EDITORIAL: A welcome reversal (02/29/04)

EDITORIAL

A welcome reversal

In a complete reversal of a decision formally announced three weeks ago, the Broadcasting Board of Governors released a statement earlier this week saying that Voice of America's Ukrainian radio service would not undergo a dramatic cut in half to one hour of broadcasting daily, saying only that the service "will continue to produce two hours of Ukrainian programming daily."

The news was buried at the end of a press release from the BBG, the federal agency that oversees all U.S. international broadcasting, including VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and ran under the headline "BBG seeks to enhance broadcasting to Ukraine."

With all due respect, we would like to remind the BBG that the decision not to cut VOA radio broadcasts to Ukraine - only seven months prior to a crucial presidential election, we should add - is not an enhancement of broadcasting, but rather a continuation of what had already been established.

The BBG's decision to restore radio broadcast time to Ukraine, citing "a crackdown on media" in that country, does come as welcome news and should be commended. However, the manner in which the news was made known leaves us questioning the real reasons behind the BBG's decision.

We wonder: Had the Ukrainian FM Radio Dovira network not dropped all RFE/RL programs from its line-up, would the BBG still have made the decision to leave VOA's Ukrainian radio broadcasting untouched? We may never know. At press time The Weekly was still waiting for a response from a VOA spokesman regarding this and other questions.

By burying the announcement that VOA Ukrainian radio service would be left untouched deep in a statement about enhancing broadcasting to Ukraine, it appears that the BBG had every intention to very quietly correct its own mistake. Moreover, VOA Ukrainian radio staff themselves were never given the courtesy of learning the news prior to the BBG's February 24 statement.

We are also deeply troubled that the BBG's February 24 statement made no mention of the future of VOA's Ukrainian radio service staff and funding for that organization. Following the original announcement to cut VOA Ukrainian radio service, the organization moved three staffers to VOA television, while two other staffers were bought out, leaving the remaining VOA Ukrainian radio service staff overworked and exhausted for what was thought to be a short period, that is, through March 1, when its programming was to be halved.

We hope that the BBG will not use this staffing situation as an opportunity to further undermine VOA Ukrainian radio.

If the BBG is sincere and, as BBG Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson has said, "committed to seeing that millions of Ukrainians continue to receive trusted news and information that is vital to helping them make decisions about their lives and their country," VOA Ukrainian radio service staff must be restored and funding must be in place for that organization to continue providing Ukrainians with what has been an invaluable service.

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