Ted Lipien
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Support Petition to Save VOA Broadcasts - 2007/02/28 07:56
The Voice of America (VOA), U.S. taxpayer-funded international broadcaster, marked its 65th anniversary amid plans to cancel radio broadcasts to many countries where press freedom is under severe attack from dictators and authoritarian regimes. These program cuts are resisted by many former and current VOA journalists who see them as a dangerous departure from VOA's mission to support press freedom worldwide.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) - bipartisan body managing VOA and other U.S. international broadcasts - plans to expand news coverage to the Middle East, North Korea and Latin America by eliminating or reducing programs to Russia, Tibet, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and a number of other media-at-risk countries. Acting with apparent approval from the White House, the BBG also want to eliminate VOA's flagship English radio broadcast News Now.
Former and current VOA journalists who have criticized the BBG's plans as a betrayal of VOA's support for media freedom are circulating two online petitions asking the U.S. Congress to stop the proposed program cuts.
 FreeMediaOnline.org, a California-based nonprofit organization, is asking supporters of media freedom to sign these petitions and forward them to others. FreeMediaOnline.org described the proposed cuts and reductions in U.S. international broadcasting as nothing less than a "gift to dictators and suppressors of press freedom." FreeMediaOnline.org believes that "this lack of consistency sends a terrible signal to defenders of freedom and courageous journalists around the world."
Wikinews story Link: This is a link
FreeMediaOnline.org story Link:This is a link
Save VOA Programs to Russia and Other Media-at-Risk Countries Petition Link: This is a link
Save VOA Uzbek Petition Link: This is a link
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