28 February 2014
RFE/RL’s Board of Directors has appointed Vice President of Finance, CFO and Treasurer John Giambalvo and Editor-in-Chief for Programming Nenad Pejic to serve as Interim Managers of the Corporation. Their service begins on March 2, following the departure of Kevin Klose as President and CEO, and remains in effect until a new president is appointed. The RFE/RL Board of Directors consists of all of the members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).
Commenting on the leadership change at RFE/RL, Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman Jeffrey Shell said, “Kevin Klose’s leadership in the past year has assured RFE/RL’s place in the forefront of independent journalism in an area of the world where uncensored news and information is in very short supply. I and the entire board have the utmost confidence in John Giambalvo and Nenad Pejic’s ability to further enhance RFE/RL’s reputation and impact as we search for Kevin’s successor.”
Giambalvo joined RFE/RL as Deputy CFO in 2009, after five years on the BBG staff as Policy and Program Coordinator. Giambalvo is a 1997 graduate of the Duke University School of Law, served as an Associate at Hale and Dorr LLP from 2000-2003 and as an Associate at White & Case LLP from 1997-2000. He also holds a Master’s degree from the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University and has earned a B.S. in Business Administration at the State University of New York at Albany.
Pejic, who was named Editor-in-Chief in December 2013, joined RFE/RL in 1993 as the first Director of RFE/RL’s Balkan Service. Prior to this, Pejic held various positions with Sarajevo Television including head of the news department, Belgrade correspondent, and Program Director. He also served briefly as the Head of Publications and Public Relations at the European Institute for the Media.
The Board has engaged a professional search firm to identify a successor president. (Source: press release)
25 February 2014
RFE/RL President and CEO Kevin Klose has announced that he will leave the organization March 1.
In farewell remarks to RFE/RL staff, Klose expressed how “honored and delighted” he was to have worked with colleagues in Washington; Prague, Czech Republic, where RFE/RL’s offices are headquartered; and in RFE/RL’s 19 local bureaus.
At the request of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Klose returned to RFE/RL in January 2013 after previously serving as its president from 1994 to 1997. In his most recent tenure, Klose oversaw the revitalization of RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Radio Svoboda and its Moscow bureau; strengthening of the company’s multimedia platforms and programming; and, most recently, the Ukrainian Service‘s outstanding coverage of Kyiv’s Euromaidan protests.
“Having achieved what the BBG asked me to do, it’s time to move aside and take up the other part of my life,” Klose said, adding that he plans to work “as an independent person steeped in journalism in the pursuit of a wider public engagement of the importance of the work we and our colleagues in U.S. international media do.”
“Words are inadequate to express how sad we are to see Kevin leave,” said RFE/RL’s Editor-in-Chief Nenad Pejic. “He pushed us to the next level, and raised the bar of our professionalism. He stood for us whenever we needed it and we responded by making our content better, sharper, more attractive.”
Klose is a tenured professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where he served as dean of the journalism college from 2009 to 2012. He also served as president of NPR from 1998 to 2008, directed the International Broadcasting Bureau at the U.S. Information Agency from 1997 to 1998, and was an editor and reporter for “The Washington Post” for 25 years, including stints as Moscow bureau chief, city editor and deputy national editor.
About RFE/RL
RFE/RL is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 21 countries, including Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).
(Source: RFE/RL press release)
10 December 2013
To mark the U.N. observance of Human Rights Day on December 10, RFE/RL announces the launch of Lady Liberty, a webpage dedicated to women in journalism.
Lady Liberty recognizes the contributions of women journalists from RFE/RL as well as other media in the broadcaster’s target region, illuminating/highlighting/underscoring their reporting, the issues they confront, and the political, societal and cultural landscapes in which they work. It is a resource for and about them and a medium to promote their work.
In this first edition, Lady Liberty speaks with Masih Alinejad, an award-winning correspondent with Radio Farda, RFE/RL’s Persian Language Service, who uncovered the stories of 27 victims of the 2009 post-election crackdown in Iran; interviews Gulmeena Yosufzai, a young journalism fellow in Kabul with RFE/RL’s Afghan Service; reports on the cultural taboos confronting women journalists in Afghanistan; and remembers Monica Lovinescu, whose work for RFE/RL under Nicolai Ceausescu’s Romania was “a lifeline for those listeners behind the Iron Curtain.”
For news from all of RFE/RL’s broadcast regions, follow RFR/RL online and on Twitter and Facebook.
3 September 2013
Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman Jeffrey Shell today announced that distinguished journalist and broadcast executive Kevin Klose has accepted an offer, unanimously supported by the BBG, to serve as President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In its capacity as RFE/RL’s corporate board of directors, the BBG had hired Klose as Acting President in January 2013. Meeting today with RFE/RL leadership and staff at the organization’s headquarters in Prague, Shell noted that the entire board approved a multi-year contract for Klose, to be reviewed annually.
“Kevin Klose’s seasoning in international media — here and over his entire career — makes him the right person to carry out this critical mission,” Shell said. ”His stewardship as brought steady progress. We look forward to working with Kevin and the talented team at RFE/RL to bring news and information to priority countries from Iran to Russia and across Eurasia.”
Klose said, “As great an honor as it was for me to return to the Radios in January, I am even more excited to take this opportunity to lead RFE/RL as it continues its digital transformation while building on its hard-earned reputation for extraordinary, fact-based journalism.”
Klose was president of NPR from 1998 to 2008, and named President Emeritus in 2008. Before joining NPR, he directed the International Broadcasting Bureau at the U.S. Information Agency from 1997-1998. Klose first joined RFE/RL in 1992 as director of its Radio Liberty division, and as president of the network from 1994 to 1997 oversaw its relocation from Munich to Prague. Prior to this, he was an editor and reporter for The Washington Post for 25 years, including posts as Moscow bureau chief, city editor and deputy national editor. Klose is currently a tenured professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and served as dean of the journalism college from April 2009 to July 2012. He will be on leave from his faculty position while serving at RFE/RL. He earned a B.A. from Harvard and is the author of five books, including Russia and the Russians: Inside the Closed Society.
“Kevin has extensive experience in transformational leadership and has brought important changes to this highly respected media organization,” said BBG member Susan McCue, who serves as the RFE/RL board’s vice chair and spearheaded the effort to recruit Klose earlier this year. “I have full faith in his ability to move things forward. We are grateful that he could take an extended leave from the University of Maryland to remain at the helm of RFE/RL.”
Upon accepting the position in January, Klose said he was eager to lend a hand, adding, “I look forward to re-connecting with many friends in Prague and Russia and to working with the entire RFE/RL team.”
26 April 2013
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reports persistent campaigns of intimidation against two of its Radio Azadliq journalists, Khadija Ismayilova and Yafez Hasanov, in retaliation for their reporting. The threats to these Azerbaijan Service reporters come days before a UN-mandated review of Azerbaijan’s human rights performance and months ahead of presidential elections that President Ilham Aliyev has pledged will be free and fair.
In a return to the defamation tactics that targeted Ismayilova in March 2012, on April 25 a pro-government website posted a pornographic video that was fabricated to portray Ismayilova engaging in sexual acts. Ismayilova’s investigative reports for RFE/RL, which earned her the 2012 International Women’s Media Foundation’s “Courage in Journalism” award, have implicated the president’s family in financial activities and arrangements worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Over the past two weeks, Hasanov, who was abducted and threatened in Naxichivan in August 2011 following his investigation into the death of Turac Zeynalov and who was threatened by text, email and social media in November 2012, has been targeted in new incidents that he believes are intended to silence him.
On April 4, a package was sent to Hasanov’s home with documents that suggested he was having illicit relationships with several women. Soon after, Hasanov received a call from a man who identified himself as an agent of the Naxichivani Ministry of National Security (MNS), who recited orders from Naxichivani regional governor Vasif Talibov to cooperate with MNS. The caller also warned that if Hasanov reported on Naxichivan again he would be “exposed” and his life and the lives of his family members would be in danger. On April 19, the pro-government Internet TV station “Ses” aired recordings of cellphone conversations between Hasanov and residents of Naxichivan that Azerbaijan’s Media Rights Institution told the website contact.az could only have been obtained from the country’s security services.
In addition, three close relatives of Radio Azadliq’s Baku Bureau Chief Babek Bagirov were dismissed from their jobs on April 11, an act Bagirov said was reprisal for his work and as an effort to intimidate him and other bureau employees.
Azerbaijan Service Director Kenan Aliyev called these latest attacks shameful and said, “An attack against Khadija and Yafez and any of our journalists is an attack against the entire Radio Azadliq staff and an attack against all independent voices in Azerbaijan. ”
“These are actions of a deliberate and serious nature that the Azeri authorities must take very seriously, especially since many directly or indirectly suggest the involvement or endorsement of official Azeri entities and agents,” said Kevin Klose, Acting President and CEO of RFE/RL. “Yafez and Khadija are exercising their rights and professional duties as journalists and, as a journalists, their well-being is a matter of public and societal concern. I urge the Azeri authorities and President Aliyev personally to take steps immediately to stop the threats.”
Naxichivan, an Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, is an exclave bordered by Iran to the west and Armenia to the east, and Radio Azadliq is one of the only media organizations reporting on the region.
Azerbaijan will hold presidential elections in October in which President Ilham Aliyev will run for a third consecutive term. A joint statement issued in March by the Committee to Protect Journalists and leading international press freedom and human rights groups condemns the recent imprisonment of at least seven journalists in Azerbaijan, criticizes recent government attempts to restrict local press freedom groups and on-line expression and warns that such a crackdown threatens the integrity of the October polls.
Freedom House characterizes Azerbaijan as “not free” and ranked it 172 out of 197 countries surveyed in its 2012 Freedom of the Press Index. The Reporters Without Borders 2013 Press Freedom Index placedAzerbaijan at 156 on a scale of 179 countries.
