UNITED
NATIONS, July
2 -- With
coverage of
international
affairs
increasingly
in the hands
of interested
governments
who view news
production as
a tool of
foreign policy
and internal
propaganda,
now
the US
is shifting
more in that
direction.
The
US'
Broadcasting
Board of
Governors,
whose four
listed members
include US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry just
as it included
his
predecessor
Hillary
Clinton,
announced
today that the
productions of
Voice of
America and
its other Cold
War era state
media
properties
can now be
shown inside
the US.
This
had been
banned under
the theory
that while
perhaps the US
should
produce
propaganda to
fool people in
other
countries, it
shouldn't
direct these
tools at its
own citizen --
similar to
restrictions
on
the CIA. But
that's off.
A sample recent
headline:
"John Kerry
Tells VOA:
Snowden
Betrayed
Country." And
Kerry is one
of only four
current
directors of
the Board that
controls VOA.
When
corporate US
cable channels
did not cut to
Egypt and
embattled
president
Mohamed
Morsi's speech
on Tuesday,
the vacuum
into which
BBG's Voice of
America
propaganda
might slip is
clearly shown.
But
what is BBG's
and VOA's
commitment to
freedom of the
press? Inner
City Press on
personal
experience can
say: there is
no real
commitment,
beyond when it
serves BBG's
mission.
In
2012 Voice of
America's Steve Redisch,
who is
supervised by
David
Ensor and
Richard Lobo,
wrote to the
UN and asked
that they
“review
the
accreditation”
of Inner City
Press. Click
here for that.
When
Inner City
Press using
the Freedom of
Information
Act exposed
this and more,
including
VOA's
statements
that it had
the support of
the UN
bureau chief
of Reuters
and AFP,
and the UN Correspondents
Association,
the
campaign at
least on the
surface
stopped. (Reuters
and AFP
revived it in
March 2013,
but that's
another
story.)
Back
in BBG, Ensor,
Lobo and
Redisch
blocked Governor
Victor Ashe's
request for an
open meeting
on
their
anti-press
request, and
BBG is still
trying to deny
access to
documents
responsive to
Inner City
Press'
continuing
FOIA requests.
(We have
obtained
numerous
additional
documents on
which we will
report in
due course.
The new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
@FUNCA_info,
continues to
push for
reforms and
due process
for
journalists.)
A
sample recent
(June 25,
2013) letter
to Inner City
Press from BBG
denies that
the Department
of State
"controls"
VOA,
claiming
grandly that
“the BBG is an
independent,
federal
executive
branch agency
charged with
providing
'reliable and
authoritative,
accurate,
objective, and
comprehensive'
news and
information.
22
U.S.C. §6202(b
)(1). The
Department of
State has zero
editorial
control over
the BBG...
Your
suggestion
that VOA
journalists do
not
function as
independent
journalists is
unfortunate
and simply
untrue.”
The
tone,
including the
condescending
use of the
word
“unfortunate,”
is not one for
a FOIA ruling.
On the panel
were Marie
Lennon,
International
Broadcasting
Bureau (IBB)
Chief of
Staff; Kelu
Chao,
Director of
the Office of
Performance
Review, and
the Director
of the
Office of
Technology,
Services, and
Innovation
Andre Mendes.
On
BBG's
website,
Mendes is
lavishly
praised by
none other
than IBB
Director
Richard Lobo,
for whom
another of the
three panel
members,
Ms. Lennon,
serves as
chief of
staff.
Conflict of
interest much?
Watch this
site.
, 
