MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – The US is ramping up its international broadcasts and seeking to align its media outreach with the its foreign policy objectives, while other players have created a diverse marketplace of ideas, Editor of Mediachannel.org Danny Schechter told RIA Novosti.
“So-called public diplomacy is a Washington buzzword, and the guardians of our foreign policy have been troubled by the inroads and impact international broadcasters like RT, Al Jazeera, Press TV, and even CCTV have achieved in creating the kind of diverse marketplace of ideas that the US always says it wants but then tries to muzzle,” Schechter said.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee recently approved legislation that seeks to improve the United States' international media outreach, aligning it with the country’s foreign policy objectives.
The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce said in a press release that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which was charged with leading the US effort “to inform and empower foreign audiences, is badly broken.”
“It is time for broad reforms; now more than ever, US international broadcasts must be effective," Royce said.
“Hillary Clinton crusaded for more money for US propaganda channels and the idea is being revived as polls show a decline in US influence as the drone wars and global surveillance is unmasked,” Schechter told RIA Novosti. “Our war-making has always been both hot and cold,” he stressed.
The new legislation would establish “a full-time, day-to-day agency head and reduce the role of the board to a more appropriate advisory capacity," changes "widely recognized as needed reforms."
The bill seeks “to enhance the missions, objectives, and effectiveness of United States international communications, and for other purposes.”
Clarifying the mission of the Voice of America (VOA), the legislation wants it to provide a “clear and effective presentation of the policies of the United States.”
“This legislation makes clear that the Voice of America mission is to support US public diplomacy efforts,” the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a press release on its website.
The legislation will also consolidate the “Freedom Broadcasters,” meaning that Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network will be united into “a single, non-federal organization” allowing for cost savings, closer collaboration and better responsiveness.
Voice of America (VOA) is the official external broadcast institution of the US federal government. In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to Soviet citizens in Russian under the pretext of countering the Soviet point of view on US policies.
