Board for International Broadcasting
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The Board for International Broadcasting (BIB) was a commission established in the United States as a privately incorporated organization in 1973 by the International Broadcasting Act of 1973, Public Law 93-129, on October 19, 1973. This primarily covered Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), established as an option to USSR broadcasting during the Cold War. In 1994, President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
signed the International Broadcasting Act into law. This act disbanded the BIB and put control of the RFE/RL under the newly created bipartisan
Broadcasting Board of Governors The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), is an independent agency of the United States government that broadcasts news and information. It describes its mission, "vital to US nation ...
(BBG).Raghavan, Sudarsan V., Stephen S. Johnson, and Kristi K. Bahrenburg. "Sending cross-border static: on the fate of Radio Free Europe and the influence of international broadcasting", Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 47, 1993.


History

Created in 1973 to oversee
Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
and
Radio Liberty Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
during the
Nixon Administration Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...
. It was established as a recommendation of the Milton Eisenhower Commission to help promote the mission of RFE/RL.Woolley, John and Gerhard Peters, "The American Presidency Project nline. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web

BIB took over financing and operation of broadcasting stations formerly funded by the CIA. It was replaced by the BBG, who oversees RFE/FL,
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
, Radio Marti and others.


Mission

The aim of the board is: "to provide an effective instrumentality for the continuation of assistance to Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and to encourage a constructive dialog with the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Eastern Europe." Members of the board, according to the bi-laws are "selected by the President from among Americans distinguished in the fields of foreign policy or mass communications" and cannot be concurrently full-time employees of the government.


Chairmen

Steve Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...
was appointed in 1985 as the Chairman and served during the
Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...
. He was reappointed by President George H. W. Bush.Encyclopædia Britannica

Accessed on 2011-03-25]
Dr. John A. Gronouski, professor of economics and public affairs at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
and former U.S. Postmaster General, served as Chairman of the Board during the Carter Administration.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Board For International Broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Government agencies established in 1973 1973 establishments in the United States 1994 disestablishments in the United States Defunct independent agencies of the United States government