From the newswire (thanks “Blue Mountain”) we see that the Broadcasting Board of Governors has decided to scale back some of its global Voice of America programming, seemingly to re-direct dollars to countries most in need of America’s voice.
This may come as a shock to millions of Hindi radio fans worldwide, Even as the Indo-US relationship scales a new peak, the popular Hindi service of the Voice of America seems all set to be closed down in six months, after being on air for more than four decades. In its annual budget, the Broadcasting Board of Governors has said it will close down VoA’s Hindi radio broadcasts along with four others–Turkish, Thai, Greek and Croatian. Although it is still under Congressional review, it is unlikely that the lawmakers would go against the board’s decision.At the same time, VoA’s Urdu service is being increased to 18 hours a day, including a special six-hour broadcast for the tribal areas of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The duration of the Hindi service is one hour and 30 minutes. [Link]
This strikes me as short-sighted. What’s happening here is that the powers that be are shifting their dollars away from many of the countries in which VoA is popular and arguably effective, and is instead going to try and focus on immediate hotspots using more exciting forms of media (as exemplified by Radio Sawa and Al-Hurra TV). The Baltimore Sun has a nice op-ed outlining possible motivations behind these directed cuts and why they may be a bad idea:
The enemy media fire hard and fast, said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a recent speech, and we must return the fire just as fast. As an example, he cites the extensive coverage of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Why not respond, he asks, by reporting on the mass graves of Saddam Hussein’s victims – torture answering torture, as it were. And non-journalists may have to paid to do the job. It is a kind of shock and awe of the media, a crucial part of the war on terror…The Voice of America, to be sure, does not do this, and therein lies the problem. Dismissed as old-fashioned, stodgy and slow-moving, it is slated for drastic cuts by the supervising Broadcast Board of Governors…
Since, comparatively speaking, it costs so little, what’s the problem? Many say it is political. Every administration in Washington tries to nudge VOA this way or that way politically, but the pressure exerted by the current administration is said to be unprecedented…
This interference is not unique to VOA. It reflects what has happened at the Pentagon and the CIA, where dissenters have been demoted, reassigned, fired or otherwise silenced. [Link]
The conservative news magazine Human Events also sees the danger in cutting back VoA:
The Middle East is not the only source of ill-will toward America and U.S. interests, but that region now receives the bulk of U.S. funding for foreign broadcasting while operations elsewhere, such as in Latin America, languish.
Though understandable, this approach may be counterproductive. Because public diplomacy efforts such as international broadcasting take years and decades to do their work, shifting massive resources to current hotspots may net little in the end. America needs a more balanced long-term strategy for its foreign broadcasting, and its overseers need to use greater creativity to spread American culture and ideas successfully. [Link]
<
p>I’d like to see some Indian American groups lobby Congress about this. One of the employees of VoA’s Hindi service makes an appeal for just such action:
…an employee of the Hindi Service, has sent a fax to a large number of Indian-Americans worldwide, which says, “It is in the interest of the US public diplomacy that VoA continues to interact with tens of millions of Indian Hindi radio listeners and tell them the truth about American policy on issues and developments that are of great interest to Indian public…” [Link]
Also I should note that what one hand takes away the other hand gives. VoA has just launched its first television show exclusively for Bangladesh:
The Voice of America (VOA) launched Washington Barta (Washington Talk) today, its first television programming exclusively for Bangladesh. The inaugural program featured an exclusive interview with Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher.
“Our weekly Washington Barta is a five to six minute interview with a top newsmaker on issues concerning U.S.-Bangladesh relations, South Asia, and the people of Bangladesh,” said VOA Director David Jackson. “VOA’s Bangla radio programs have been so popular over the years that about 1,000 VOA fan clubs have been created by people who enjoy listening to our programs. Now we’ve got something from VOA for them to see on television too.”
In an agreement with NTV, a major 24-hour news and entertainment satellite channel based in Dhaka, Washington Barta will air every Friday at 11:20 p.m. (Dhaka time), following NTV’s nightly news, and will repeat on Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. (Dhaka time). [Link]
The issue has to do with the independence of the VOA – the VOA sees itself as a legitimate news agency and not simply as a propaganda broadcaster. They think the best thing to do for the united states is to present it, warts and all, to the outside world and to expemplify the virtues that it calls for in others. Many within this administration feel that, instead, the VOA should be shrunk and the money reallocated to more positive, upbeat, arabic language television (for example). The problem is that it comes across as advertising, and so has little credibility, whereas the VOA had more.
Also note that Kenneth Tomlinson who is the Chairman of the BBG recently got in trouble for his conservative meddling over at NPR.
abhi: “WhatÂ’s happening here is that the powers that be are shifting their dollars away from many of the countries in which VoA is popular and arguably effective,”
well, i would be seriously surprised if voa had a big audience in india. i had no clue abt voa back then, never heard it mentioned ever in the 3 cities i grew up in—kolkatta, chennai, and blore. admittedly none are in the hindi heartland, but i doubt that voa was popular anywhere. i know bbc is/was.
don’t know abt the other countries though.
The actual utility of a blatantly advertised propaganda outlet is certainly up for debate. Does anybody in the middle east actually listen to the arabic channel paid for by the us govt?
Having said that, as a journalistic outreach program of the govt I think there is probably justification in dropping coverage. Like ennis (#1) I am under the impression that voa considers itself a news org and different from outlets like radio marti, sawa and other outlets that are propaganda. I think the long term plan may be to drop “news” altogether in favor of propaganda broadcasts. If the us govt needs a propaganda tool in hindi it will probably create one. At this time there is no need for one, hence the cuts.
Radio marti was created because the interested parties felt that voa wasn’t doing enough of a job shovelling the official anti castro line. My friend who used to work there complained about the strict controls and about how close to treason it was to back off the anti-castro line even a hair (this was during the jorge mas canosa years, I have no idea about it these days).
I agree with byteword (#3). The beeb was the paradesi broadcast of choice when I was listening to the radio (which wasn’t much). When I was in madras I got my us propaganda straight from the ‘merican embassy and copies of “span” that used to show up in our mail regularly (this was in the usia days).