EDITORIAL: VOA getting sliced again (02/27/00)

EDITORIAL

VOA getting sliced again

The salami-slicers are back at work at the Voice of America - you know, the people who manage programs by slicing off a little bit at a time until there is nothing left.

On February 10 the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees the VOA, announced that 51 positions - almost all of them in the language services that provide radio programming to Eastern European countries, chiefly Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic - as well as eight smaller services, would be eliminated and other program funds reduced. The monies saved by this move will now be directed toward programs serving Africa and Asia.

Since 1995 the Eastern European language services, by turn, have been taking a hit. The Ukrainian service, which missed this round of cuts, nonetheless recently had funds for its Kyiv correspondent post dramatically reduced. All the language services have undergone staff reductions and limits on new hires. Most of the language services are now responsible for signing contracts with in-country radio stations to broadcast programming since in many cases VOA no longer provides direct transmission. So, like a salami, first you cut the budget, then you cut the staff, then you cut the technical capabilities, then you cut the budget again until there's nothing left. On the SaveVOA website, set up by an action group to protest this latest round of cuts, there is open speculation that the BBG basically wants to cut all the VOA Eastern European language services to nil, but hasn't done so out of the concern for political fallout if such was done in one drastic step.

The BBG, in turn, states that the "measures ... are a first step in what the board envisions as a progressive realignment of strategic priorities and reallocations of U.S. international broadcasting resources ... also underscore the need to use funds efficiently to provide accurate, objective news and information and to support emerging democracies ..."

The BBG, it seems, has decided that Eastern Europe no longer has "emerging" democracies - unlike the democracies that are apparently emerging in Indonesia, East Timor and Colombia, where the money will now be going - but has stable democracies with "free and open media." Wow! Bet that's news to Serbs and Croats and Rumanians and Bulgarians and Albanians, which are among the people to which VOA services will be cut. The BBG states that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are now members of NATO, which apparently makes everything in those countries hunky-dory. Turkey also is a member of NATO - we don't remember anyone pointing to that country as a bastion of democracy and free speech.

The BBG is also relying on new venues, such as audio transmission over the Internet, to alleviate budget constraints. Forgetting for a moment that the VOA has a federal charter for radio programming and transmission, it should be acknowledged that new venues are not necessarily bad. But now, let's get real: How many average Poles, or Hungarians, or Latvians own high-end computers complete with audio capabilities? Even most Americans can't do audio downloads. And to assume that Slovenian, Romanian and Slovak students will use whatever limited time they have at their university computer centers to download VOA broadcasts, or to assume that young professionals hanging out in cyber-cafes in Prague and Warsaw will pay for computer time to access VOA is, well, not very well rooted in reality.

Furthermore, to assume that many Eastern Europeans will be able to access VOA information through the Internet, which requires pretty expensive computer hardware and software, along with a pretty sophisticated national telecommunications network, and to see this as a solution to the cut in radio broadcasts may be realistic in 10 years, but not now. The BBG should be honest: the proposed Internet solution serves only the elite of the targeted countries. And, it would be underlined, that the original point of VOA radio broadcasts was to give listeners radio that was cheap and accessible - something still necessary, today.

We have written several times about the ongoing budget cuts at the Voice of America. And now, as then, we believe that VOA services to these countries must be expanded - not reduced. As every good marketing expert knows, in order to ever be effective, a message must be consistent and frequent, something that cannot be done on a shoestring budget. News from America, as well as America's messages of respect for (as well as the value of ) the individual, the importance of the balance of powers, freedom of speech, the rule of law still need to be sent and reinforced in all these countries.

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