US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes, faced tough questions yesterday when she appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Members of the Committee made it clear they were not happy with the planned budget reallocation which would, amongst other things, see the worldwide English service of the Voice of America (VOA) eliminated.
Congresswoman Nita Lowey, who chairs the Committee, said “These cuts, while small in the grand scheme of things, loom large when looking at their effect on country programming, and will dampen our public diplomacy efforts.”
Hughes responded that the plan was based on ’sound audience research’. ”None of us wanted to have to make these decisions, and for the Broadcasting Board of Governors [BBG], it was a very, very difficult decision because we all believe in broadcasting. We believe in communicating with the world, we want to provide the Voice of America to the world. We tried to make difficult decisions as best we could, based on research,” said Hughes.
Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum said broadcasting to the world in English is a comparatively inexpensive way for the US to communicate. She accused the BBG of trying to, in effect, silence the “global brand” of the United States. “The audiences in fact are not dwindling,” she said. “They are just being cut off. If you turn off a transmitter and then do a survey in a country of how many people are listening to VOA, it is going to go down, because they can’t listen to Voice of America.”
There was cross-party agreement that the BBG plan needs to be reassessed. Republican Congressman Mark Kirk echoed the concerns, said “One point six billion people on the planet speak English,” said Congressman Kirk. “It is the main language of 71 countries. Al-Jazeera just committed $1 billion a year in English for 24/7 broadcasting. So I am wondering if we can take a second look working with you on that.”
On the question of eliminating Cantonese, Hughes said that “[For] both RFA and VOA, the audiences [in Cantonese] were not measurable. VOA was less than one tenth of a percent, and we could not measure an audience for RFA broadcasts. So, again we based the decisions as best we could on research.”
(Source: News agencies/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
Congresswoman Nita Lowey, who chairs the Committee, said “These cuts, while small in the grand scheme of things, loom large when looking at their effect on country programming, and will dampen our public diplomacy efforts.”
Hughes responded that the plan was based on ’sound audience research’. ”None of us wanted to have to make these decisions, and for the Broadcasting Board of Governors [BBG], it was a very, very difficult decision because we all believe in broadcasting. We believe in communicating with the world, we want to provide the Voice of America to the world. We tried to make difficult decisions as best we could, based on research,” said Hughes.
Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum said broadcasting to the world in English is a comparatively inexpensive way for the US to communicate. She accused the BBG of trying to, in effect, silence the “global brand” of the United States. “The audiences in fact are not dwindling,” she said. “They are just being cut off. If you turn off a transmitter and then do a survey in a country of how many people are listening to VOA, it is going to go down, because they can’t listen to Voice of America.”
There was cross-party agreement that the BBG plan needs to be reassessed. Republican Congressman Mark Kirk echoed the concerns, said “One point six billion people on the planet speak English,” said Congressman Kirk. “It is the main language of 71 countries. Al-Jazeera just committed $1 billion a year in English for 24/7 broadcasting. So I am wondering if we can take a second look working with you on that.”
On the question of eliminating Cantonese, Hughes said that “[For] both RFA and VOA, the audiences [in Cantonese] were not measurable. VOA was less than one tenth of a percent, and we could not measure an audience for RFA broadcasts. So, again we based the decisions as best we could on research.”
(Source: News agencies/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
