Working Together to Further U.S. Strategic Intere s t s

U. S . I NTER NATI O NAL BRO AD CA STING

Working Together to Further U.S. Strategic Intere s t s

1997 Annual Report

On Cover (from top):

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at VOA headquarters to inaugurate V O A NEWS NOW.

S e c re t a ry of State Madeleine Albright addresses the people of Cuba via Radio Mart í .

Wei Jingsheng speaks at Radio Free Asia headquart e r s .

Health and Human Services Secre t a ry Donna Shalala takes part in WORLDNET ‘Dialogue’ with host Diane Butts.

F o rmer Ambassador Richard Holbrooke speaks to an RFE/RL Forum on Bosnia.

Executive Summary i

Our Impact on the Wo r l d i i

S u m m a ry of the 1997 Annual Report i i i

I . A Signal That Makes a Diff e re n c e 1

Mission and Audience 1

Making a Diff e rence in Ta rget Regions 3

Measuring Eff e c t i v e n e s s 5

I I . New Leadership, New Ideas 7

A New Senior Management Te a m 7

Engaging the American People 8

Training and Part n e r s h i p s 9

I I I . New Technologies, New Delivery Systems 1 1

S t rengthening Our Technical Competitiveness 1 1

A ffiliates Expand the Audience 1 4

Television as an Altern a t i v e 1 5

Use of the Intern e t 1 6

I V. Looking Ahead 1 7

Appendices 1 9

Biographies of Members, Broadcasting Board of Governors 1 9

Voice of America 2 0

O ffice of Cuba Bro a d c a s t i n g 2 1

W O R L D N E T 2 2

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2 3

Radio Free Asia 2 4

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

To the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States

ON B E H A L F O F T H E BR O A D C A S T I N G BO A R D O F GO V E R N O R S, I A M P L E A S E D T O S U B M I T

this re p o rt of the accomplishments of our U.S.-funded international bro a d c a s t i n g

s e rvices—the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Libert y, Radio Fre e

Asia, Radio and TV Martí, and WORLDNET Te l e v i s i o n .

T h roughout 1997, we continued to receive strong aff i rmation about the neces-

sity of our broadcasts from people in the former Yugoslavia, Central Africa,

Cuba, Iraq, and other countries. They told us that U.S. international bro a d c a s t i n g

p rovides them with objective and accurate news about events around them.

Indeed, the proliferation of new media notwithstanding, our programs are often

among the few ways they can receive this essential inform a t i o n .

Of note in 1997, a new leadership team was appointed in three of our five ser-

vices, as well as at the head of the International Broadcasting Bureau. These

d i rectors have brought new energy and vision to our operations. Among the

achievements of the past year: enhanced programming to areas of strategic

i m p o rtance to the United States; expanded service in Arabic, Burm e s e ,

Mandarin, and other vernacular languages; increased capabilities in our techni-

cal operations; and a strengthened audience re s e a rch eff o rt .

The re p o rt is submitted in accordance with the re q u i rement of Section 305

(a)(9) of Public Law 103-236, the U.S. International Broadcasting Act. Beyond this

legal re q u i rement, we have looked upon the creation of this re p o rt as an excellent

o p p o rtunity to summarize our activities and anticipate new challenges.

With world events and technology changing continually, the Board and the

e n t i re U.S. international broadcasting community are committed to seeking ways

to improve our content and technical dissemination in 1998 and beyond. We

deeply appreciate the support of the President and the Congress in this endeavor

and look forw a rd to working with you to further democracy, human rights, and

other fundamental freedoms around the world.

Respectfully submitted,

David W. Burke

B roadcasting Board of Govern o r s

David W. BurkeM a s s a c h u s e t t s

Tom C. Koro l o g o sVi rg i n i a

E d w a rd E. KaufmanD e l a w a re

Bette Bao LordNew Yo r k

Carl SpielvogelNew Yo r k

M a rc B. NathansonC a l i f o rn i a

A l b e rto MoraF l o r i d a

C h e ryl HalpernNew Jersey

The Honorable Joseph Duff e yD i re c t o rUnited States Information Agency

IN A P E R F E C T W O R L D, P E O P L E W O U L D

tune in their own local radio and televi-sion stations to learn the latestregional, national, and intern a t i o n a ln e w s .

But reality is far diff e rent. Onlyabout 20 percent of the almost 6 billionpeople in the world live in countrieswith a free press. That means thatalmost 4 billion people hear news thatis totally or partially censored by theirg o v e rnments. The list includes coun-tries in which the United States has ad i rect political, economic, and humani-tarian stake: Bosnia, China, and Iraq,to name but a few.

A restricted local press obstru c t sthe free flow of objective, accuratei n f o rmation. People know only whattheir government wants them toknow— unless they have altern a t emedia sources that provide a fuller p i c t u re of domestic and intern a t i o n a levents. Providing that fuller picture isthe essential service that U.S. intern a-tional broadcasting offers the world.As people hear credible and compre-hensive news about their own andother countries, they become morea w a re of the freedoms enjoyed in theUnited States and elsewhere. Amongthe audiences who rely on U.S. inter-national broadcasting are people livingin the Balkans, Central Africa, thecountries of the former Soviet Union,and other areas where pro g re s st o w a rds democracy, freedom, and eco-nomic security is vital to U.S. strategici n t e re s t s .

To target our re s o u rces where theyw e re most needed in 1997, wei n c reased our programming to Asia,the Middle East, and Africa. Our pro-gramming also continued to evolve torespond to events affecting the lives of

listeners in Eastern Europe and thef o rmer Soviet Union. Through bothcontent and technological innovations,we maximized the opportunities toreach our audiences at the re l e v a n ttimes, with a relevant message, and onthe relevant media. The feedback wereceive from listeners confirms thatU.S. international broadcasting contin-ues to occupy a unique niche insustaining their dreams of democracy,s t ruggles for basic rights, and questsfor free societies and economies.

P resident Clinton discussed U.S.-China relations at VOA in October 1997, intro d u c e dby VOA D i rector Evelyn S. Lieberm a n .

E XE CU TI VE SU MM ARY

“I arrived from Cuba on

May 26, 1996, and I

can tell you that

thanks to Radio Mart í ,

the Cuban people keep

themselves inform e d ,

f rom all points of view,

about news, art,

c u l t u re, and music.”

–Letter to the editor,Diario Las Americas

i

U . S . I N T E R N AT I O N A L B R O A D C A S T I N G • 1 9 9 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

i i

Our Impact on the Wo r l d

T h rough news re p o rts, audiencecall-in programs, and issue-orientedf e a t u res, the five services that makeup U.S. international bro a d c a s t i n g —Voice of America (VOA), Radio Fre eE u rope/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL),Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio and TVM a rtí, and WORLDNET—made keycontributions to U.S. strategic inter-ests in 1997. A few examples, culledf rom many, illustrate these contribu-t i o n s —

• RFE/RL, WORLDNET, and VOAb roadcast programs in the SouthSlavic languages to circumvent attempts by hardliners to contro lthe media and derail the democraticp rocess in Bosnia.

• As tensions with Iraq gre w, VOAi n c reased its Arabic pro g r a m m i n gto reach Iraqis during prime time so that they had access to newsf rom sources other than thro u g hSaddam Hussein.

• Chinese dissident Wei Jingshengtalked with RFA and VOAre p o rters, knowing that onlyt h rough international bro a d c a s t i n gs e rvices would the Chinese peoplel e a rn of his release from prison andhis and other dissidents’ continueds t ruggles for democracy in China.

• When the authorities closed down“Svoboda,” Belaru s ’s last indepen-dent newspaper, RFE/RL stepped inby reading the newspaper’s art i c l e son the air and by posting them onthe RFE/RL Web site.

• In Central Africa, VOA served as thelink that reunited hundreds ofrefugee families and informed count-less others of the location of UnitedNations food and transit stations.

“When the Iron Curtain fell, the Information Curtain did not

fall with it....Those who do not know this risk repeating his-

t o ry....This radio station [RFE/RL] is still needed after the fall

of communism because the experience now under way, dur-

ing the transition to a market economy, is unique in the

h i s t o ry of humanity. ”—Romanian President Emil Constantinescu

“It is a powerf u l

s o u rce of strength for

us to know that a

radio station like

Radio Free Asia has

been established to

b roadcast with

absolute freedom the

views of the world as

well as those of the

people of Burm a . ”— Aung San Suu Ky i

1991 Nobel Prize winner

Left to right: Latvian Pre s i d e n tGuntis Ulmanis, LithuanianP resident Algirdas Brazauskas,Estonian President Lennart Meri,and RFE/RL P resident Tom Dine at reception for the signing of theU.S. Baltic Chart e r

Africa 2000 Symposium panelists includedJ o u rnalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and NigerianNobel Laureate Wole Soyinka

U . S . I N T E R N AT I O N A L B R O A D C A S T I N G • 1 9 9 7 A N NU A L R E P O RT

i i i

• Radio and TV Martí brought tolight Cuba’s year-long crackdownon dissidents and independent jour-nalists, many of whom riskedharassment and detention to tele-phone Radio and TV Martí fro minside Cuba.

• WORLDNET and VOA’s Farsi-lan-guage “Roundtable with You” call-inp rogram became so important toIranians that they have re p o rt e dinstalling home satellite dishes atnight to receive the program andremoving the dishes before dawn toavoid detection from the authorities.

F o reign and U.S. visitors to our stu-dios underscore the value of ourp rograms to listeners around theworld. A few of the people we hostedin 1997 included President Clinton,who chose VOA as the site for theonly address he has made on China,knowing that his words in support ofdemocracy would reach the Chinesepeople; the Dalai Lama, who visitedR FA’s headquarters to stress the valueof its Tibetan service to him and toothers within Tibet and in exile; andthe presidents of Romania, Hungary,and Bulgaria and the chairman of theLithuanian Parliament, who visitedR F E / R L’s Prague headquarters tore a ff i rm the importance of RFE/RL instabilizing and encouraging democrat-ic development in former communistcountries. Many other leaders in thefields of politics, science, business,and culture were involved in ourb roadcasts as a way to communicatewith audiences around the world.

S u m m a ry of the 1997 Annual Report

This re p o rt summarizes achieve-ments in 1997 through which U.S.i n t e rnational broadcasting fulfilled itsmandate, as expressed by Congress inthe U.S. International Bro a d c a s t i n gAct of 1994 (P.L. 103-236). The re p o rtis organized as follows:

Section I summarizes the missionand audience of each of the five ser-vices that make up U.S. intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting, and highlights how eachf u rthers U.S. strategic objectives int a rget regions throughout the world.

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) and RFE/RLP resident Tom Dine listen to form e rAmbassador Richard Holbrooke address anRFE/RL forum on Bosnia

The Dalai Lama at Radio Free Asiah e a d q u a rt e r s .

“I listen to your program [VOA] every evening....I’d like to

use this opportunity to express my gratitude to you on your

e ff o rt to enforce some light in the dark media skies over

Yu g o s l a v i a . ”—Listener in Novi Sad, S e r b i a


i v

This section also discussesa priority for theB roadcasting Board ofG o v e rnors (BBG) in 1997:measuring eff e c t i v e n e s st h rough program evalua-tion and audiencere s e a rch. This intensifiedre s e a rch eff o rt yieldedvaluable findings thatb roadcasters and man-agers are using to impro v equality and best allocatere s o u rc e s .

Section II re p o rts on keydevelopments within the

b roadcasting services, most impor-tantly the appointment of the seniormanagement team who assumed lead-ership in 1997. This section of there p o rt also focuses on several newand strengthened initiatives, includinga series of gro u n d b reaking fora con-ducted by the BBG; the training oflocal media designed to stre n g t h e ntheir news-gathering, production, andmedia management skills; and innova-tive partnerships forged with publicand private sector groups to cover cut-ting-edge issues.

Section III describes the mix oftechnologies and delivery systemsused by the IBB to ensure that pro-grams reach our target audiences,whether they receive transmissionsvia the latest-model satellite dish orstill depend on battery-operated short-wave radios. This section highlightsp ro g ress in the development andimplementation of digital and otheradvanced technologies and looks atother delivery systems that comple-ment our longstanding radio eff o rt s :a ffiliate relationships with local bro a d-casters, television, and the Intern e t .

Section IV p rovides a look at someof the goals for U.S. intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting in 1998 and beyond.

Although one of the strengths of inter-national broadcasting is its flexibilityto respond to events as they happen,the Broadcasting Board of Govern o r sand the individual services must alsobe proactive and position intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting to meet the changingtechnical and programmatic needs ofour audiences in the years ahead. Thissection summarizes new directions tomeet these needs.

This re p o rt melds the eff o rts of thefive services into one narr a t i v e .Readers are invited to turn to theappendices for brief biographies of themembers of the BBG and a review ofeach individual serv i c e .

Razi Rizvi of VOA’s Urdu Serv i c e(right) interviewing form e rPakistani President Farooq Leghariat the presidential residence inI s l a m a b a d .

TH E U.S. G O V E R N M E N T H A S L O N G U S E D A

mix of diplomatic, military, commer-cial, and cultural tools to advance itsstrategic interests. International bro a d-casting is a crucial part of this mix. Asthe U.S. International Bro a d c a s t i n gAct states, “Open communication ofi n f o rmation and ideas among the peo-ples of the world contributes toi n t e rnational peace and stability andp romotion of such communication isin the interests of the United States.”U.S. international bro a d c a s t i n gadvances this open communication

t h rough thep rograms ofits five bro a d-c a s t i n ge n t i t i e s — Vo i c eof America,Radio Fre eE u ro p e / R a d i oL i b e rt y, RadioF ree Asia,Radio and TV

M a rtí, and WORLDNET Film andTelevision Serv i c e .

F rom the various crises in Chinaand Korea to the tragic ethnic conflictsin the Balkans and Central Africa,i n t e rnational broadcasting has beenon the scene to serve the U.S. nationali n t e rest by re p o rting and transmittingaccurate, balanced news. Ta k e nt o g e t h e r, the programs of our five ser-vices are broadcast in English and inalmost 60 other languages, on radioand on television, over 2,000 hourseach week, to reach audiences insome of the most closed societies inthe world today. More o v e r, a stre n g t h-ened re s e a rch eff o rt has enabled us toconduct quantitative and qualitatives u rveys with our audiences and to usethe findings to measure and continual-ly improve upon our eff e c t i v e n e s s .

Mission and Audience

Since 1994, the Broadcasting Boardof Governors (BBG) has had re s p o n s i-bility for oversight of U.S.i n t e rnational broadcasting. The BBG,a bipartisan, nine-member boardappointed by the President with theadvice and consent of the Senate, hastaken the lead in ensuring that theindividual services consistently pro-duce and transmit top-qualityp rogramming to meet the needs of theUnited States and of the world.The five services together re p resent 2p e rcent of the Federal budget spenton international affairs and .025 per-cent of the entire Federal budget. Thisinvestment — approximately $425 mil-lion — pays off for the Americanpeople. U.S. international bro a d c a s t-i n g ’s impressive reach is perhaps ourc o u n t ry ’s mostc o s t - e ff e c t i v emeans of com-municating withpeople at all lev-els of societyworldwide. Ourglobal audienceincludes headsof govern m e n t s ,business leaders,educators, jour-nalists, and otherdecision makers.It includes stu-dents andyoung pro f e s-sionals, the future leaders in thecountries in which they study andwork. And it includes listeners whoband together in the name of fre e d o mand democracy, strengthened by thehope and courage they gain

IMission and Audience

Making a Diff e rence in Ta rget Regions

Measuring Eff e c t i v e n e s s

Studio engineers workingwith bro a d c a s t e r s

Afan Oro m o

A f r i k a a n s

A l b a n i a n

A m h a r i c

A m o y

A n n a m e s e

A r a b i c

A rm e n i a n

A z e r b a i j a n i

B a n g l a

B o s n i a n

B u l g a r i a n

B u rm e s e

B y e l o ru s s i a n

C a m b o d i a n

C a n t o n e s e

C h i n e s e

A S I GNAL TH AT M AK ES A D IF F ERE NCE


2

f rom the voice they hear on a radio. To reach themthe services have com-p l e m e n t a ry, but distinct roles to play in the globalcommunications arena, as described below:

•Voice of America (VOA), official U.S. g o v e rnment bro a d c a s t i n gs e rvice, airs global, regional, and U.S. news and information in 52 languages. An estimated audience of 86 million people tunes in to VOA

d i rect shortwave and medium waveb roadcasts every week, and mil-lions more hear VOA pro g r a m st h rough their local AM, FM, andcable stations.

• WORLDNET develops, pro d u c e s ,and acquires television pro g r a m sfor broadcast on more than 500a ffiliated television networks andstations around the world, includingsuccessful programs in Arabic,Farsi, Bosnian, Serbian, Ukrainian,and other languages. In addition, ag rowing number of individuals insuch countries as Iran use homesatellite dishes to downlink the p rograms dire c t l y.

• Radio and TV Martí bro a d c a s tnews, features, and entert a i n m e n tin Spanish to the people of Cuba.Independent surveying is impossi-ble within Cuba, but anecdotalevidence indicates an audience ofa p p roximately 2.6 million tune in toRadio and TV Mart í .

• Radio Free Europe/Radio Libert y(RFE/RL) broadcasts in 23 lan-guages to approximately 20 million

regular listeners. Its focus is on pro-viding news and analysis thro u g hs u rrogate or home radio services tosupplement local media in post-com-munist Central and Eastern Euro p eand the former Soviet Union.

• Radio Free Asia (RFA), whichlaunched operations in 1996, bro a d-casts in the seven Asian languagesmandated by Congress when itestablished the service. LikeRFE/RL, RFA is a surrogate bro a d-c a s t e r. It communicates news aboutand to the countries in the re g i o nw h e re the free flow of information ismost needed: China, North Kore a ,B u rma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia,and to the people of Ti b e t .

VOA, WORLDNET, and Radio andTV Martí operate under theI n t e rnational Broadcasting Bure a u(IBB) of the U.S. Information Agency(USIA). RFE/RL and RFA are privaten o n p rofit corporations funded thro u g hFederal grants administered by theB o a rd of Governors. The five serv i c e smaximize re s o u rces by sharing IBBengineering and technical facilitiesand by relying on a combination ofs h o rtwave and medium wave radio,d i rect satellite broadcasting, a globalnetwork of affiliates, and the Intern e tto transmit their pro g r a m m i n g .

“Elected members of

the Duma [Russian

p a r l i a m e n t ] . . . s a i d :

‘ S e n a t o r, there is over-

whelming corruption in

our country, and we

have no way of getting

our message out

except Radio Fre e

E u rope. Please, we

need the radios now

m o re than we did in

the Cold Wa r. ”

—Senator Joseph R. Biden ( D - D E )


3

Making a Diff e rence in Ta rget Regions

I n t e rnational bro a d c a s t i n gadvances U.S. strategic interests andp romotes the basic rights that allAmericans value: democracy, peacefulresolution of conflicts, economic secu-r i t y, and freedom of press and re l i g i o n ,to name but a few. Its ability to com-municate accurate and objectivei n f o rmation empowers people to seekthe rights due them. Intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting today remains what ithas been for more than half a century— an inexpensive, effective means ofp romoting and defending Americani n t e rests, while encouraging the evolu-tion of a more democratic, stable, andpeaceful world.

At the height of the Cold Wa r, oure ff o rts emphasized reaching audi-ences in the communist world, andour reputation was built on our abilityto do so. The 1990s re q u i re not justone target, but many. U.S. and worldleaders call upon us to overcome thechallenges that inhibit the free flow ofi n f o rmation in Cuba and China, in thepost-communist societies of Euro p eand Russia, as well as elsewhere inAfrica, Asia, and the Middle East. In1997, U.S. international bro a d c a s t i n gcontinued to meet these challengest h roughout the world.

A s i aR FA and VOA fill a critical gap in

re p o rting to many countries in Asia,such as China, Burma, and Nort hK o rea. For example, VOA and RFAp rovided extensive coverage of therelease of prominent Chinese politicaldissident Wei Jingsheng in November.Wei stressed how essential intern a t i o n-

al broadcasters are to the struggle fordemocracy in China because “morethan anything else,” they help theChinese people “see things clearly. ”

On RFA’s inaugural Burm e s e - l a n-guage broadcast in Febru a ry,democratic leader Daw Aung San SuuKyi publicly acknowledged the impor-tance of providing uncensored newsand a variety of opinions to the peopleof Burma. Similarly, RFA’s interv i e wwith two high-ranking North Kore a ndefectors aff o rded their countrymen ar a re look at the unscrupulous prac-tices of the Pyongyang regime.

E u rope and the former Soviet UnionWith the break-up of the Soviet sys-

tem, Radio Free Euro p e / R a d i oL i b e rt y, VOA, and WORLDNET havep rovided those societies in transitionwith objective, credible inform a t i o nabout the democratic process and fair,f ree-market economic systems. Thes e rvices also played a key role in situ-ations in which a govern m e n tattempted to suppress honest, nonvio-

“Radio Free Asia

re p resents a critical

p a rt of the U.S.

commitment to ending

human rights abuse

and establishing

democracy in Asia.”

— R e p . John Po rter (R-IL)

Wei Jingsheng stressing the value of RFA andVOA to the struggle for democracy in China.


4

lent dissent. For example, RFE/RLe n s u red that the political opposition inTajikistan and the last independentnewspaper in Belarus could reach thepeople. As an indication of the value ofairing all points of view, the leader ofthe United Tajik Opposition cre d i t e dRFE/RL for its contribution to thec o u n t ry ’s June 1997 peace agre e m e n t .E l s e w h e re in the region, in re c o g n i-tion of the importance that audiencesin this region place on obtaining newsf rom television, the services havelaunched telecasts in the South Slaviclanguages, Russian, and Ukrainian.

Bosnia serves as a clear examplethat enemies of peace and democracycan still wield considerable power, andthat international broadcasting canhelp deter them. The director ofR F E / R L’s South Slavic serv i c e —which broadcasts daily in Bosnian,

C roatian, and Serbian—summed up in one word whatthe service attempts to accom-plish: tolerance. Since 1994,m o re than 30,000 people fro mthe re g i o n ’s diff e rent ethnicg roups have expressed theiropinions on the air, an impos-sibility on state-contro l l e dmedia. “Because the statemedia controlled inform a t i o n ,people did not know what wasgoing on,” said RFE/RL’sSouth Slavic service dire c t o r.“ We have been able to showthem that every issue has twosides.” Prior to the 1997 elec-

tions in Bosnia and Serbia, VOA andRFE/RL ran extensive radio and tele-vision coverage that gave a forum toall the major candidates. After hearingone opposition leader on a VOA pro-gram, a local journalist stated,“ Ye s t e rday we witnessed an interv i e wwith a person whom we can never seeon our airw a v e s . ”

A f r i c aVOA is a lifeline to people in Africa.

This programming, transmitted fro mIBB facilities and through a gro w i n gnetwork of local affiliates, has filled avoid by re p o rting critically neededi n f o rmation on health, economic, andpolitical topics. Programming to Africain 1997 included special re p o rts onconflict resolution; HIV/AIDS, polio,and other infectious disease pre v e n-tion; and refugee trauma. VOAestablished four new indigenousAfrican language services in 1997,which have countered hate radio ands e rved large refugee populations, par-ticularly in Central Africa.

The work of theK i n y a rw a n d a / K i rundi service, whichb roadcasts to Burundi and Rwanda,illustrates the literally life-giving giftthat U.S. international bro a d c a s t i n gcan make to our audiences. The ser-vice broadcasts the names andw h e reabouts of refugees who havebeen separated from their families. Todate, more than 800 families have writ-ten to give credit for their re u n i f i c a t i o nto VOA. Thousands of others locatedUnited Nations food and transit sta-tions with the help of VOAa n n o u n c e m e n t s .

Middle EastV O A’s Arabic service has a key ro l e

to play in serving U.S. strategic inter-ests in the Middle East. It continues tore p o rt objectively on U.S. and UnitedNations policy towards Iraq, coveragewhich many listeners in Iraq and othercountries in the region would not oth-e rwise hear. In addition, as is the casewith other language services, VOAcan increase the number of Arabic-lan-guage programming hours if a crisissituation warrants. Indeed, as tensionsg rew with Iraq in late 1997, VOA

VOA re p o rter Cole Mallard on thescene in Ghana.

“...[Y]our program is

ameliorating the lives

of Rwandans and

B u rundians who

seemed abandoned

by the whole world.

Now is the time that

America is really

showing its democratic

leadership by trying

to build a country

that was divided by

conflict.”

— Rwandan listener


5

stepped up its hours of bro a d c a s t i n gand scheduled them to reach Iraq dur-ing prime time.

On both radio and television, VOAand WORLDNET have created inter-active programs in which Arabic andFarsi-speaking audiences part i c i p a t e .In October, for example, the serv i c e scelebrated the first anniversary of“Roundtable with You,” a highly popu-lar Farsi simulcast to Iran. Iranianshave gone to great lengths, often atpersonal risk, to erect home satellitedishes to view the show and to phoneour studios to comment about humanrights, the economy, and other topicsof relevance in their country.

Latin America The fact that people in most of the

countries of Latin America now liveand work in democratic societiesmakes the situation of the millions wholive in Cuba all the more anachro n i s t i c .Over the past year, Cuba stepped up itsharassment, arrest, and detention ofn u m e rous dissidents and independentj o u rnalists. Radio and TV Martí re p o rt-ed on this crackdown and, thanks toi m p rovements in telephone communi-cations, strengthened its newsgathering from independent sourc e swithin Cuba. Radio and TV Martí alsob roadcast accurate accounts of signifi-cant U.S. Cuban policy initiatives,which Cubans would certainly nothear from their own media.

F o rt u n a t e l y, 1997 was a re l a t i v e l ypeaceful year in our hemisphere. Wa sour broadcasting needed? “EstaNoche,” produced by WORLDNET forcable stations throughout LatinAmerica, and other pro g r a m sdesigned for the Caribbean, includingHaiti, complemented local bro a d c a s t-ers’ abilities to provide full coverage ofU.S., regional, and world events, par-

ticularly assisting broadcasters withconstrained news-gathering budgets.This ongoing coverage serves as theunderpinning for people to understandour country more fully and deters themisunderstandings from which crisescan eru p t .

Measuring Eff e c t i v e n e s s

The U.S. Intern a t i o n a lB roadcasting Act charges the BBGwith ensuring that all intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting is “designed so as toe ffectively reach a significant audi-ence” and is “based on re l i a b l ei n f o rmation about its potential audience.” Notwithstanding the indi-vidual examples of pro g r a mimpact cited in the previous para-graphs, the Board made re s e a rc ha priority in 1997 in order togauge the effectiveness of the p rogramming. Through pro g r a mevaluation and audiencere s e a rch, the broadcasting ser-vices use both qualitative andquantitative measures to determ i n ehow well they are meeting the expec-tations of their audiences.

P rogram EvaluationVOA and RFE/RL each has an

independent office of program re v i e w,and RFA’s will be in place short l y.T h rough program reviews, each lan-guage service is evaluated annually forquality in both content and pre s e n t a-tion. Senior management in eacho rganization reviews the re c o m m e n d a-tions that result from the pro g r a mreviews, and follow-up takes place toe n s u re that the recommendations arei m p l e m e n t e d .

Getting ready to broadcast theFarsi radio/TV simulcast“Roundtable with Yo u . ”


6

The Board of Governors is re v i e w-ing the pro c e d u res used by eachs e rvice in order to establish a consis-tent, rigorous process. This consis-tency will allow for more meaningfulcomparisons among the services andwill be an element in ensuring thati n t e rnational broadcasting as a wholecomplies with the Govern m e n tP e rf o rmances and Results Act of 1993.

Audience Researc hP rofessional broadcasting re q u i re s

c o m p rehensive audience re s e a rc h .B roadcasting managers, to assess thee ffectiveness of their operations, musthave reliable data on key perf o rm a n c eindicators. Research also assists instrategic decision making re g a rd i n gthe future and direction of the bro a d-casting services. In 1997, the Boardexpanded the audience re s e a rc he ff o rt. Coordinated by Board staff, aworking group of re s e a rch off i c e r sf rom each service now meets monthlyto share information and coord i n a t ee ff o rts. An electronic data arc h i v e ,called the Strategic AudienceR e s e a rch Archive, was developed top rovide managers and the Board withinstant access to up-to-date re s e a rc hfindings and other data.

In addition, IBB established are s e a rch office and doubled the fund-ing available for re s e a rch studies. As aresult, VOA collected “fresh” (lessthan one-year-old) quantitative data ont h re e - q u a rters of its language ser-vices, up from only one-third of thes e rvices just one year ago, and qualita-tive data on one-third of the serv i c e s .Audience re s e a rch was undert a k e nfor the first time in Cambodia andVietnam and increased in the MiddleEast and Africa. RFE/RL worked withthe Intermedia Survey Institute toc a rry out audience measurements in

most of the countries in its region ofoperation where independent opinionpolling is possible. RFA is launchingits re s e a rch program and will initiallys t ress qualitative re s e a rch to hone thecontent and format of its Mandarinand Tibetan serv i c e s .

Indeed, in 1997, more qualitativere s e a rch of U.S. international bro a d-casting took place than perhaps at anyother time in the history of the ser-vices. With such techniques as focusg roups, listener panels, and in-depthi n t e rviews, qualitative re s e a rch helpsthe broadcasting services gauge theire ffectiveness and compare their pro-grams with those of other local andi n t e rnational broadcasters. Knowingthe relative strengths and weaknessesof programming contributes to usefulplanning and priority setting.Knowing listening rates sets the lan-guage services’ priorities. In short ,p rogram evaluation and audiencere s e a rch not only help to measuree ffectiveness, but also inform thecomplex management tasks facing the Board of Governors and theb roadcasting serv i c e s .

Top, VOA Correspondent P u rnell Murdock, and other j o u rnalists, below, re p o rt amid fighting in the streets in M o n rovia, Liberia.

C re o l e

C ro a t i a n

C z e c h

D a n i s h

D a r i

D u t c h

E n g l i s h

E s t o n i a n

F a r s i

F i n n i s h

F l e m i s h

F re n c h

G e o rg i a n

G e rm a n

G re e k

G u j a r a t i

H a k k a

TO B R O A D C A S T T H O U S A N D S O F H O U R S A

week, in dozens of languages and onh u n d reds of topics, re q u i res dailydecisions about how most eff e c t i v e l yto maximize our human and technicalre s o u rces. The Broadcasting Boardsets overall priorities so that staff with-in the individual broadcasting entitiescan make these decisions in a strate-gic and efficient manner. New headsof three of the five broadcasting ser-vices, as wellas a newd i rector fort h eI n t e rn a t i o n a lB ro a d c a s t i n gB u reau, wereappointed in1997. Theya re off e r i n gf resh perspec-tives ande n e rgy to theB o a rd as itsets prioritiesin the changing environment of thelate 1990s.

In keeping with the emphasis oncollaboration that characterizes suc-cessful organizations today, U.S.i n t e rnational broadcasting reached outto new partners in 1997 and gainednew insights as a result. As this sec-tion describes, the Board conductedtwo successful fora in which a cro s s -section of Americans pro v i d e dthoughtful perspectives on the futurerole of international broadcasting andits value to the American people.S i m i l a r l y, the broadcasting serv i c e sd e l i v e red sought-after media trainingand developed and expanded part n e r-ships that resulted in stro n gp rogramming on such topics as con-flict resolution, disease pre v e n t i o n ,and entre p re n e u r s h i p .

A New Senior Management Te a m

The new team of leaders that joinedin 1997 worked with the more vet-eran members of our services to position U.S. international bro a d c a s t-ing to respond to the evolving needsof its audiences. These pro f e s s i o n a l sbring diverse experience in the fields

of communica-tions, law, andpublic serv i c eto their newposts. In com-mon, however,they share ac o n s i s t e n tc o m m i t m e n twith theirs t a ffs and withthe Board tostrive for andpractice theb ro a d c a s t i n g

s t a n d a rds and principles embodied inthe International Broadcasting Act.

• In March, 1997, Kevin Klosebecame director of the Intern a t i o n a lB roadcasting Bureau, re s p o n s i b l efor VOA, WORLDNET, Radio andTV Martí, and the Office ofEngineering and Te c h n i c a lOperations. He was president ofRFE/RL and director of RadioL i b e rty before coming to the IBBand previously worked as a nationalc o rrespondent and chief of theMoscow bureau for The Wa s h i n g t o nPost.

• In March, Evelyn S. Lieberm a nassumed her duties as director ofVOA, drawing upon a long career incommunications within and outsidethe government. She was deputy

I IA New Senior Management Te a m

Engaging the American People

Training and Part n e r s h i p s

(Left to Right:) IBB D i rector Kevin Klose, VOA D i re c t o rEvelyn S. Lieberman, and Radio and TV Martí Dire c t o rH e rminio San Roman.

NE W L EADE RS HIP, NEW IDE AS


8

chief of staff and deputy press sec-re t a ry for operations at the WhiteHouse and press secre t a ry for Sen.Joseph Biden. She also served aspublic affairs director for theC h i l d re n ’s Defense Fund and com-munications director for theNational Urban Coalition.

• In March, Herminio San Romanbecame director of Radio and TVM a rtí in the Office of CubaB roadcasting (OCB). He had beenan attorney in south Florida work-ing on local, state, national, andi n t e rnational government issuesand has overseen the completion ofO C B ’s move to its new Miami head-q u a rters.

• In May, Thomas A. Dine wasappointed the president of RFE/RL.Dine had been assistant administra-tor for Europe and the NewIndependent States at the U.S.Agency for Intern a t i o n a lDevelopment since 1994 and headedthe American Israel Public Aff a i r sCommittee from 1980 to 1993.

Along with Richard Richter, thep resident of RFA appointed in 1996,these top professionals provide U.S.i n t e rnational broadcasting with experi-enced and visionary leadership. Many

of the new directions described in thisre p o rt are a result of fresh perspec-tives of this top-notch seniormanagement team working with theirs t a ffs and with the Board.

Engaging the American People

T h rough the U.S. Intern a t i o n a lB roadcasting Act of 1994, Congre s srequested that the Bro a d c a s t i n gB o a rd of Governors direct, superv i s e ,and evaluate U.S. international bro a d-casting. In 1997, as part of thismandate, the Board chose to engagethe American people in pro v i d i n ginput, as BBG members stated, to“assist the Board in focusing its mis-sion at the dawn of a new century. ”

The Board conducted two publicfora in 1997: the first at North Caro l i n aState University in July and the secondat the University of SouthernC a l i f o rnia in November. At bothevents, a cross-section of Americansl e a rned about international bro a d c a s t-ing and, more import a n t l y, conveyedto the Board their views on what theyfelt our country ’s broadcasting shouldaccomplish. Members of the intern a-tional affairs community, bro a d c a s t e r sand other journalists, students, educa-

“...U.S. international broadcasting has consistently served as

an inexpensive, effective tool for encouraging peaceful change

and democracy....What excites me most about our bro a d c a s t

entities is that, despite budget reductions of over 30 perc e n t

over the past four years, U.S. international broadcasting is

engaged with its audience.”

— Kevin Klose, D i r e c t o r, I B B

R FA President Richard Richter

John Lennon, Acting Director ofWORLDNET Te l e v i s i o n

RFE/RL President Thomas A. Dine


9

tors, politicians, business leaders,members of ethnic and emigreg roups, and others were asked todraw upon their expertise and per-spectives to help chart the direction ofU.S. international broadcasting. Sen.Jesse Helms in North Carolina andR e p resentatives Howard L. Berm a n ,Nancy Pelosi, and Ed Royce inC a l i f o rnia agreed to take leading ro l e s ,t h e reby increasing the visibility andsuccess of the two fora.

Training and Part n e r s h i p s

Our broadcasts promote democra-c y, encourage trade and investment,educate about health, expose humanrights abuses, and set an example ofthe power of a free press for theworld. More and more, the bro a d c a s t-ing services are working with localmedia and with diverse public and pri-vate sector organizations to cover

these wide-rangingt o p i c s .

Consistent withtheir mission towork with localmedia, RFE/RLand VOA conducttraining pro g r a m sfor local journ a l i s t s .

“I can’t imagine a

better privilege than

to lead the Voice of

America...As [Pre s i d e n t

Clinton] said, the

Voice of America has a

critical role to play in

an ever- c h a n g i n g

world: as a lifeline

of reliable re p o rting,

a wellspring of

c u l t u re, and a tool for

education. The Voice

of America is the voice

of democracy. ”

— VOA Director E v e lyn S. L i e b e r m a n

Above: B o a rd Members Tom Koro l o g o s( f o re g round), Carl Spielvogel,C h a i rman David Burke, and Chief of Staff Kathleen Harrington.

Left: Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC),C h a i rman, Senate Fore i g nRelations Committee, at the Nort hC a rolina forum in July 1997.

The Legacy of Charles Kuralt

The BBG’s North Carolina forum tookplace a week after the death of CharlesKuralt, the beloved journalist whoalways prized his North Carolina ro o t s .Indeed, many participants evokedK u r a l t ’s professionalism in art i c u l a t i n gtheir views of the goals of U.S. intern a-tional broadcasting. Young journ a l i s t si n t e rested in entering the field will nowhave a very tangible way of honoringthat legacy. At the forum, Sen. Jesse

Helms announced the creation of the Charles Kuralt Fellowship inI n t e rnational Broadcasting, which will be awarded annually to agraduate of Kuralt’s alma mater, the School of Journalism andMass Communication at the University of North Caro l i n a .


1 0

RFE/RL hasdeveloped ap rogram at itsPrague head-q u a rters towork withp ro m i s i n gyoung journ a l-ists fro mt h roughout itslistening are a .The IBB’sI n t e rn a t i o n a lMedia Tr a i n i n gCenter con-

ducts both U.S.-based and overseasworkshops and coordinated two uni-versity placement programs forf o reign journalists. Committed to thedevelopment of a free and independentmedia throughout the world, the train-ing provides practical, non-politicizedworkshops in English and in local lan-guages. And journalists are puttingtheir training to use. For example, aBulgarian journalist who launched ag ro u n d - b reaking morning talk showon Bulgarian television credited anIBB workshop with the ideas and tech-niques she needed to launch thep ro g r a m .

P a rtnerships with a range of org a-nizations in 1997 illustrate thechanging role and realities of intern a-tional broadcasting. These new anddiverse partners — who pro v i d e dfunding, in-kind re s o u rces and/ortechnical assistance — worked withthe broadcasting services to extendtheir reach in terms of both topics andaudiences. For example, money fro mthe U.S. Agency for Intern a t i o n a lDevelopment (USAID) and theC a rnegie Corporation funded thework of 20 VOA re p o rters to re p o rton conflict resolution in Africa and inthe former Yugoslavia.

Another grant from USAID is beingused to enhance re p o rting on polioeradication and other infectious dis-eases that pose threats in thedeveloping world. And Harv a rdU n i v e r s i t y ’s School of Public Healthcontacted VOA’s Kinyarw a n d a / K i r-undi service to request that ittranslate and broadcast a series oftwelve features written by a re f u g e etrauma team. Since the series bro a d-cast, several thousand listeners havecontacted VOA to request that theseries be re p e a t e d .

VOA re p o rting has also incre a s i n g-ly focused on economic and businessissues, because listeners around theworld tell us they look to the UnitedStates to understand the underlyingthinking and the how-to skills thathave made the U.S. economy sorobust. RFE/RL provides extensiveeconomic coverage to its post-commu-nist audience, who are struggling toinstitutionalize free and fair marketsystems after decades of state contro l .WORLDNET developed a popularseries called “The Entre p re n e u r s , ”which examined how entre p reneurs inthe United States and in CentralE u rope successfully launched andmaintain their businesses.

Conflict Resolution in South Asia forum participants: (left to right) Kevin Clements,Gowher Rizvi, Chief of Urd uS e rvice Brian Silver, Robert Boggs,and Walter Andersen

“ F rom Central Euro p e

to the Pacific, from

the Baltic to the Black

Sea, from Russia to the

Persian Gulf, RFE/RL

p rovides objective

news, analysis, and

discussion of domestic

and regional issues

c rucial to successful

democratic and

f ree-market

t r a n s f o rm a t i o n s ,

s t rengthening civil

societies by pro j e c t i n g

democratic values.”

— Thomas A. Dine President of RFE/RL

WI T H T H E A C C E L E R AT I O N O F T E C H N O L O-g y, IBB has looked at the mostp ressing technical issue of its future :t h rough what medium should we com-municate to the people of the world?Digital technology and direct bro a d-cast satellite enhance the clarity of ourp rograms for the growing numbers ofpeople able to receive transmissionst h rough these means. Internet andtelevision are providing us with alter-native ways to deliver program contentto our audiences. Yet many people,p a rticularly in the developing world,do not have access to a telephone,much less the Internet or a satellited i s h . T h e re f o re, shortwave and long-distance AM play a crucial role inp rogram delivery to Africa, South Asia,China, and rural areas of the form e rSoviet Union. Direct broadcasts arecomplemented by the growing num-ber of local AM and FM a ffiliates thatuse our programming, expanding ourreach to people who tune in to theirlocal stations for their news.

S t rengthening Our Te c h n i c a lC o m p e t i t i v e n e s s

The U.S. International Bro a d c a s t i n gAct consolidated the engineering andtechnical operations of the five bro a d-casting services under the IBB. Byreducing duplicative services and facil-ities, consolidation has saved tens ofmillions of dollars. For example, its t reamlined VOA and RFE/RL short-wave broadcasting to Central andE a s t e rn Europe and Russia and elimi-nated redundant transmitting siteswhile using surplus equipment toenhance the capabilities of relay sta-tions around the world.

Digital Advances

M o d e rnization of IBB pro d u c t i o nfacilities is necessary in order to con-tinue to transmit programs to ourmillions of listeners successfully. TheDigital Broadcasting Project (DBP)a d d resses this imperative. It bringstogether all the analog system re p l a c e-ment work re q u i red to bring ourb roadcasting up to world standard s .Digital production produces betterquality sound, reduces the use ofexpensive audio tapes, facilitates edit-ing, and enhances program storageand retrieval. RFE/RL and RFA haveled the way in this re g a rd. WhenRFE/RL moved from Munich toPrague in 1995 and when RFAlaunched operations in 1996, they setup digital audio editing systems, sothat their broadcasters now pro d u c eand re c o rd their ownp rograms.

C o n v e r s e l y, VOAand WORLDNET stilluse increasingly obso-lete analog equipmentand systems, forwhich spare compo-nents andconsumable itemssuch as tapes are diff i-cult to obtain andexpensive to buy. Asjust one example, theSystem for News andP ro g r a m m i n g(SNAP), the centralelement of VOA’smultilingual pro g r a mp roduction, is consid-e red so outdated inthe industry that thesupplier term i n a t e dthe service contract.

P ro g ress continued in 1997 on thesix key elements of the DBP: re p l a c e-

I I IS t rengthening Our Technical Competitiveness

A ffiliates Expand the Audience

Television as an Alternative

Use of the Intern e t

NEW TEC HN OLOGI ES , N EW D ELI VE RY SYSTE MS

H a u s a

H e b re w

H i n d i

H u n g a r i a n

I c e l a n d i c

I n d o n e s i a n

I t a l i a n

J a p a n e s e

J a v a n e s e

K h m e r

K i ru n d i

K i n y a rw a n d a

K o re a n

K u rdish

L a o

L a t v i a n

L i t h u a n i a n


1 2

ment of SNAP, replacement of VOA’sMaster Control routing switcher andcentral re c o rding facility, conversion ofVOA to a digital audio editing system,upgrading of existing studios to digitalaudio, replacement of the in-houseM o n i t ron system (through which pro-gram departments can tune in tob roadcasts), and upgrading of the IBBLocal Area Network. Successful com-pletion of the DBP will ensure thatVOA production matches the technicals t a n d a rds not only of RFA andRFE/RL, but also of most other pro f e s-sional broadcasters in the country.

Digital technology plays a role insignal transmission, in addition to pro-gram production. In 1997, IBBcontinued to upgrade its satellite cir-cuits in 1997 from analog to digitalf o rmat, as described more fully below.In addition, IBB has taken a leadingrole in experimenting with digitaltransmission of shortwave bro a d c a s t s .In May, the IBB and engineers fro mthe Jet Propulsion Laboratory con-ducted field trials on a system thatuses digital signals to improve short-wave perf o rmance. The results werep romising in eliminating the noise andfading associated with long-distances h o rtwave broadcasting. The test isp a rt of an overall project to work withthe radio industry to produce a digital

receiver available to consumers at areasonable cost.

Enhancing the Base

At the same time as IBB pursuesthese digital advances, its engineerings t a ff maintains and supports an under-lying infrastru c t u re of facilities withoutwhich our broadcasts could not re a c htheir audiences. This worldwide fields t ru c t u re, which re p resents a nationalre s o u rce valued at over one billion dol-lars, includes two U.S. and elevenoverseas relay station facilities, over1,000 satellite earth stations that deliv-er radio and television programs, nineradio monitoring posts, and severalon-site project construction offices.

To further its goal of maintainingand enhancing a strong, efficient, andflexible technical network, IBB accom-plished the following in 1997:

• I m p roved satellite coverage. I B Bbegan using the AsiaSatII satellitefor signal delivery. AsiaSatII is awidely used, high-powered satellitethat reaches over 60 percent of thew o r l d ’s population. The IBB alsobegan to construct two satelliteuplink facilities, one in Wa s h i n g t o n ,DC, and one in Kuwait, which willreplace expensive leased facilities.

• Upgraded satellite circ u i t s .Continuing eff o rts begun in 1996,IBB converted its intern a t i o n a lsatellite circuits to a more economi-cal “compressed digital” form a t .Conversions made in 1997 involvedc i rcuits that carry feeds to CentralAmerica, Africa, Europe, and por-tions of the Middle East. Thisconversion increased the capacityand quality of our global networkc o v e r a g e .

Rigger maintains shortwave antenna using an IBB-designedc a g e .

“Dari [VOA] air shows are received in Kabul loud and clear.

Your scientific, cultural, and informative programs cert a i n l y

help us gain scientific knowledge. Your call-in show covers

a range of interesting subjects and your broadcast policy is

a p p ropriate as it contains material fit for the needs of our

s o c i e t y. ”—Listener in Kabu l , A f g h a n i s t a n


• Upgraded high-power AM transmit-t e r s . In 1997, improvements weremade to transmitters in Greece, thePhilippines, and Thailand. Work alsobegan to improve the power eff i c i e n-cy and reliability of our transmitterin Botswana, which serves as ani m p o rtant vehicle for bro a d c a s t i n gt h roughout Southern Africa.

• Enhanced shortwave coverage.C o n s t ruction pro g ressed on a newrelay station on Tinian in theCommonwealth of the Nort h e rnMariana Islands. When completed,the station will strengthen RFA’sand VOA’s reach into vast stre t c h e sof China and East and SoutheastAsia. In addition, constru c t i o nresumed on upgrades to our SriLankan relay station, after a damag-ing fire halted work in late 1996.

• Obtained ratification of an agre e m e n twith Gre e c e . In Febru a ry 1997, afteryears of negotiation, the Gre e kParliament ratified a new country - t o -c o u n t ry agreement with the UnitedStates. The agreement allows theIBB to continue radio re b ro a d c a s t-ing in Greece and permits us tom o d e rnize our transmitting facilitiest h e re. The Greece Relay Station’sAM and shortwave transmittersdeliver programs to key areas inE a s t e rn Europe, Russia, and theMiddle East.

• Reduced operating costs. New solidstate modulators were installed infacilities in California, Germ a n y, andthe Philippines. These modulators,with their benefits of increased elec-trical power efficiency andi m p roved reliability of equipment,significantly reduce transmitteroperating costs.

Ensuring Technical Quality

The best programs in the worldcannot affect an audience if they can-not be heard. IBB deploys a networkof monitors responsible for gatheringand analyzing data to verify technicalreception. If the transmissions are notbeing heard, IBB engineering staffc o o rdinate eff o rts betweenWashington and the relay stations toc o rrect the problem. In 1997,p ro g ress continued on an Intern e t -based monitoring system that enables

WHE N T O USE WHAT ?

W hy not just use short w ave? W hy not go totally digital? T h eIBB uses different methods of transmission in keeping with therealities of our listeners and view e rs . A brief explanation of fo u rmodes of signal transmission, and the pluses and minuses ofe a ch , fo l l ow s :

FM offe rs high-fidelity transmission but is limited in range.The maximum range of FM transmission is from the line ofsight to the horizon—about 25 to 125 kilometers , or 15 to 75miles depending on the height of the transmitting antenna.

AM transmission can range further than FM—from about 50to 300 kilometers (60 to 180 miles)—but has lesser audio quali-ty than FM. At night, AM transmissions can increase todistances of up to 1,500 kilometers (900 miles).

S h o rt w ave transmissions use the reflective pro p e rties of theionosphere to carry signals over long distances, up to 7,000 kilo-m e t e rs (4200 miles) using a “ t wo - h o p ”s h o rt w ave transmission.Although short w ave is subject to periodic and often unpre-d i c t a ble atmospheric disturbances, its ability to cover such longdistance is useful to countries where we do not have cl o s e rr e l ay stations or, even more import a n t ly, a c ross closed bord e rs .

Direct broadcast satellite uses satellite systems to fe e daudio and video broadcast signals to IBB relay stations and affil-iates and directly to individual users and cable systems aro u n dthe wo r l d . Te chnical quality is usually ex c e l l e n t . Satellite dishesare now relatively small and inex p e n s i v e, w h i ch allows more pri-vate homes to have direct access to broadcast signals, but arestill unava i l a ble for many members of our target audience.

Satellite dish used for high-qualityp rogram feed undergoes m a i n t e n a n c e


1 4

IBB to collect data morequickly and efficiently andcan include verifying howa ffiliates are using U.S.-pro-vided pro g r a m m i n g .

Jamming, in which a coun-t ry intentionally transmitsi n t e rf e rence on the same fre-quency as one of ourp rograms, is unfort u n a t e l ystill around. During theheight of the Cold Wa r, mostjamming took place in thef o rmer Soviet Union. In 1997,IBB technical monitoringc o n f i rmed that China, Cuba,Iran, Iraq, North Korea, andVietnam attempted to jamour programming. IBB

responded by changing fre q u e n c i e s ,i n c reasing signal strength, augment-ing transmitter selection, and otherm e a s u res to attempt to circumvent thej a m m i n g .

A ffiliates Expand the Audience

VOA, WORLDNET, and RFE/RLhave developed a network of aff i l i a t estations to complement direct bro a d-casting. These local radio andtelevision stations use our pro g r a m sas part of their daily broadcasts, thusextending their content to people whotune in to local—rather than, or inaddition to, intern a t i o n a l — b ro a d c a s t-ers. An affiliate relationship benefitslisteners, who have a local outlet onwhich to hear our programs; the sta-tions, which receive high-qualityp rogramming at no charge; and theUnited States, which transmits to mil-lions more people than it could re l y i n gon its own direct bro a d c a s t s .

The number of local stationsrequesting to be affiliates grows eachy e a r. More than 1,300 local AM andFM stations around the world areVOA affiliates, nearly 100 of whomjoined on in 1997. RFE/RL aff i l i a t e sinclude nationwide networks inBulgaria, the Czech Republic,

“ H e rmianchuk [editor

of Belarus’ Svoboda

newspaper] and his

colleagues are n ’t giv-

ing up. Their Intern e t

p rovider got scare d

and took away their

Web site, but Radio

F ree Euro p e / R a d i o

L i b e rty — still essen-

tial in so much of the

world — off e red a tem-

p o r a ry cyber home.”

—Op-ed column by Washington Post report e r

Fred Hiatt

TV monitoring by IBB t e c h n i c i a n .

A TWIST ON THE ORAL TRADITION

A VOA journalist and a USAID staff member, traveling in Guinea Bissau to

cover the two agencies’ polio eradication campaign, went by car, foot, and

canoe to arrive at a small village near the Senegalese bord e r. When they

a rrived, they observed a group of people surrounding an elderly man. He

was holding a small radio up to his ear, tuned to VOA’s Portuguese to Africa

S e rvice. Every minute or so, he would turn to the group and translate what

he had heard into the local language. New technologies have their place in

getting the word out to our listeners. But the centuries-old oral tradition,

helped with a shortwave radio and a pair of batteries, also has a ro l e .


1 5

Slovakia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania,Estonia, Georgia, Azerbaijan,Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,Russia, and the countries of the for-mer Yugoslavia. In addition, 525television networks and stations areWORLDNET aff i l i a t e s .

To support the affiliates’ network,the IBB leases satellite circuits and,w h e re necessary, has provided satel-lite receiving dishes and re l a t e dequipment to affiliates to downlink thep rogramming. A newsletter and We bsite provide updates to affiliates aboutp rograms, schedule changes, trainingo p p o rtunities, and satellite inform a-tion. These services are a smallinvestment when measured againstthe millions of additional listeners andviewers we gain as a result of our aff i l i-ate re l a t i o n s h i p s .

Television as an Altern a t i v e

The “radios” are looking at how todeliver more content via television tos e rve the needs of their audiences.The Farsi “Roundtable with Yo u ”radio/TV simulcast, a cooperativee ff o rt of VOA and WORLDNET,

celebrated its first anniversary on theair in October 1997 and has beene x t remely well received by the Iranianpeople. RFE/RL broadcasts a weeklynews program on a Bosnian networkonce a week during prime time. VOAand WORLDNET launched pro g r a m sin 1997 that are on local TV in Bosniaand Serbia. In all these pro g r a m s ,b roadcasters provide a voice for thoseseeking democracy and peace, often ind i fficult circ u m s t a n c e s .

WORLDNET also pro d u c e s“ Window on America,” shown onprime time on Ukrainian NationalTelevision, and “Esta Noche,” a six-hour block of Spanish and Englishp rogramming carried by cable outletsa c ross Latin America.

To facilitate the use of more on-the-scene televised re p o rts, an IBBengineer devel-oped a videoc o n f e re n c i n gsystem thatuses a personalcomputer and avideo camera toc reate an over-seas televisionstudio. Thisdesktop systemp e rmits a lan-

“The fact that

mainland China has

jammed Radio Fre e

Asia in this way re a l l y

p roves that your

s t a t i o n ’s bro a d c a s t s

have hit the

Communist Part y

w h e re it hurt s . ”

—Listener from China

Above, VOA/WORLDNET simulcast.Left, Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty III and host Mario Martinez discussthe upcoming Summit of theAmericas during a WORLDNETDialogue bro a d c a s t .


1 6

guage service to uselive video from anoverseas location atv e ry low cost. In1997, for the firsttime, VOA took inand re b ro a d c a s treal-time videore p o rts from Bosniaand Hong Kong.

In 1997, VOA andWORLDNET facili-ties wereconsolidated intoone building with

s h a red studio space. This move hasmeant further opportunities for jointtelevision re p o rting. More o v e r, theB roadcasting Board of Governors setthe tone for development of a widerstrategy for the future of IBB’s televi-sion service through the transfer of WORLDNET’s Dialoguesand other policy-oriented programs toUSIA and encouraging WORLDNETand VOA to collaborate more closelyon news pro g r a m s .

Use of the Intern e t

As it has in many other applications,the Internet provides U.S. intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting with a new avenue ofcommunication, one that complementsp rogram delivery through direct anda ffiliate bro a d c a s t i n g .

Although far from a universal tech-n o l o g y, particularly in the developingworld, the Internet gives us newo p p o rtunities, particularly to re a c hdecision makers and other elites. Vi atheir Web sites, both RFE/RL andVOA distribute text and audio newsfiles that are constantly updatedt h roughout the day. Although RFA didnot have a full Web presence in 1997,it launched a home page with basici n f o rmation about its pro g r a m m i n g ,which it will supplement with a morec o m p rehensive site in 1998.

Two illustrations serve to showhow radio and Internet can team up toc i rcumvent restrictions on the fre eflow of information. When VOAl e a rned that its Web site was blockedby the Chinese authorities, it re s p o n d-ed by announcing on its radiop rograms that it would establish a s e rvice to e-mail VOA scripts and textsd i rectly to those requesting them. Onthe first day that the service wasannounced, VOA received messagesf rom 400 Chinese listeners pro v i d i n gtheir e-mail addresses, and the num-bers have grown ever since. Andwhen authorities in Belarus closeddown “Svoboda,” the country ’s lastindependent newspaper, RFE/RLb roadcast the newspaper’s articles onthe air and posted them on theRFE/RL Web site.

R FA Newsro o m

B e l o w, IBB’s web site( h t t p : / / w w w.ibb.gov) provides a new means of disseminating i n f o rm a t i o n .

Voice of America

W O R L D N E T

Radio & T V M a rt í

A ff i l i a t e s

I B B M o n i t o r i n g

O ffice ofBusiness Development

I V

AS T H I S R E P O RT W E N T T O P R E S S, T H E

men and women of U.S. intern a t i o n a lb roadcasting were already deeplyimmersed in covering the events of1998. U.S. and other world leadersw e re seeking ways to enforce Iraq’scompliance with United Nationsre q u i rements; Asian economies weredealing with deep economic crises;and the Cuban people were pre p a r i n gfor a historic visit by Pole John Paul II.Peace in Bosnia was tentatively hold-ing. In all these situations and more ,the journalists have been out on thef ront lines, re p o rting on the news andsharing their expertise. Their ability tocommunicate accurate and objectivei n f o rmation empowers people to seekthe rights they are due and that allAmericans value: human rights,d e m o c r a c y, peaceful resolution of con-flicts, economic security, freedom ofp ress and religion, and the right to ahealthy future .

The five broadcasting services willcontinue to make objective, accuratenews a top priority. By definition, oneof the strengths of intern a t i o n a l

b roadcasting is its flexibility torespond to events as they happen,indeed almost instantaneously.Nonetheless, the Broadcasting Boardof Governors and the individual ser-vices must also be proactive andposition international broadcasting tomeet changing technical and pro-grammatic needs in the years ahead.The broadcasting services will tacklenew concerns in the coming year,including —

• Enhanced programming to ChinaBoth Congress and the Pre s i d e n thave expressed their desire toexpand to 24 hours broadcasting toChina. RFA is expanding its opera-tions to meet this request byi n c reasing daily broadcast hours inMandarin and Tibetan and will inau-gurate broadcasts in Cantonese andWu (Shanghaiese). VOA will alsoi n c rease its daily schedule in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Cantonese,

as well as provide otherexpansions of its curre n ts e rvice, including originalMandarin television pro-ductions and direct e-mailof Chinese languagescripts.

• I n c reased television s e rvice VOA and WORLDNET will continue to coord i -nate and increase the televising of VOA pro -grams, particularly to a reas where re s e a rch shows the majority of people prefer to gettheir news from TV,

rather than radio. For example, alive radio/TV simulcast in Russianis planned, which will allow us towork with 10 new affiliates with a

M a l a y a n

M a l a y a l a m

M a n d a r i n

N e p a l i

N o rw e g i a n

P a s h t o

P o l i s h

P o rt u g u e s e

P o rt u g u e s e

P o rtuguese

R o m a n i a n

R u s s i a n

S e r b i a n

Shanghai

S l o v a k

Slovene

S o m a l i

VOA Chinese-language television simulcast.

LO OK IN G A H EA D

U . S . I N T E R N AT I O N A L B RO A D C A S T I N G • 1 9 9 7 A N N U A L R E P O RT

1 8

potential additional audience of 1.5million people.

• F u rther application of re s e a rch In 1997, we significantly incre a s e dthe capacity to conduct cutting-edge re s e a rch. The next step isf u rther application of that re s e a rc hto improve programming of all s e rv i c e s .

• I m p roved transmission qualityIBB will continue to take advantageof new technologies, including digi-tal circuits and the Internet. Relaystations in Sri Lanka and Ti n i a nshould be on line in 1998, gre a t l yenhancing RFA and VOA transmis-sions to Asia, and Radio and TVM a rtí operations are scheduled tobe consolidated in Miami in springof 1998.

• S t rengthened role for theB roadcasting Board of Govern o r sThe Board looks forw a rd to thechallenges and opportunities thatthe future will bring. As stated byBBG chairman David Burke, U.S.i n t e rnational broadcasting pro-grams “have been and will re m a i n

an essential part of our eff o rts top romote democracy and advanceA m e r i c a ’s interests abroad. Theire ffectiveness depends up their cre d-ibility with their audiences. MyBBG colleagues and I are commit-ted to helping safeguard thatc redibility and effectiveness in sup-p o rt of the Administration’s fore i g npolicy intere s t s . ”

This past year has been an eventfuland challenging one for U.S. intern a-tional broadcasting. Throughout theworld, in a number of critical situa-tions, our re p o rting has made adecisive diff e rence. It has made thed i ff e rence between whether peopleremain in an information vacuum orwhether they have access to one oftheir most fundamental rights as citi-zens of the world — the right toreceive a free flow of information ino rder to determine their own destiny.

“I welcome your call for increased funding to expand U.S.-

s u p p o rted international broadcasting into China....I there f o re

pledge to work with you and others in the Congress to

obtain additional support for Radio Free Asia and the Vo i c e

of America, to provide 24 hours of Mandarin bro a d c a s t i n g

s e rvices daily to China and appropriate broadcasting in

other dialects.”—Letter from President Bill Clinton

to Speaker of House Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Among the guests interviewed in1997: Gospel singer Cece Wi n a n ,and Donna Shalala, Secre t a ry ofHealth and Human Serv i c e s .

“Since we are almost on the

v e rge of entering the 21st

c e n t u ry, there is a great need

now for exchange of perc e p-

tion re g a rding all issues,

political and cultural. It is only

t h rough the news media that

we can keep abreast of all

that is changing so rapidly

a round us.”—Listener in Allahabad, I n d i a

David W. Burke, Chairm a nM r. Burke is a Director and

Trustee of various Dreyfus Funds. He is the former president of CBSNews, and has served as both Vice President and Executive Vi c eP resident of ABC News.

Tom C. Koro l o g o sM r. Korologos is the President of

Timmons & Company, a govern m e n trelations consulting firm. He form e r l ys e rved as the Chairman of the UnitedStates Advisory Commission on PublicDiplomacy and as a member of theB o a rd of Directors of the Intern a t i o n a lMedia Fund.

E d w a rd E. KaufmanM r. Kaufman is President of Public

Strategies, a political and manage-ment consulting firm in Wi l m i n g t o n ,D e l a w a re. He is the former Chief ofS t a ff to Senator Joseph Biden and aSenior Lecturing Fellow at DukeUniversity School of Law and theFugua School of Business.

Carl SpielvogelM r. Spielvogel is the Chairm a n ,

Chief Executive Officer of CarlSpielvogel Associates, Inc., a globalinvestment and communications com-p a n y. Mr. Spielvogel is the form e rC h a i rman and Chief Executive Off i c e rof Backer Spielvogel Bates Wo r l d w i d e ,Inc., one of the world’s largest market-ing, communications, and advert i s i n gcompanies. Earlier, he was a re p o rt e rand columnist at The New York Ti m e sfor eight years.

Bette Bao LordMs. Lord is a recognized author

and lecturer whose works includeLegacies: A Chinese Mosaic, whichwas chosen by Time magazine as oneof the ten best non-fiction books of

1990, and Spring Moon, a New Yo r kTimes bestseller and nominee for theAmerican Book Aw a rd. She is alsoChair of the Freedom House Boardof Tru s t e e s .

A l b e rto MoraM r. Mora is an attorney in private

practice in Washington, D.C., wherehis focus is international law. Fro m1989 to 1993, he served as GeneralCounsel for the United StatesI n f o rmation Agency.

M a rc B. NathansonM r. Nathanson is Chairman and

Chief Executive Officer of FalconCable TV, which serves in excess ofone million subscribers in over 700communities in 27 states. Mr.Nathanson is a 26-year veteran of thecable TV industry and was electedmember of “Cable Pioneers” in 1982.

C h e ryl HalpernMs. Halpern has participated exten-

sively in community activities on thenational, state, and local levels. She hass e rved on the Executive Board of theWashington Institute for Near EastP o l i c y, the Executive Committee of theNew Jersey Regional Advisory Boardof the Anti-Defamation League of B’naiB’rith. From 1990 to 1995, Ms. Halperns e rved as a member of the Board forI n t e rnational Broadcasting, the pre d e-cessor to the Broadcasting Board ofG o v e rnors.

The Honorable Joseph Duff e yD r. Duff e y, Director of the United

States Information Agency, serves asan ex-officio member of the bipart i s a nB o a rd .


A P P E N D I C E S

S p a n i s h

S p a n i s h

S w a h i l i

S w a t o w

S w e d i s h

Ta g a l o g

Ta m i l

Ta t a r

Te l e g u

T h a i

Ti b e t a n

Ti g r i g n a

Tu r k i s h

U k r a i n i a n

U rd u

U z b e k

Vi e t n a m e s e


Voice of America

FY 1998 Budget: $102,478,000

Total Employment: 1,143

Number of Languages: 52

Weekly Broadcast Hours: 881

H e a d q u a rters: Washington, DC

D i rector: Evelyn S. Lieberm a n

1997 Highlights

• Hosted President Clinton, who usedVOA as the site for a major policya d d ress on China, just before thestate visit of Chinese Pre s i d e n tJiang Zemin.

• Broadcast a live interview withMiodrag Zivanovic, a moderateopposition leader from the

Republic of Srpska, and otherw i s eexpanded re p o rting to Bosnia,C roatia, and Serbia to support theelectoral pro c e s s .

• Increased Arabic programming to Iraq during prime listening hours and covered UN sanctionspolicy extensively.

• Through its Family UnificationP rogram, broadcast names ofCentral African refugees separatedf rom their families, which re s u l t e din more than 800 people givingc redit to VOA for their families’re u n i f i c a t i o n .

• Signed an agreement with thel a rgest private radio network inAfrica, ensuring its preeminence asthe strongest international bro a d-caster in Central Africa.

• Established an e-mail service toChina to get around Chinese inter-f e rence with VOA’s Web site.

• Interviewed Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng in his first exclusivei n t e rnational media interv i e w.

• Rebroadcast real-time video fro mBosnia and Hong Kong.

• Pioneered a Russian-language newsp rogram and signed agre e m e n t swith fourteen local television net-works in Russia to take furt h e rVOA pro g r a m m i n g .

• Established a four-channel, 24-hour-a-day network in English, includingthe creation of VOA Express, ac o s t - e ffective alternative to VOAE u rope, which ceased operations inJ a n u a ry 1997.

“My colleagues were

congratulating me

on working for an

o rganization that is

willing and able to

c ross boundaries in

Bosnia and bring

people and diff e re n t

views together. ”

— VOA S t r i n ger in Sarajevo

VO A C H ART E R

The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicatingwith the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Voice of America(the broadcasting service of the United States Information Agency) must winthe attention and respect of listeners. These principles will there f o re governVoice of America (VOA) broadcasts.

1 . VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source ofnews. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.

2 . VOA will re p resent America, not any single segment of American soci-e t y, and will there f o re present a balanced and comprehensive projection ofsignificant American thought and institutions.

3 . VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and eff e c t i v e l y,and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.

Gerald R. Ford, President of the United StatesSigned July 12, 1976Public Law 94-350


2 1

O ffice of Cuba Bro a d c a s t i n g

FY 1998 Budget: $ 2 2 , 0 9 5 , 0 0 0

Total Employment: 213

Language: Spanish

Weekly Broadcast Hours: 90 (radio);31.5 (television)

H e a d q u a rters: Miami, Florida

D i rector: Herminio San Roman

1997 Highlights

• Developed and broadcast a series ofp rograms to discuss the Clintona d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s January 1997 policypaper “Support for a DemocraticTransition in Cuba.”

• R e p o rted on the harassment, deten-tion, arrest, and incarceration ofCuban independent journalists, aswell as on condemnation by intern a-tional press organizations of thiswave of re p re s s i o n .

• Broadcast other specific cases ofhuman rights abuses in Cuba andcondemnation of those abuses byi n t e rnational org a n i z a t i o n s .

• P rovided information and analysison President Clinton’s public state-ments re g a rding U.S.-Cubanrelations, including a statement thatcommemorated the first anniver-s a ry of the shooting down of twoB rothers to the Rescue planes byCuban MiGs.

• Launched an initiative to enableCubans to participate in live call-inshows to discuss issues on the air,thanks to improvements in tele-phone communication.

• Obtained special permission fro mthe Cuban government to transmitgame 5 of the World Series in whichLivan Hernandez, who defectedf rom Cuba two years ago, was thes t a rting pitcher for the FloridaM a r l i n s .

• P rovided coverage of the December1997 defection of Hernandez’ bro t h-er Orlando, also formerly one ofC u b a ’s top pitchers.

• Tested a system that uses a UHFchannel to transmit TV Martí intoC u b a .


2 2

WORLDNET Television and Film Serv i c e

FY 1998 Budget: $19,933,000



D i rector: John Lennon, Acting

1997 Highlights

• Increased to 525 the number of a ffiliates using WORLDNET pro-gramming. These affiliates include25 stations in Serbia and Bosnia thatre b roadcast daily VOA-WORLD-NET news programs, UkrainianNational Television, and cable net-works throughout Latin America.

• Expanded its broadcast capabilitiesand products by televising VOA pro-gramming in Arabic, Farsi, Serbian,Bosnian, and other languages.

• Celebrated the first anniversary of“Roundtable with You,” a weeklycall-in program in Farsi that con-nects viewers in Iran with guests inWa s h i n g t o n .

• Part n e red with two Egyptian bro a d-casters, NILE TV and ART TV, on as i x - p a rt series on topics that rangedf rom U.S./Middle East relations toAIDS. Both television networksa i red the show during prime time.

• Provided USIA with interactivevideo conferencing capability, bring-ing U.S. officials and private sectore x p e rts together with their overseasc o u n t e r p a rts and foreign media.Guests in 1997 included membersof Congress and the ExecutiveBranch, health experts, humanrights specialists, and many others.

• Developed special series, including“By the People,” which pro m o t e sp a rticipation in the political pro c e s s ,and “The Entre p reneurs,” whichexamines successes in emerg i n gf ree markets throughout Centraland Eastern Europe and in theUnited States.

• Moved operations to the IBB head-q u a rters building, with no loss of airtime, and began cooperating moreclosely with VOA on radio/televi-sion simulcasts.


2 3

Radio Free Europe/Radio Libert y

FY 1998 Budget: $68,419,000




H e a d q u a rters: Prague, the Czech Republic

P resident: Thomas A. Dine

1997 Highlights

• Hosted the presidents of Romania,H u n g a ry, and Bulgaria and theC h a i rman of the LithuanianParliament in official visits to thePrague broadcasting center, whereeach, in news conferences, re a f-f i rmed the importance of RFE/RLp rogramming in stabilizing andencouraging democratic develop-ment in former communistc o u n t r i e s .

• P romoted understanding of thepeace process and free and fair elec-tions in Bosnia,S e r b i a / M o n t e n e g ro, and Cro a t i at h rough its South Slavic serv i c e ’smultiethnic pro g r a m s .

• Cooperated with responsible localb roadcasters in Bosnia, Croatia, andS e r b i a / M o n t e n e g ro to encouragethe development of independentmedia in the re g i o n .

• Provided balanced, compre h e n s i v eelection coverage in Russia, contributing to respect of electoralp ro c e d u res by local authorities and to a better- i n f o rmed Russiane l e c t o r a t e .

• Reported extensively on corru p t i o nin Ukraine and how it deters fore i g ni n v e s t m e n t .

• Compensated for official censorshipin Tajikistan, allowing the politicalopposition to make its views publicand receiving credit from oppositionleaders for its role in the June 1997peace agre e m e n t .

• Covered human rights violations inK y rgyzstan that helped gain acquit-tals and reductions of prison term sfor independent journalists andopposition leaders.

• Intensified coverage of an incre a s-ingly authoritarian situation inB e l a rus and aired re p o rts fro m“Svoboda,” when this independentnewspaper was shut down by theg o v e rn m e n t .

“ We can write or

speak a lot about

some very import a n t

issues. But unfort u-

nately Uzbek off i c i a l s

just ignore them.

But if RFE/RL’s Uzbek

b roadcasts say only

one word about the

same issues, it will be

immediately heard and

taken into account.

So you have a re a l

power to influence

the decision-making

p rocess in

U z b e k i s t a n . ”

— Khurshid Dostmu h a m m a d ,Ed i t o r- i n - chief of Ta s h k e n t ’s

“ H u r r i ya t ,” the onlyindependent newspaper in

the country


2 4

Radio Free Asia

FY 1998 Budget: $24,100,000





P resident: Richard Richter

1997 Highlights

• One year after launch of operations,completed the establishment of ser-vices in all the languages mandatedby Congress—Mandarin, Burm e s e ,Tibetan, Korean, Vietnamese, Lao,and Khmer.

• Hosted a visit by the Dalai Lama,who stressed the importance of the Tibetan service to him and to others within Tibet and in exile.

• Led the way among intern a t i o n a lb roadcasters with in-depth coverageof peasant uprisings in the ThaiBinh Province - nort h e rn Vi e t n a m .Only after RFA’s re p o rts aired didthe government admit that the dis-turbances had occurre d .

• Opened offices in Phnom Penh,Cambodia, in Dharamsala, India( h e a d q u a rters of the Dalai Lama),Tokyo, Japan, and Taipei, Ta i w a n .

• Reported live on the July 1997handover of Hong Kong to theC h i n e s e .

• Provided extensive coverage of thestate visit of President Jiang Zeminand of Wei Jingsheng’s release f rom prison and arrival in theUnited States.

• Broadcast exclusive interviews withChoi Joo-Hwal and Ko Yo u n g - K w a n ,two high-level defectors from Nort hK o rea, who provided North Kore a n swith a behind-the-scenes look athow their government operates.

• Produced special programming to mark the 50th anniversary ofB u rm a ’s independence from G reat Britain.

“ You can say that

your program speaks

to our hearts and in

the middle of the long

lingering night, it lets

us see the hope of a

f ree China. History

will never forget you—

Radio Free Asia—and

the Chinese people

who live under

dictatorial rule and

long for freedom and

democracy will thank

y o u . ”

— M i ddle school historyt e a ch e r,Yunnan Prov i n c e

2 5

United States Information Agency

I n t e rn a t i o n a lB ro a d c a s t i n g

B u re a u

B roadcasting B o a rd of Govern o r s

O ffice of Aff i l i a t eRelations andI n t e rn a t i o n a l

Media Tr a i n i n g

Voice o f

A m e r i c a

R a d i oF re e

E u ro p e / R a d i oL i b e rt y

( G r a n t e e )

R a d i oF re eA s i a

( G r a n t e e )

O ffice of CubaB ro a d c a s t i n g

O ffice ofW O R L D N E TTelevision and Film

O ffice ofEngineering andTechnical Ops

O ffice of Budgetand Planning O ffice of Policy

O ffice ofP rogram Review

O ffice ofPersonnel andA d m i n i s t r a t i o n

O ffice ofE x t e rnal Aff a i r s

a n dD e v e l o p m e n t

Kathleen Harrington, Chief of Staff

Brian T. Conniff, D i rector of Evaluation and Analysis

John A. Lindburg, Legal Counsel

Jon Beard, C o n g ressional Liaison Off i c e r

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Magda Hishmeh, Lynn Lindberg, Judy Gard n e r, Photography


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Documents

Working Together to Further U.S. Strategic Intere s t s