA’s television channel, which has very little distribution, and on the VOA Editorials web page editorials.voa.gov. Interestingly, unless I am missing it, I cannot find a link to Editorials anywhere at voanews.com.  You will have to find it by way of a Google or your favorite search.
When Soleimani was killed, I searched out VOA Editorials, wondering how they would explain the event on behalf of the US government. I was not surprised to see no comment, given that there can be lag time between events and VOA Editorials. But the VOA Editorial about the death of Qassem Soleimani on January 3 was not published until January 15 – twelve days after the event. “U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
declared that Soleimani was plotting further imminent attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.†(bit.ly/2Rq5btW)
The process with VOA Editorials is like this: The policy office at VOA or one of its parent bureaucracies will draft an editorial that they believe reflects the views of the US government. That draft is sent to the State Department. It (not usually a high priority) is eventually sent back with suggested or required revisions. Those revisions are incorporated and returned to the State Department. The next revised draft is sent back, and so on, and so forth. The twelve-day delay is therefore not surprising. Meanwhile, the Policy staff, whiling away the days, is paid more than I ever was at VOA.
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Kim’s Column, September 2008
Radio Netherlands’ rapidly-fading shortwave signal
Of particular importance to us in the the North American Shortwave Association is Radio Netherlands’ decision to quit English-language shortwave broadcasts to North America.
This is a big one, following the BBC and Deutsche Welle abandonments of shortwave English to North America, as well as similar moves by Kol Israel, HCJB, Radio Vlaanderen International, RAI, Swiss Radio International, etc. German shortwave expert Kai Ludwig wrote: “This marks the end of shortwave as a relevant broadcast medium in the USA and Canada. The programming still transmitted on shortwave in and into North America should be of interest to very small niche audiences only. In some cases it may even damage the reputation of the medium further.â€
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Kim’s Column, September 2006
Editor’s note: This column arrived too late for our print issue. We present it here on the site for the benefit of our members and others.
Internet radios in our future?
The FCC has pretty much signed on to Broadband Over Power Line (BPL). And there are all sorts of noises from new devices creeping into the shortwave frequencies. My Verizon FIOS fiber optic broadband access seems to be one of the culprits. It’s not the fiber lines, but the Cat-5 cables between the Verizon box outside my house and the various RJ-45 jacks in rooms throughout my house.
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Kim’s Column, January 2006
[Editor’s note: We were unable to run this column in the January NASWA Journal due to space limitations. We present it here on the NASWA web site to prevent it from going unread.]
Best quote of the month
“Is it arrogance or honesty that drives Mr. Chirac to indicate that his ‘news’ channel (CFII) will be the de facto voice of the French republic? Or is it simply blindness to the idea that world over, what most people want from their news is simply the facts and to be left free to make up their own minds?â€
And that really is the essence of successful international broadcasting. Report simply the facts and let the audience make up its own mind. If the broadcasting country’s policies are wise and virtuous, the audience will tend to make up its mind in a manner satisfactory to the broadcasting country. The alternative is propaganda, a naïve form of international broadcasting. The audience immediately recognizes it for what it is.
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Kim’s Column, September 2005
Shortwave as the failsafe
First, the government of Cote d’Ivoire evicted Radio France International was evicted from its FM frequencies because of its reporting of domestic Ivorian news. Then it managed to “interrupt” RFI on the Canal Satellite Horizons DTH service, which is received in about 25,000 households in the country. And, so, RFI has decided to increase–actually, to restore–its shortwave output to Africa.
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