RFE/RL – the funding saga continues with latest court ruling

30 April 2025

RFE/RL – the funding saga continues with latest court ruling

The six week long saga around the funding and operation of US international broadcasting networks – Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and RFE/RL – continues. On 15 March, Voice of America went off the air, save for 5’ news bulletins that were compiled for some days. Funds from the US Agency for Global Media, USAGM, to the rest of the broadcasting entities were frozen (with the possible exception of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting).

Legal proceedings were initiated by some Voice of America to have staff reinstated and its operations restarted. RFE/RL started proceedings to have its funding, granted by the US Congress, released (USAGM had stopped releasing funds to the Prague-headquartered media company).

On 39 April, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s latest request for a temporary restraining order in its lawsuit against the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

In his ruling, the judge ordered USAGM to immediately disburse RFE/RL’s congressionally appropriated funds for the month of April – over US$12m. The court concluded that USAGM’s refusal to disburse the funds on the same terms on which it disbursed the previous month’s funds was arbitrary and capricious. The court rejected USAGM’s argument that it could withhold the funds until RFE/RL signs a grant agreement placing unlawful and unworkable conditions on RFE/RL’s operations. Judge Lamberth found that USAGM’s actions “threaten the very existence” of RFE/RL.

RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said: “Today’s ruling ordering USAGM to release one month’s worth of the annual funds Congress appropriated to RFE/RL means that our journalists can continue doing their jobs holding dictators and despots accountable.

“We hope to receive April’s late payment quickly because RFE/RL was forced to furlough staff this month and cut back programming to regions crucial to American national security. Every day that USAGM withholds money further endangers our journalists, including four who are currently in prison.

“We will remain in court and look forward to working with USAGM to ensure that we’ll be paid for the rest of the fiscal year.”

Judge Lamberth’s order emphasised that Congress enacted, and President Trump signed, a law funding RFE/RL this fiscal year. He wrote: “It is, after all, Congress that makes the laws in this country. In this case, for example, it was Congress who ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL.”

BBC News Burmese launches post-quake direct-to-home video channel

24 April 2025

BBC News Burmese launches post-quake direct-to-home video channel

‘Aimed for an audience in need’: BBC News Burmese launches on direct-to-home video channel in the aftermath of Myanmar earthquake

To ensure audiences can access crucial information in the aftermath of the Myanmar earthquake, the BBC World Service has added a direct-to-home satellite video channel to the platforms delivering BBC News Burmese content.

In the coming four months, the Thaicom 6 satellite, which covers Myanmar, Thailand, and the wider region, will deliver BBC News Burmese TV and audio programming. The channel will also provide access, via a QR code, to the service’s website, bbc.com/burmese.

BBC News Global Director and Deputy CEO, Jonathan Munro, says: “In Myanmar, where press freedom is severely restricted and where a vicious conflict continues, we now have an audience also beset by a natural disaster. During the week of the disastrous earthquake, BBC News Burmese total digital reach quadrupled as people came to the BBC for trusted information. With the launch of this new satellite-based video service, featuring our TV, radio and online output in Burmese, we’ll be offering a critical information stream for an audience struggling to recover from the calamity which took so many lives. Aimed for an audience in need, this is yet another timely and much-needed initiative born from the commitment and expertise of the BBC teams.”

In the aftermath of the disaster that struck Myanmar on 28 March 2025, millions in the country, as well as Burmese-speakers in Thailand, came to the service’s platforms for accurate updates and analysis. BBC News Burmese journalists were deployed to the earthquake epicentre and were reporting from Mandalay, Yangon, and Bangkok, as well as from London. BBC News Burmese extended its daily live radio bulletin from 15min to 30min to include additional reporting and lifeline information. Audiences can also watch the Monday to Friday 15-minute TV bulletin which goes on air at 20.45 local time.

BBC News Burmese channel on Thaicom 6 satellite will run all this programming, with evening repeats of radio and TV bulletins from May 2025. The channel will also visualise the QR code for the website bbc.com/burmese, so the viewers can access the latest news and information online.

Over the next few months, the direct-to-home satellite video channel – formerly used by VOA (currently off the air following the effective closure of Voice of America ordered by President Trump, but subject to court cases) – will add to BBC News Burmese availability via the service’s website as well as its YouTube channel and its Facebook page which has a following of 25m people. BBC News Burmese also connects with audiences via Instagram, Telegram and X. Digital free-to-air TV channel, Mizzima TV, rebroadcasts BBC News Burmese TV programmes.

BBC News Burmese is part of the BBC World Service.

Entries Open for the AIBs 2025 – Supporting Quality Journalism

22 April 2025

Entries Open for the AIBs 2025 – Supporting Quality Journalism

21st annual competition for journalism and factual productions welcomes entries from around the world in all languages

The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) is pleased to announce that entries are now open for the AIBs 2025 – the world’s premier awards for factual journalism and production across audio, video, and digital platforms.

For more than two decades, the AIBs have stood as a global benchmark for integrity, innovation, and impact in factual storytelling. These prestigious awards recognise the outstanding achievements of journalists, producers, and broadcasters who tell the world’s most important stories with clarity, impartiality, and courage.

In an age where trust in media is more critical than ever, the AIBs celebrate journalism that is fearless, accurate, and free from bias. Entries are welcomed from individuals and organisations across the globe, in any language, reflecting the truly international nature and influence of the AIBs.

Respected by newsrooms, media organisations, and audiences worldwide, the AIBs offer a platform to showcase work that informs, inspires, and holds power to account.

Categories for the AIBs 2025 include:

AUDIO CATEGORIES

Arts and Culture
Health and Social
Investigative
Journalist of the Year
News Coverage
Radio or Podcast Presenter of the Year
Sustainability

VIDEO CATEGORIES

Arts and Culture
Breaking News
Continuing News
Domestic Affairs
Health and Social
Innovative Factual
International Affairs
Investigative
Journalist of the Year
Politics and Business
Presenter of the Year
Short Feature
Sustainability

SPECIALIST CATEGORIES

Channel of the Year
Production Company of the Year

The AIBs are open for entry until 30 June 2025, after which the rigorous judging process led by international media leaders and experts will begin.

In addition to the competition, the AIBs provide a platform for journalists, editors and producers to share knowledge and expertise. Through the AIBs Masterclass – taking place on 29 April – colleagues and peers from across the journalism and factual productions worlds can exchange ideas and views and explore the motivation behind covering particular stories and making particular programmes. The AIBs Masterclass will have a number of shortlisted entrants from past competitions in conversation during a three-hour long event taking place at the Rose Shure Experience Centre in London, kindly hosted by Shure UK.

As well as programme makers and leading journalists, the Masterclass is open to the next generation with participants from journalism and media university courses joining the audience.

“The Masterclass is one of the ways that the AIBs help the international media industry,” comments AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick. “Each year we receive hundreds of hours of content from around the world telling remarkable stories. We want to help programme makers develop new ideas and learn from each other. The AIBs are about friendly competition and sharing expertise – a unique mix.”

Winners of the AIBs 2025 will be announced at the annual gala evening on 14 November 2025 in London.

For full details on how to enter and the submission guidelines, visit: www.theaibs.tv

Sam Barnett Stepping Down as CEO of MBC GROUP, Mike Sneesby Named Successor

9 April 2025

Sam Barnett Stepping Down as CEO of MBC GROUP, Mike Sneesby Named Successor

Central European Media Enterprises (“CME”) is pleased to announce that Sam Barnett, a seasoned broadcasting professional, has been appointed as CME’s Chief Executive Officer, effective May 1, 2025.

“I’m very happy to welcome Sam to CME. After conducting a thorough succession process, we are confident that Sam’s global expertise and leadership experience make him the right person to lead CME in the future,” said Didier Stoessel, PPF Chief Investment Officer and CME’s current CEO, responsible for the Czech and Romanian markets.

In his new role, Mr. Barnett will succeed Mr. Stoessel, freeing Mr. Stoessel to focus solely on his duties as Chief Investment Officer of PPF, which also includes overseeing PPF’s media investments. Mr. Stoessel has held these dual roles at PPF and CME since 2022.

Since its acquisition by PPF four years ago, CME has undergone significant transformation as it moved from a linear-focused broadcaster to a linear and digital media group. The extraordinary growth of the Czech-Slovak subscriber base of the Voyo streaming service, from 30,000 to 950,000, the launch of Oneplay, an integrated over-the-top video streaming and live television platform, and the ongoing audience leadership of CME’s television channels across most of its markets underline the strength of CME’s business.

“I look forward to Sam and CME’s senior management continuing to lead the company to even greater successes, seizing the new opportunities in the company’s ongoing digital transition across our markets,” added Mr. Stoessel.

The new OTT platform Oneplay of CME’s Czech broadcaster Nova and PPF’s telecom operator O2 Czech Republic exemplifies the profound digital transformation of CME.

Sam Barnett commented on his appointment: “For over three decades, CME has always performed at the top of its game as the leading television entertainment and news source across multiple markets. The ongoing digitalization, forcing an evolution of viewing habits, is an opportunity that CME has seized. I look forward to building on this strategic advantage, maintaining CME’s pole position as the go-to source of video content in Central and Southeastern Europe.”

Mr. Barnett, a British and French citizen, will join PPF after more than two decades in senior management roles, including CEO at MBC Group, the leading media company in the Middle East with a daily audience of 140 million viewers. Earlier this year, as CEO of MBC, Sam oversaw the broadcaster’s successful initial public offering of its shares on the Saudi Exchange. Having lived and worked in many countries, from his native U.K. to New Zealand to Kenya and Dubai, Mr. Barnett brings truly global experience, as befits CME’s international business.

Before his career in broadcasting, Mr. Barnett worked in management consulting with PwC and Arthur Anderson. He holds a degree in economics from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD. Mr. Barnett will relocate to Prague, where CME is headquartered, at the start of his tenure.

[Source: MBC press release;

Photo: new CEO Mike Sneesby]

USAGM Rescinds RFE/RL Grant termination

28 March 2025

USAGM Rescinds RFE/RL Grant termination

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On March 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was informed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) that the Agency is rescinding its letter terminating RFE/RL’s grant agreement for fiscal year 2025, and that the agreement is therefore back in effect.

The notification from USAGM follows a Tuesday ruling by Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granting RFE/RL’s request for a temporary restraining order against USAGM over its unlawful termination of RFE/RL’s congressionally appropriated funding. RFE/RL’s lawsuit seeks to ensure that the nonprofit media company receives the approximately $77 million that Congress appropriated to it.

RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said:

“This is an encouraging sign that RFE/RL’s operations will be able to continue, as Congress intended. We await official confirmation from USAGM that grant funding will promptly resume based on the intention expressed in last night’s letter. We are eager to speak directly with USAGM leadership about the extraordinary and cost-effective work that RFE/RL performs for the American people.

This is not the time for RFE/RL to go silent. Millions of people rely on us for factual information in places where censorship is widespread. We must not cede ground to our adversaries at a time when threats to America are on the rise.”

About RFE/RL

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM. 

BBC statement on detention and deportation of Mark Lowen

27 March 2025

BBC statement on detention and deportation of Mark Lowen

This morning (27 March) the Turkish authorities deported BBC News correspondent Mark Lowen from Istanbul, having taken him from his hotel the previous day and detained him for 17 hours. Mark Lowen was in Turkey to report on the recent protests. He has been told he was deported for ‘being a threat to public order’.

BBC News CEO Deborah Turness said: “This is an extremely troubling incident and we will be making representations to the Turkish authorities. Mark is a very experienced correspondent with a deep knowledge of Turkey and no journalist should face this kind of treatment simply for doing their job. We will continue to report impartially and fairly on events in Turkey.”

On arrival to London this morning (27 March), Mark Lowen said: “To be detained and deported from the country where I previously lived for five years and for which I have such affection has been extremely distressing. Press freedom and impartial reporting are fundamental to any democracy.”