15 November 2016
The Broadcasting Board of Governors today released its annual impact numbers which show the agency had its largest ever increase in its weekly worldwide audience to 278 million people, up from 226 million in 2015. These increases occurred across all platforms with digital platforms seeing the largest percentage growth, followed by radio and television.
“The unprecedented growth we’ve seen this year further illustrates the need for U.S. international media particularly in parts of the world where access to balanced, impartial news is severely limited or non-existent,” said BBG CEO and Director John Lansing. “In media markets increasingly dominated by disinformation and propaganda, more and more people are turning to BBG networks for fair, accurate, fact-based reporting.”
The increases include gains in highly competitive media markets that are of strategic importance to the United States. Digital audiences increased from 32 million to 45 million while those for radio rose by 27% to 130 million. Television audience also grew, increasing 23% to 174 million.
In addition to weekly audience size, the BBG measures its impact using quantitative, qualitative, digital and anecdotal data on a wide range of factors including program quality and credibility, engagement with the news process, and audience understanding of current events. Key accomplishments include:
- MBN’s Raise Your Voice-Iraq developed new television programs encouraging Iraqis to share their thoughts and opinions on extremism and the underlying causes of terrorism. This programming provides firsthand accounts of the realities of life under ISIL, including the pain and suffering of families and communities.
- RFE/RL and VOA actively engaged online in providing alternatives to Russian disinformation. In FY 2016, RFE/RL’s DIGIM, the social media arm of Current Time, received 120,000 average weekly engagement actions on Facebook and VOA Russian averaged 45,000 per week.
- VOA and RFA increased their social media outreach in Southeast Asia with huge gains in video viewing and engagement on Facebook and YouTube. VOA Vietnamese averaged 2.7 million video views weekly on YouTube, and RFA averaged over 600,000.
- OCB hosted a two-day conference on internet freedom in Cuba. The event convened a broad spectrum of digital innovators and independent journalists from Cuba and elsewhere to exchange ideas and provide important information about the state of the internet in Cuba.
To learn more about the BBG’s performance measures, the 2016 Performance and Accountability Report, along with the BBG’s 2016 audience overview and explanation of research methodology are available here.
(Source: BBG press release)
24 October 2016
A freelance video journalist covering the battle against the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Mosul, Iraq for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was critically injured in a mortar attack October 20.
Rasool Mahmood, who was covering the military campaign against IS in Iraq for RFE/RL’s service to Iran, Radio Farda, was reporting from the front lines of the push to retake the country’s second largest city from IS militants when he was wounded by a mortar in a counter attack by IS fighters against Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi forces.
Mahmood was traveling with Peshmerga soldiers about 25 kilometers from the center of Mosul when the attack happened. He sustained broken bones and the likely loss of one eye. He is currently being treated at a hospital in Erbil.
“We are devastated by the news that our colleague is wounded,” said RFE/RL President Thomas Kent. “He is a brave and dedicated reporter and we are doing everything possible to support his family and get him the medical attention he needs.”
Mahmood’s coverage of the battle for Mosul has included exclusive video and photo reports from the battlefield, as well as exclusive interviews, including with the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary General of the Peshmerga forces. Several of Mahmood’s reports for Radio Farda have been picked up by CNN, Time magazine, USA Today and other international media outlets.
RFE/RL’s Radio Farda has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for Mahmood and his family.
(Source: RFE/RL press release)
23 September 2016
A court in Uzbekistan this week upheld a decision to sentence the brother of an RFE/RL journalist to eight years in prison on drug-related charges, the latest in a series of cases that appear to target family members in retaliation for their relatives’ reporting.
The Ferghana appeals court, in the country’s southern Ferghana Valley, rejected Aziz Yusupov’s appeal on September 20 in a session in which no witnesses were present and, according to his mother, took 15 minutes. No witnesses testified in the original hearing in August, nor was any evidence brought against Yusupov to corroborate the charges.
Drug charges are frequently brought against independent journalists, human rights defenders, and other government critics in Uzbekistan.
Noting that the decision comes only two weeks after the appointment of interim president Shavkat Mirziyaev, following the death of long-serving leader Islam Karimov, RFE/RL President Thomas Kent said, “Uzbekistan’s new leaders should know that RFE/RL vigorously condemns any attack on the family members of our journalists, and any attempt to intimidate or silence us.”
In a statement issued following Yusupov’s original conviction, the media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders called the charge “trumped-up,” characterizing it as an effort by authorities to continue “stepping up their persecution of the country’s few remaining independent journalists.”
Other members of RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service and their relatives have been subject to attempts at intimidation recently. One employee’s apartment in Tashkent was seized by agents with Uzbekistan’s National Security Service in August. Another employee was warned this spring that her brother would suffer if she continued working for RFE/RL. Authorities have interrogated the family members of RFE/RL employees about their relatives’ journalistic work, and in several cases have denied their requests for exit visas to leave the country.
RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, known locally as Radio Ozodlik, operates from Prague, having been forced to close its bureau in Tashkent in 2005 following that year’s massacre in the eastern city of Andijon. Ozodlik relies on constant innovation and a wide network of local sources to report news and engage with audiences in one of the world’s most closed societies. Despite government efforts to block access, the Service’s website averages more than 2 million visits per month; during the week that President Karimov died (August 28-September 4), the website registered 6.5 million page views, while the Service reached more than 5.1 million via social media platforms, and its videos were watched 5.5 million times on YouTube.
(Source: RFE/RL press release)
10 June 2016
Thomas Kent, a longtime Associated Press journalist, has been appointed the new President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), effective June 27.
In his announcement of the appointment, Jeff Shell, the Chairman of RFE/RL’s Board of Directors, said, “Tom was chosen in a competitive selection process from a strong field of candidates. RFE/RL will benefit enormously from such an outstanding leader.” Shell, who also serves as Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), continued, “Tom’s track record in digital news expansion and his collaborative leadership style aligns with the BBG’s vision of a unified, innovative and effective U.S. International Media.”
Mr. Kent is a skilled media executive with extensive experience in management, international reporting and journalism standards development. He has worked at The Associated Press since 1972, filling roles such as Moscow Bureau Chief, International Editor, Deputy Managing Editor and, most recently, Standards Editor. In these positions, he played a leading role in the editorial and technical transformation of AP into a fully digital news organization. He has also been involved in corporate strategic planning and the development of new multimedia services.
Commenting on Kent’s appointment, BBG CEO and Director John F. Lansing said, “Our winning strategy is our talented staff. Tom joins a cadre of committed journalists around the world with the simple goal of ensuring that everyone has access to impartial, independent and professional news and information about their communities that helps citizens take more control over their lives. He brings extensive experience in developing successful digital media strategies and joins us at a highly dynamic time when BBG networks are streamlining and employing content in creative and impactful ways. I am thrilled to welcome him on board.”
“I am honored to be leading RFE/RL,” Kent said. “I look forward to joining its highly skilled team as we create great journalism across languages and geographies.”
Kent has served as a member of the advisory board of the Ethical Journalism Network, leader of the Online News Association’s Build Your Own Ethics Code project, advisor for the Society of Professional Journalists and international reporting juror for the Pulitzer Prizes. He has written and spoken extensively on journalism ethics and has a particular interest in Russian news media. Kent has taught at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and has guest lectured at Yale University, Moscow State University, St. Petersburg University of Trade Unions, Columbia Law School, and New York University, among others. He speaks four languages and is fluent in Russian. He is a graduate of Yale University.
Shell and Lansing praised Acting RFE/RL President Nenad Pejic for his leadership and guidance since taking over after Kevin Klose stepped down in 2015.
“I am delighted to hand over the reins to Tom.” said Pejic. “I believe his passion for journalism will ensure that RFE/RL continues to deliver programs that have a positive effect on people’s lives.”
(Source: RFE/RL press release)
2 June 2016
RFE/RL welcomed the publication this week of an online, fully searchable database of audio programs produced over decades by its Russian Service, known as Radio Svoboda.
RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic called the initiative a “shining example of cooperation and commitment” among RFE/RL and its partners, the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Citing the extensive efforts of OSA to organize, preserve and afford public access to these historical materials, Pejic said, “Today, when Russians are again relying on RFE/RL and Radio Svoboda for credible news, these archived programs take on a new meaning.”
The archive includes more than 26,000 audio clips broadcast into the Soviet Union and Russian Federation by Radio Svoboda from 1953, the year the service was established in Munich, West Germany, to 1995, when RFE/RL moved from Munich to Prague, Czech Republic.
Highlights of the collection include news and political programs about the U.S.S.R. and the world as reported by distinguished émigré journalists, writers and historians, on-air readings of banned literary works and poetry recitals; and unique radio plays authored by such luminaries of Russian letters as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Viktor Nekrasov, Joseph Brodsky, Vladimir Voinovich, Alexander Ginzburg, andEugenia Ginzburg.
The archive also includes Radio Svoboda’s collection of samizdat, or clandestinely published materials that provided news about trials, imprisonments, and forbidden expressions of life behind the Iron Curtain; and talk shows that connected Soviet audiences with Russian exile culture.
Cooperation on the project started in 2014 with the intent, expressed by OSA, that providing free and unlimited on-line access to this collection of more than 10,000 hours of broadcasts would facilitate free and critical thinking, and encourage expanded research into Soviet era culture and politics. The Hoover Institution Archives provided support to Radio Svoboda journalists who digitized and described the contents of the Russian audio archive. The Hoover Archives then authorized OSA to complete the creation of metadata for the digitized audio and prepare the archive for publication online.
Public access to RFE/RL’s broadcast and corporate archives at the Hoover Institution has expanded significantly in recent years, with updated finding aids for both the broadcast and corporate archives now available in the Online Archive of California. Several parts of RFE/RL’s vast research archives, which are deposited at OSA, are now available for online research, including collections of RFE Information Items, RFE/RL Situation Reports, RFE/RL Background Reports, RFE/RL Polish Underground Press, and Soviet and Russian Television Monitoring. OSA has also made available online parts of the pre-1971 corporate records of the Free Europe Committee (FEC), the legal predecessor of RFE/RL), including digital copies of encrypted Telex messages between FEC’s office in New York and RFE headquarters in Munich from 1960 to 1964. (Source: RFE/RL press release)
