Uzbek
*
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
*
Wolof
Wolof or Wollof may refer to:
* Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...
* English
The number of languages varies according to the priorities of the United States government and the world situation.
History
American private shortwave broadcasting before World War II
Before World War II, all American shortwave stations were in private hands.
[Berg, Jerome S. ''On the Short Waves, 1923–1945: Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio.'' 1999, McFarland. , 105] Privately controlled shortwave networks included the
National Broadcasting Company
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's International Network (or White Network), which broadcast in six languages, the
Columbia Broadcasting System
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
's Latin American international network, which consisted of 64 stations located in 18 countries, the
Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
The Crosley Broadcasting Corporation was a radio and television broadcaster founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley, Jr. It had a major influence in the early years of radio and television broadcasting, and helped the Voice of Ameri ...
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
which owned and operated
WGEO and WGEA, both based in
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
, and
KGEI
KGEI was a shortwave radio station founded by General Electric in 1939. It was purchased by the Far East Broadcasting Company in 1960.
History
KGEI was founded by GE in 1939 at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island with th ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, all of which had shortwave transmitters. Experimental programming began in the 1930s, but there were fewer than 12 transmitters in operation.
In 1939, the Federal Communications Commission set the following policy:
A licensee of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.
This policy was intended to enforce the State Department's
Good Neighbor Policy
The Good Neighbor policy ( ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt towards Latin America. Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had prev ...
, but some broadcasters felt that it was an attempt to direct censorship.
Shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter Nazi propaganda around 1940.
Initially, the Office of Coordination of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news.
The director of Latin American relations at the Columbia Broadcasting System was
Edmund A. Chester Edmund Albert Chester, Sr. - (June 22, 1897 – October 14, 1973) - was a senior Vice President and executive at the CBS radio and television networks during the 1940s. As Director of Latin American Relations he collaborated with the Department ...
, and he supervised the development of CBS's extensive "La Cadena de las Americas" radio network to improve broadcasting to South America during the 1940s.
Also included among the
cultural diplomacy
Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the "exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding". The purpose ...
programming on the Columbia Broadcasting System was the musical show ''
Viva America
Viva may refer to:
Companies and organisations
* Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator
* Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia
* Viva Air Dominicana
* VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company
* V ...
'' (1942-1949) which featured the Pan American Orchestra and the artistry of several noted musicians from both North and South America, including
Alfredo Antonini
Alfredo Antonini (May 31, 1901 – November 3, 1983) was a leading Italian-American symphony conductor and composer who was active on the international concert stage as well as on the CBS radio and television networks from the 1930s through the ea ...
,
Juan Arvizu
Juan Nepomuceno Arvizu Santelices (known as Juan Arvizu; Santiago de Querétaro, May 22, 1900 - Mexico City, November 19, 1985), was an acclaimed lyric tenor in Mexico and a noted interpreter of the Latin American bolero and tango on the internati ...
,
Eva Garza
Eva Garza (May 11, 1917 – November 1, 1966) was a Mexican-American singer and film actress who acquired international recognition in the 1940s and 1950s during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She collaborated on live radio shows and films wit ...
,
Elsa Miranda
Elsa M. Miranda (14 February 1922 – 27 April 2007) was a noted Puerto Rican singer who was featured on radio and television in the United States during the Golden Age of Radio in the 1940s. As a naturalized Argentinian, she was also active as ...
,
Nestor Mesta Chaires,
Miguel Sandoval
Miguel Sandoval (born November 16, 1951) is an American actor of film and television.
Biography
Sandoval was born in Washington, D.C. He began working as a professional actor in 1975 when he joined a mime school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. H ...
,
John Serry Sr.
John Serry Sr. (born John Serrapica; January 29, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voic ...
, and
Terig Tucci
Terig Tucci (June 23, 1897 – February 28, 1973) was an Argentine composer, violinist, pianist, and mandolinist.
Tucci was born in Buenos Aires, in 1897. His first composition, “Cariños de madre” was performed for a zarzuela at the ...
. By 1945, broadcasts of the show were carried by 114 stations on CBS's "La Cadena de las Americas" network in 20 Latin American nations. These broadcasts proved to be highly successful in supporting President
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
's policy of
Pan-Americanism
Pan-Americanism is a movement that seeks to create, encourage, and organize relationships, associations and cooperation among the states of the Americas, through diplomatic, political, economic, and social means.
History
Following the indepen ...
throughout South America during World War II.
World War II
Even before the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
, the U.S. government's
Office of the Coordinator of Information
The Office of the Coordinator of Information was an intelligence and propaganda agency of the United States Government, founded on July 11, 1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, prior to U.S. involvement in the Second World War. It was intende ...
(COI, in Washington) had already begun providing war news and commentary to the commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis through its Foreign Information Service (FIS, in New York) headed by playwright
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
He is the author of '' Waterloo Bridge, Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Rebecca, There Shall Be No Night, The Best Years of Our ...
, who served as president
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
's speech writer and information advisor. Direct programming began a week after the United States’ entry into World War II in December 1941, with the first broadcast from the San Francisco office of the FIS via
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
's KGEI transmitting to the Philippines in English (other languages followed). The next step was to broadcast to Germany, which was called ''Stimmen aus Amerika'' ("Voices from America") and was transmitted on February 1, 1942. It was introduced by "
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The "Battle Hymn of the Republic", also known as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" or "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" outside of the United States, is a popular American patriotic song written by the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe.
Howe wrote her l ...
" and included the pledge: "Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war... The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth." Roosevelt approved this broadcast, which then-Colonel
William J. Donovan
William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...
(COI) and Sherwood (FIS) had recommended to him. It was Sherwood who actually coined the term "The Voice of America" to describe the shortwave network that began its transmissions on February 1, from 270 Madison Avenue in New York City.
The
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
, when organized in the middle of 1942, officially took over VOA's operations. VOA reached an agreement with the
British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
to share medium-wave transmitters in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, and expanded into
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
in North Africa and
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
and
Bari, Italy
Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
, as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the
American Broadcasting Station in Europe
The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) was a radio broadcasting station set up by the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) in collaboration with the British BBC to counter Nazi propaganda.
It started broadcasting on 30 April 1944, tw ...
. Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
and, after recapture, the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages.
Programming was broadcast from production centers in New York and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, with more than 1,000 programs originating from New York. Programming consisted of music, news, commentary, and relays of U.S. domestic programming, in addition to specialized VOA programming.
About half of VOA's services, including the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
service, were discontinued in 1945.
In late 1945, VOA was transferred to the Department of State.
Cold War
The VOA ramped up its operations during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, which also increased its influence.
Foy Kohler, the director of VOA during the Cold War, strongly believed that the VOA was serving its purpose, which he identified as aiding in the fight against communism.
He argued that the numbers of listeners they were getting such as 194,000 regular listeners in Sweden, and 2.1 million regular listeners in France, was an indication of a positive impact. As further evidence, he noted that the VOA received 30,000 letters a month from listeners all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of requests for broadcasting schedules. There was an analysis done of some of those letters sent in 1952 and 1953 while Kohler was still director. The study found that letter writing could be an indicator of successful, actionable persuasion. It was also found that broadcasts in different countries were having different effects. In one country, regular listeners adopted and practiced American values presented by the broadcast. Age was also a factor: younger and older audiences tended to like different types of programs no matter the country. Kohler used all of this as evidence to claim that the VOA helped to grow and strengthen the free world. It also influenced the UN in their decision to condemn communist actions in Korea, and was a major factor in the decline of communism in the "free world, including key countries such as Italy and France.
In Italy, the VOA did not just bring an end to communism, but it caused the country to Americanize. The VOA also had an impact behind the
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...
. Practically all defectors during Kohler's time claimed the VOA helped in their decision to defect. Another indication of impact, according to Kohler, was the Soviet response. Kohler argued that the Soviets responded because the VOA was having an impact. Based on Soviet responses, it can be presumed that the most effective programs were ones that compared the lives of those behind and outside the iron curtain, questions on the practice of slave labor, as well as lies and errors in
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's version of
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
.
In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
citizens in Russia under the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of
Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media, according to John B. Whitton's treatise, ''Cold War Propaganda''.
The Soviet Union responded by initiating electronic
jamming of VOA broadcasts on April 24, 1949.
Charles W. Thayer
Charles W. Thayer (February 9, 1910 – August 27, 1969) was an American diplomat and author. He was an expert on Soviet-American relations and headed the Voice of America.
Early years
Charles Wheeler Thayer was born in Villanova, Pennsylvania ...
headed VOA in 1948–49. Over the next few years, the U.S. government debated the best role of Voice of America. The decision was made to use VOA broadcasts as a part of its
foreign policy
A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
to fight the propaganda of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and other countries.
The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
of 1956, and was six hours a day by 1958.
Between 1952 and 1960, Voice of America used a converted
U.S. Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...
cutter ''
Courier
A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
'' as a first mobile
broadcasting ship.
Control of VOA passed from the State Department to the
U.S. Information Agency
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to " public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill ...
when the latter was established in 1953
to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China. From 1955 until 2003, VOA broadcast American jazz on the ''
Voice of America Jazz Hour''. Hosted for most of that period by
Willis Conover
Willis Clark Conover, Jr. (December 18, 1920 – May 17, 1996) was a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and televisi ...
, the program had 30 million listeners at its peak. A program aimed at
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in 1956 broadcast two hours nightly, and special programs such as ''The
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...
'' were also transmitted. This was done in association with tours by U.S. musicians, such as
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...
,
Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
, and
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
, sponsored by the State Department. From August 1952 through May 1953, Billy Brown, a high school senior in
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
, had a Monday night program in which he shared everyday happenings in
Yorktown Heights, New York
Yorktown Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) in the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Yorktown, New York, Yorktown in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. The popula ...
. Brown's program ended due to its popularity: his "chatty narratives" attracted so much fan mail, VOA couldn't afford the $500 a month in clerical and postage costs required to respond to listeners' letters. During 1953, VOA personnel were subjected to
McCarthyist
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
policies, where VOA was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy,
Roy Cohn
Roy Marcus Cohn (; February 20, 1927 – August 2, 1986) was an American lawyer and prosecutor who came to prominence for his role as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954, when he assisted McCarth ...
, and
Gerard David Schine of intentionally planning to build weak transmitting stations to sabotage VOA broadcasts. However, the charges were dropped after one month of court hearings in February and March 1953.
Somewhere around 1954, VOA's headquarters were moved from New York to Washington D.C. The arrival of cheap, low-cost transistors enabled the significant growth of shortwave radio listeners. During the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
, VOA's broadcasts were deemed controversial, as Hungarian refugees and revolutionaries thought that VOA served as a medium and insinuated the possible arrival of the Western aid.
Throughout the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored
jamming of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956,
Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
stopped jamming VOA transmissions, but
People's Republic of Bulgaria
The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; bg, Народна Република България (НРБ), ''Narodna Republika Balgariya, NRB'') was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the ...
continued to jam the signal through the 1970s.
Chinese language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976. However, after the collapse of the
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...
and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies. The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts.
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
from its Russian-built transmission site at
Bejucal
Bejucal is a municipality and town in the Mayabeque Province of Cuba. It was founded in 1713. It is well known as the terminal station of the first railroad built in Cuba and Latin America in 1837. It also hosts one of the most popular and tradit ...
. David Jackson, former director of Voice of America, noted: "The
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
n government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, VOA covered some of the era's most important news, including
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
's 1963 "
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...
" speech and
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.
...
's 1969
first walk on the Moon, which drew an audience estimated at between 615 and 750 million people. In 1973, due to the detente policies in the Cold War, Soviet jamming of the VOA ceased.
In the early 1980s, VOA began a $1.3 billion rebuilding program to improve broadcast with better technical capabilities. During the implementation of the
Martial law in Poland between 1981 and 1983, VOA's Polish broadcasts expanded to seven hours daily. Throughout the 1980s, VOA focused on covering events from the 'American hinterland', such as 150th anniversary of the
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what ...
.
Also in the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba,
Radio Martí
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 transmitt ...
and
TV Martí
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba. In September 1980, VOA started broadcasting to
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in
Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
and in
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
in 1982. In 1985, VOA Europe was created as a special service in English that was relayed via satellite to AM, FM, and cable affiliates throughout Europe. With a contemporary format including live
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
s, the network presented top musical hits as well as VOA news and features of local interest (such as "EuroFax") 24 hours a day. VOA Europe was closed down without advance public notice in January 1997 as a cost-cutting measure. It was followed by VOA Express, which from July 4, 1999, revamped into VOA Music Mix. Since November 1, 2014, stations are offered VOA1 (which is a rebranding of VOA Music Mix).
In 1989, Voice of America expanded its
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
and
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
programming to reach the millions of Chinese and inform the country about the pro-democracy movement within the country, including the demonstration in Tiananmen Square. Starting in 1990, the U.S. consolidated its international broadcasting efforts, with the establishment of the Bureau of Broadcasting.
Post–Cold War
With the breakup of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe, VOA added many additional language services to reach those areas. This decade was marked by the additions of
Standard Tibetan
Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
In the traditional "three-branch ...
,
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
(to Iran and Iraq),
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
(Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian),
Macedonian, and
Rwanda-Rundi
Rwanda-Rundi is a group of Bantu languages, specifically a dialect continuum, spoken in Central Africa. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as national languages of Burundi and Rwanda respectively. These neighbouring d ...
language services.
In 1993, the
Clinton administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
advised cutting funding for
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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 ...
as it was felt post-Cold War information and influence was not needed in Europe. This plan was not well received, and he then proposed the compromise of the
International Broadcasting Act
Signed in law in 1994 by U.S. President Bill Clinton, this act was meant to streamline the U.S. international broadcasting and provide a cost-effective way to continue Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and Radio Marti.Raghavan, S ...
. The
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 ...
was established and took control from the Board for International Broadcasters which previously oversaw funding for RFE/RL.
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 law established the
International Broadcasting Bureau
The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) is the technical support outlet within the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) (former Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG), which is a U.S. independent agency. The IBB supports the day-to- ...
as a part of the U.S. Information Agency and created the Broadcasting Board of Governors with oversight authority. In 1998, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act was signed into law and mandated that the
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 ...
, or BBG, become an independent federal agency as of October 1, 1999. This act also abolished the
United States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill C ...
(USIA) and merged most of its functions with those of the
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
.
In 1994, Voice of America became the first broadcast-news organization to offer continuously updated programs on the Internet.
Cuts in services
The Arabic Service was abolished in 2002 and replaced by a new radio service, called the Middle East Radio Network or
Radio Sawa
Radio Sawa ( ar, راديو سوا) is a Middle Eastern radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. The station is a service of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., which also operates Alhurra Television and is publicly funded by the U ...
, with an initial budget of $22 million. Radio Sawa offered mostly Western and Middle Eastern popular songs with periodic brief news bulletins. Today, the network has expanded to television with
Alhurra
Alhurra ( ar, الحرة ' ,The pronunciation differs depending on the variety of Arabic, for example, . "the Free One") is a United States-based public Arabic-language satellite TV channel that broadcasts news and current affairs programming ...
and to various social media and websites.
On May 16, 2004,
Worldnet, a satellite television service, was merged into the VOA network.
Radio programs in Russian ended in July 2008.
In September 2008, VOA eliminated the Hindi-language service after 53 years.
Broadcasts in Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian and Bosnian also ended.
These reductions were part of American efforts to concentrate more resources to broadcast to the Muslim world.
In September 2010, VOA began its radio broadcasts in Sudan. As U.S. interests in
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...
have grown, there is a desire to provide people with free information.
In 2013, VOA ended foreign language transmissions on shortwave and medium wave to Albania, Georgia, Iran and Latin America, as well as English-language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The movement was done due to budget cuts.
On July 1, 2014, VOA cut most of its shortwave transmissions in English to Asia.
Shortwave broadcasts in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Khmer, Kurdish, Lao, and Uzbek were dropped too.
On August 11, 2014, the Greek service ended after 72 years on air.
List of languages
List of directors
* 1941–1942
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood (April 4, 1896 – November 14, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
He is the author of '' Waterloo Bridge, Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Rebecca, There Shall Be No Night, The Best Years of Our ...
(Foreign Information Service)
# 1942–1943
John Houseman
John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director ...
# 1943–1945 Louis G. Cowan
# 1945–1946 John Ogilvie
# 1948–1949
Charles W. Thayer
Charles W. Thayer (February 9, 1910 – August 27, 1969) was an American diplomat and author. He was an expert on Soviet-American relations and headed the Voice of America.
Early years
Charles Wheeler Thayer was born in Villanova, Pennsylvania ...
# 1949–1952 Foy D. Kohler
# 1952–1953 Alfred H. Morton
# 1953–1954 Leonard Erikson
# 1954–1956 John R. Poppele
# 1956–1958 Robert E. Burton
# 1958–1965 Henry Loomis
# 1965–1967 John Chancellor
# 1967–1968 John Charles Daly
# 1969–1977 Kenneth R. Giddens
# 1977–1979 R. Peter Straus
# 1980–1981 Mary G. F. Bitterman
# 1981–1982 James B. Conkling
# 1982 John Hughes
# 1982–1984 Kenneth Tomlinson
# 1985 Gene Pell
# 1986–1991 Dick Carlson
# 1991–1993 Chase Untermeyer
# 1994–1996 Geoffrey Cowan
# 1997–1999 Evelyn S. Lieberman
# 1999–2001 Sanford J. Ungar
# 2001–2002 Robert R. Reilly
# 2002–2006 David S. Jackson
# 2006–2011 Danforth W. Austin
# 2011–2015 David Ensor (journalist), David Ensor
# 2016–2020 Amanda Bennett
# 2020–2021 Robert R. Reilly
# 2021–present (vacant)
Agencies
Voice of America has been a part of several agencies. From its founding in 1942 to 1945, it was part of the
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
, and then from 1945 to 1953 as a function of the State Department. VOA was placed under the
U.S. Information Agency
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to " public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill ...
in 1953. When the USIA was abolished in 1999, VOA was placed under the BBG which is an autonomous U.S. government agency, with bipartisan membership. The Secretary of State has a seat on the BBG. The BBG was established as a buffer to protect VOA and other U.S.-sponsored, non-military, international broadcasters from political interference. It replaced the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB) that oversaw the funding and operation of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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 ...
, a branch of VOA.
[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, access on March 25, 2011.]
52 Documentary
In 2021, Voice of America launched 52 Documentary, a series that publishes weekly films about human experiences. They publish on the streaming app, VOA+, and YouTube. Films average 10-15 minutes and are translated with captions in several languages, including Russian, Persian, Mandarin, Urdu, and English. Euna Lee directs the program.
Laws
Smith–Mundt Act
From 1948 until its amendment in 2013, Voice of America was forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens under § 501 of the Smith–Mundt Act.
The act was amended as a result of the passing of the ''Smith-Mundt Modernization Act'' provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, National Defense Authorization Act for 2013.
The intent of the legislation in 1948 was to protect the American public from propaganda actions by their own government and to have no competition with private American companies. The amendment had the intent of adapting to the Internet and allow American citizens to request access to VOA content.
Internal policies
VOA charter
Under the Eisenhower administration in 1959, VOA Director Henry Loomis commissioned a formal statement of principles to protect the integrity of VOA programming and define the organization's mission, and was issued by Director George V. Allen as a directive in 1960 and was endorsed in 1962 by USIA director Edward R. Murrow. The principles were signed into law on July 12, 1976, by President Gerald Ford. It reads:
The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Voice of America must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts. 1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive. 2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions. 3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.
"Firewall"
The Voice of America Firewall was put in place with the 1976 VOA Charter and laws passed in 1994 and 2016 as a way of ensuring the integrity of VOA's journalism. This policy fights against propaganda and promotes unbiased and objective journalistic standards in the agency. The charter is one part of this firewall and the other laws assist in ensuring high standards of journalism.
"Two-source rule"
According to former VOA correspondent Alan Heil, the internal policy of VOA News is that any story broadcast must have two independently corroborating sources or have a staff correspondent witness an event.
Censorship
On 30 June 2022, VOA Turkish's () domain name "amerikaninsesi.com" was blocked in Turkey upon the request of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). RTÜK had already ordered VOA in February 2022 to pay a license fee or to terminate their service in Turkey. In order to circumvent censorship, they moved to "voaturkce.com" domain name.
''VOA Radiogram''''VOA Radiogram''
was an experimental Voice of America program starting in March 2013 which transmitted digital text and images via Shortwave radio, shortwave Radiogram (message), radiograms. There were 220 editions of the program, transmitted each weekend from the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station. The audio tones that comprised the bulk of each 30 minute program were transmitted via an analog transmitter, and could be decoded using a basic Amplitude modulation, AM shortwave receiver with freely downloadable software of the Fldigi family. This software is available for Windows, Apple Computers, Apple (macOS), Linux, and FreeBSD systems.
Broadcasts can also be decoded using the fre
TIVAR app from the Google Play store
using any Android (operating system), Android device.
The mode used most often on ''VOA Radiogram'', for both text and images, was MFSK32, but other modes were also occasionally transmitted.
The final edition of ''VOA Radiogram'' was transmitted during the weekend of June 17–18, 2017, a week before the retirement of the program producer from VOA. An offer to continue the broadcasts on a contract basis was declined, so a follow-on show called ''Shortwave Radiogram'' began transmission on June 25, 2017, from the WRMI transmitting site in Okeechobee, Florida.
;''Shortwave Radiogram'' program schedule
Transmission facilities
The Voice of America Bethany Relay Station, Bethany Relay Station, operational from 1944 to 1994, was based on a site in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio, Union Township (now West Chester Township) in Butler County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. The site is now a recreational park with a lake, lodge, dog park, and Voice of America museum. Major transmitter upgrades first happened around 1963, when shortwave and medium-wave transmitters were built, upgraded or rebuilt.
Other former sites include California (Dixon, California, Dixon and Delano, California, Delano), Hawaii, Okinawa, Liberia (Monrovia), Costa Rica, Belize, and at least two in Greece (Kavala (regional unit), Kavala and Rhodos).
Between 1983 and 1990, VOA made significant upgrades to transmission facilities in Botswana (Selebi-Phikwe), Morocco, Thailand (Udon Thani Province, Udon Thani), Kuwait, and Sao Tome (Almas, São Tomé and Príncipe, Almas). Some of them are shared with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
Currently, VOA and USAGM continue to operate shortwave radio transmitters and antenna farms at International Broadcasting Bureau Greenville Transmitting Station (known as "Site B") in the United States, close to Greenville, North Carolina. They do not use FCC-issued call signs, since the FCC does not regulate communications by other federal government agencies. (The FCC regulates broadcasting by private companies and other businesses, state governments, nonprofit organizations [NPOs] and non-government organizations [NGOs], and private individuals.) The IBB also operates transmission facilities on São Tomé and Tinang, Concepcion, Tarlac, Philippines for VOA.
File:VOA SiteB building.JPG, International Broadcasting Bureau Greenville Transmitting Station, Edward R. Murrow Greenville Transmitting Station, the last operational VOA broadcasting station in the US, located in North Carolina's Inner Banks.
File:2009-0725-CA-Delano-VOArelay.jpg, The Delano, California, Delano Transmitting Station, which used a very large curtain array, was closed in October 2007.
Controversies
Mullah Omar interview
In late September 2001, VOA aired a report that contained brief excerpts of an interview with then Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Mullah Omar Mohammad, along with segments from President Bush's post-9/11 speech to Congress, an expert in Islam from Georgetown University, and comments by the foreign minister of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. State Department officials including Richard Armitage (politician), Richard Armitage and others argued that the report amounted to giving terrorists a platform to express their views. In response, reporters and editors argued for the VOA's editorial independence from its governors. VOA received praise from press organizations for its protests, and the following year in 2002, it won the University of Oregon's Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism.
Abdul Malik Rigi interview
On April 2, 2007, Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundallah (Iran), Jundullah, a militant group with possible links to al-Qaeda, appeared on Voice of America's Persian language service. The interview resulted in public condemnation by the Iranian-American community, as well as the Iranian government.
Jundullah is a militant organization that has been linked to numerous attacks on civilians, such as the 2009 Zahedan bombing.
Tibetan protester interview
In February 2013, a documentary released by China Central Television interviewed a self-immolation protests by Tibetans in China, Tibetan self-immolator who failed to kill himself. The interviewee said he was motivated by Voice of America's broadcasts of commemorations of people who committed suicide in political self-immolation. VOA denied any allegations of instigating self-immolations and demanded that the Chinese station retract its report.
Trump presidency politicization efforts
After the Inauguration of Donald Trump, inauguration of President of the United States, US President Donald Trump, several tweets by Voice of America (one of which was later removed) seemed to support the widely criticized statements by White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the crowd size and biased media coverage. This first raised concerns over possible attempts by Trump to politicize the state-funded agency.
[Voice of America says it won't become Trump TV](_blank)
, ''The Washington Post''[Trump moves to put his own stamp on Voice of America](_blank)
, ''Politico''
, ''LA Times''[Donald Trump sends two aides to Voice of America studios, raising fears he's going to politicize the outlet](_blank)
, ''Salon'' This amplified already growing
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
concerns over the provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, signed into law by Barack Obama, which replaced the board of the
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 ...
with a CEO appointed by the president. Trump sent two of his political aides, Matthew Ciepielowski and Matthew Schuck, to the agency to aid its current CEO during the Presidential transition of Donald Trump, transition to the Trump administration. Criticism was raised over Trump's choice of aides; Schuck was a staff writer for Right-wing politics, right-wing website ''The Daily Surge'' until April 2015, while Ciepielowski was a field director at the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.
[ VOA officials responded with assurances that they would not become "Trump TV".][ BBG head John F. Lansing told NPR that it would be illegal for the administration to tell VOA what to broadcast, while VOA director Amanda Bennett stressed that while "government-funded", the agency is not "government-run".][
On April 10, 2020, the White House published an article in its daily newsletter critical of VOA coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, coronavirus pandemic. Emails revealed in a Freedom of Information Act (United States), Freedom of Information Act request showed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) press official Michawn Rich had sent a memo to agency employees stating in part, "as a rule, do not send up [interview] requests for Greta Van Susteren or anyone affiliated with Voice of America," referencing the White House story. On April 30, ''The Washington Post'' reported Vice President Mike Pence's office "threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence's office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence's visit to the Mayo Clinic — a requirement Pence himself did not follow."
On June 3, 2020, the Senate confirmed Michael Pack, a maker of conservative documentaries and close ally of Steve Bannon, to serve as head of the United States Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA. Subsequently, Director Bennet and deputy director Sandy Sugawara resigned from VOA. CNN reported on June 16 that plans for a leadership shakeup at VOA were being discussed, including the possibility that controversial former White House aide Sebastian Gorka would be given a leadership role at VOA. On June 17, the heads of VOA's Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Open Technology Fund were all fired, their boards were dissolved and external communications from VOA employees made to require approval from senior agency personnel in what one source described as an "unprecedented" move, while Jeffrey Shapiro, like Pack a Bannon ally, was rumored to be in line to head the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Four former members of the advisory boards subsequently filed suit challenging Pack's standing to fire them. On July 9, NPR reported VOA would not renew the work visas of dozens of non-resident reporters, many of whom could face repercussions in their home countries. In late July, four contractors and the head of VOA's Urdu language service were suspended after a video featuring extensive clips from a Muslim-American voter conference, including a campaign message from then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, was determined not to meet editorial standards and taken down.
On August 12, 2020, USAGM chief financial officer Grant Turner and general counsel David Kligerman were removed from their positions and stripped of their security clearances, reportedly for their opposition to what Turner called "gross mismanagement," along with four other senior agency officials. Politico reported on August 13 that Trump administration official and former shock jock Frank Wuco had been hired as a USAGM senior advisor, responsible for auditing the agency's office of policy and research. As a radio host, Wuco issued insults and groundless claims against former US President Barack Obama, CIA Director John O. Brennan and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. VOA's Twitter account during this period featured stories favorable to Vice President Mike Pence and White House advisor Ivanka Trump.
In response to Pack's August 27 interview with The Federalist website, a group of VOA journalists sent a letter to VOA Acting Director Elez Biberaj complaining that his "comments and decisions 'endanger the personal security of VOA reporters at home and abroad, as well as threatening to harm U.S. national security objectives.'" VOA's response was that "it would not respond directly to the letter because it was 'improper' and 'failed to follow procedure.' Instead, the leadership of USAGM and VOA 'are handling the choice of complaint transmission as an administrative issue,' which suggested that the journalists could face sanctions for their letter," according to ''The Washington Post''. In the same story, the ''Post'' reported that VOA Spanish-language service White House correspondent's Brigo Segovia's interview with an official about the administration's response to Pack's personnel and other moves had been censored and his own access to VOA's computer system restricted.
On July 20, 2020, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine filed suit under the District's Nonprofit Corporations Act to reverse Pack's replacement of the Open Technology Fund (OTF) board. Beginning in August 2020, OTF came under increasing pressure from Peck and USAGM leadership. According to Axios, this was related to OTF's reluctance to extend grants to Falun Gong-related enterprises working on technology directed against China's Great Firewall; ''The New York Times'' noted Falun Gong and its Epoch Times media group frequently supported the Trump administration. On August 18, USAGM announced it was setting up its own Office of Internet Freedom with less strict grant requirements and began soliciting OTF's grantees to apply to the new office. On August 20, OTF sued USAGM in the US Court for Federal Claims for withholding nearly $20 million in previously-agreed grant funds. On October 15, summary judgment was granted nullifying Pack's attempt to replace the OTF board.
On September 29, six senior USAGM officials filed a whistleblower complaint in which they alleged that Pack or one of his aides had ordered research conducted into the voting history of at least one agency employee, which would be a violation of laws protecting civil servants from undue political influence. NPR reported that two Pack aides had compiled a report on VOA White House bureau chief Steven L. Herman's social media postings and other writings in an attempt to charge him with a conflict of interest, and that the agency released a conflict of interest policy stating in part that a "journalist who on Facebook 'likes' a comment or political cartoon that aggressively attacks or disparages the President must recuse themselves from covering the President." A preliminary injunction issued on November 20 barred Pack "from making personnel decisions involving journalists at the networks; from directly communicating with editors and journalists employed by them; and from investigating any editors or news stories produced by them" and characterized the investigation of Herman as an "unconstitutional prior restraint" of his, his editors' and fellow journalists' free speech.
Suspended officials from Voice of America sued the agency news outlet on October 8. They accused its chief operating officer, Michael Pack, of using Voice of America as a vehicle to promote the personal agenda of President Trump and of violating a statutory firewall intended to prevent political interference with the agency, and they are seeking their reinstatement.
Then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign told Vox News in June 2020 that Biden would fire Pack if he won election. In November 2020, US District Beryl A. Howell, Judge Beryl Howell found Pack violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment rights of Voice of America journalists.
In December 2020, the ''Washington Post'' reported Pack was refusing to cooperate with President-elect of the United States, President-elect Biden's transition team and, in an end run around the court order, had persuaded VOA Acting Director Biberaj to step down, replacing him with Robert Reilly (politician), Robert Reilly, a former VOA director who had written critically of Muslims, gays and lesbians. On December 19, 33 days before President-elect Biden's inauguration, Pack named Ted Lipien, a former VOA veteran journalist who headed the Polish Service during the final struggle for democracy in Poland in the 1980s and a former acting associate director of VOA who, according to NPR, "became a sharp critic of USAGM, VOA and the other affiliated networks on a pair of blogs" and "of the three network presidents affected, the only one without established partisan ties," – as head of RFE/RL, and Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a writer for Breitbart and ''The Washington Times'' who had claimed President Obama "hates America," as head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. On December 30, NPR reported Pack was attempting to add contractual language that would make it impossible to fire the broadcasting board members he had installed for two years, after which they could only be fired "for cause." Reportedly the new contracts had been withdrawn after inquiries from media and Congress.
On January 11, 2021, VOA interim director Reilly ordered veteran reporter Patsy Widakuswara off the White House beat. Earlier that day, Widakuswara had followed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo out of the building after his speech criticizing the VOA]
Guo Wengui interview
On April 19, 2017, VOA interviewed the Chinese real estate tycoon Guo Wengui in a live broadcast. The whole interview was scheduled for 3 hours. After Guo Wengui alleged to own evidence of corruption among the members of Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Politburo Standing Committee of China, the highest political authority of China, the interview was abruptly cut off, after only one hour and seventeen minutes of broadcasting. Guo's allegations involved Fu Zhenhua and Wang Qishan, the latter being a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the leader of the massive anti-graft movement. It was reported that the Government of China warned VOA's representatives not to interview Guo for his "unsubstantiated allegations". Four members of the U.S. Congress requested the Office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation into this interruption on August 27, 2017. The OIG investigation concluded that the decision to curtail the Guo interview was based solely on journalistic best practices rather than any pressure from the Chinese government.
Relay station used as a CIA black site
It has been reported that a Voice of America relay station in Udon Thani Province Thailand was used as a CIA black site referred to as "Cat's Eye" or "Detention Site Green".
In different regions
DEEWA Radio's impact
DEEWA Radio, of the VOA, airs in Pakistan. Although some listeners are suspicious that the program is promoting an American agenda, others claim to be experiencing a positive effect. Some listeners feel that the programs are giving a voice to the voiceless, leading them to a sense of empowerment.
Kurdistan and Iran
VOA's service in Iran has had a negative impact on Kurds and Kurdistan according to the publication, Kurdish Life. They claim that the VOA has exacerbated the conflict between the Talabani and the Barzani. They further claim that the VOA is covering up wrongful imprisonments, wrongful arrests, and the building of extremist mosques. According to the same publication, Kurds are being turned into fanatics, and a new generation of terrorists is forming because of the VOA. They claim the VOA is doing this to help PUK.
Latin America
There is evidence to suggest that the people who listen to the Latin American service are being influenced, but not in the way the VOA wants. Instead of understanding and adopting the American way of life, listeners are parroting values and beliefs that do not mesh with their lives. However, others have adopted a negative view of America, because they think that the VOA is propaganda.
China
A study was done on Chinese students in America. It found that through the VOA, they disapproved of the actions of the Chinese government.
Russia
In response to the request of the United States Department of Justice that RT (TV network), RT register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Russia's Justice Ministry Aleksandr Konovalov (politician, born 1968), Konovalov labeled Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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 ...
as Russian foreign agent law, foreign agents in December 2017.
See also
* BBC World Service
* China Media Group
* Deutsche Welle
* France 24
* Frank Shozo Baba
* George Kao
* List of world news channels
* Radio propaganda
* Radio Rebelde
* Telesur
* Voice of America Indonesia
* Voice of Russia
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Voice of America,
Shortwave radio stations in the United States
Peabody Award winners
International broadcasters
Radio organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 1942
Articles containing video clips
United States government propaganda organizations
Mass media companies based in Washington, D.C.
Television channels and stations established in 1942
Democracy promotion
Tibetan-language radio stations
1942 establishments in the United States
Media listed in Russia as foreign agents