Phil Taylor's papers
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BBG Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson's Testimony Before the House Appropriations Subcommittee 
BBG Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson's Testimony Before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary And Related Agencies Testimony of Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Chairman Broadcasting Board of Governors before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary And Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations April 1, 2004 Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to talk about the FY '05 budget request for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and to highlight some of the BBG's accomplishments in the past few years. I am joined by fellow board member Norman Pattiz, the father of Radio Sawa, and an irrepressible force for international broadcasting. Middle East Television Network On February 14 of this year, with the enthusiastic support of President Bush and key leaders of the Administration and Congress, the BBG launched a new Arabic-language television network called "Alhurra" ("The Free One" in Arabic). Even before this station went on the air, it was heavily criticized in the Arab world as a propaganda arm of the U.S. Government. It has been called a "voice of the CIA" whose aim is to "brainwash Arabs" and described as part of "a long-term plan to dominate the minds and ideas of Iraqis and Arabs". But Alhurra is none of these things. Its mission is that of all U.S. international broadcasting - to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about the United States and the world. Through its adherence to Western journalistic standards, through its objective, accurate reporting, Alhurra can gain the credibility we need to build an audience and offer Middle Eastern audiences a new balanced view of world events. While criticism in the Arab press continues, we are connecting with the people - our target audience - and they are sending us hundreds of e-mails to welcome us and urge us forward. "You are much needed to balance biased news controlled by those full of hatred to western world," reads one. "This is the first step to fight the 'hate culture' that feeds terrorism," says another. "I hope your channel [will help] our Arab brothers . . . to tell the truth from all that is going on." In a little more than four months, the BBG established a state-of-the-art broadcast facility in Northern Virginia to house Alhurra. Since October some 900,000 feet of cable have been installed in this facility. But what is truly extraordinary is the sea of Middle Eastern faces - newsmen and newswomen - enthusiastically working to make this network a successful model of journalistic standards. Many of these individuals are well known media figures in the Middle East and gave up promising careers overseas to practice journalism with MTN. President Bush spoke of "open debate" and "truth" when he described what this network can mean to the people of the Middle East. The network will challenge the voices of hate and repression with truth and the voices of tolerance and moderation. Viewers will witness free and open discussions, not just about conflict in the Middle East, but also about subjects critical to that region's future - economic development, human rights and respect for minorities. One of Alhurra's best talk shows involved an Iraqi editor-in-chief from Baghdad who revealed documents and receipts implicating Arab journalists and academics for taking money from Iraqi intelligence under Saddam. The list of names included a number of highly anti-American writers. To continue this broadcast effort to the Middle East in FY '05, we are requesting $45 million for the Middle East Television Network, including Radio Sawa. In addition, we expect to have $7.7 million available from reallocating funds provided through the Emergency Response Fund (ERF) in November 2001 to establish a medium wave transmitter in Egypt. As the Chairman knows, we have been unable to secure an agreement for a medium wave transmitter in Cairo with the Government of Egypt and want to put those funds to productive use. Program Highlights Our competitive edge in the Middle East is our dedication to truth and free and open debate. We will provide an example of democracy and a free press in a media market dominated by sensationalism and distortion. That is also the basis for the success of the Voice of America's new Persian-language satellite television program News and Views to the people of Iran. Less than three months after that program was launched last summer, one independent survey showed News and Views was reaching a remarkable 12 percent of the country's over-18 population. Typical of what creative broadcasting can do is the new segment launched by News and Views called Your Voice. Iranian viewers were invited to submit e-mails on the controversy surrounding the February 20th parliamentary elections - from the banning of candidates to calls for an election boycott. We opened a dialogue that is allowing Iranians to share their views with other Iranians - and the response has been extraordinary. My predecessors likewise brought innovation to our radio broadcasts that proved to be vital to the success of our Afghan Radio Network which broadcasts in Dari and Pashto, our youth-oriented Radio Farda to Iran, and Radio Sawa to the Arab world. When Norm Pattiz was in the process of creating Radio Sawa, he traveled throughout the Middle East to negotiate heretofore unattainable agreements for American AM and FM transmitters in Middle Eastern countries so that we could be heard on the radios of choice in the region. Radio Sawa has been a phenomenal success. A survey by ACNielsen research last fall demonstrated that Sawa has achieved market dominance - an average listenership of 42 percent in the important age group between 15 and 29 - in key Middle Eastern countries. Skeptics conceded Arabs might listen to our music, but not our news. Yet this same ACNielsen survey found that, in a region where skepticism towards the U.S. is high and boycotts of U.S. products are common, Radio Sawa was found to be a reliable source of news and information by 73 percent of its weekly listenership. In a matter of months, Sawa built the largest radio news-gathering operation in the Middle East presenting up-to-the minute news 24 hours a day and over 325 newscasts per week. It was the very reliability of our Sawa news that made us the leading source for news in Iraq even as we went to war there. News also accounts for the surprising audience that ACNielsen documented for Sawa among older listeners in target countries in the Middle East - better than 20 percent among the general population over 30. Mr. Chairman, I will submit for the record highlights of this survey. Under the leadership of Mouafac Harb, Sawa's outstanding News Director who also assumes that post for Alhurra, the station also is the source of a host of shows that explore freedom and democracy. Typical of these: The Free Zone, a 30-minute weekly review and discussion of democracy and freedom as they relate specifically to the Middle East; Ask the World Now, where U.S. policy makers respond to questions from Middle East listeners; Challenges, a special program on day-to-day challenges facing the Iraqi people in building a better future; and Sawa Chat, where reporters go to the streets of the Middle East with a question of the day. The BBG, over a short period of time, has made great strides in offering news and information to the Arab world. However, we continue to face challenges in other parts of the Islamic world, as in Indonesia, as well as in some of U.S. international broadcasting's more traditional markets, such as Ukraine. In Indonesia, the Voice of America has enhanced its radio and TV offerings to reach this large Islamic population. Jurnal VOA, a 25-minute live, interactive news program, appears on Indonesia's Metro TV. Another TV offering, Doing Business, airs every Monday on TVRI. VOA Direct Connection, a half-hour weekly radio program, airs each Friday evening on more than 40 satellite affiliates around Indonesia. This month, we will launch a new one-hour interactive talk show, Salam VOA, that will air on JTV in Surabaya. VOA has also signed an agreement to work with Metro TV on a 4-part series entitled International Perspectives on the Indonesian Elections. In addition, VOA will supply Trans TV with a weekly 5-minute U.S. election wrap-up, to air on its morning news program. We anticipate doubling our radio broadcasts to 5 hours a day and increasing TV from one to five hours a week. Not all of our news is good news. I'm saddened to report that, after a five-year working relationship, RFE/RL's Ukrainian language broadcasts were removed from the commercial Dovira FM network on February 17, 2004 by the company's new owner. This network was RFE/RL's major affiliate in Ukraine, allowing it to reach 60 percent of the population. Within two weeks after dropping RFE/RL programming, Dovira received four new FM licenses for Ukrainian cities that it had sought for many years. On March 3, 2004, Ukraine authorities raided the offices of RFE/RL's affiliate partner in Kyiv, Radio Kontynent, confiscating the FM broadcaster's transmission equipment, sealing the office and detaining three people, including the station's chief engineer. This action effectively closed Radio Kontynent, an FM commercial station that was carrying two hours of RFE/RL broadcasts. Both the Board and RFE/RL have denounced these actions. In the meantime, the BBG has provided additional shortwave frequencies to RFE/RL so the Ukraine programming may be heard in the areas previously covered by Dovira. RFE/RL will continue to seek other affiliate partnerships in Ukraine. The Board's latest initiative is a new youth-oriented Urdu broadcast to Pakistan where listeners would be served contemporary Pakistani and western music along with news and current affairs features and subjects ranging from education to business to health. By spring, we also expect to have a 10-hour per day Iraqi stream for Middle East Television that will be available through terrestrial transmitters. Right now, Iraqis that have access to programming delivered via Arabsat and Nilesat can receive Alhurra's programming. In addition, a terrestrial transmitter in Baghdad has just gone on the air, and transmitters in Basra and three other cities should be on-line in the near future. Special broadcasts to Iraq on these transmitters will begin this month, that will include talk shows and roundtables from Baghdad as well as special newscasts focusing on Iraq. FY '05 Budget Request The BBG's total budget request for FY 2005 is $569.3 million, plus the $7.7 million in reallocated funds mentioned earlier, for a total of $577 million. While our request does not include any new initiatives, to fully fund our programs in the War on Terrorism, we are redirecting $15.7 million to these highest priority areas. The Voice of America requests $157 million to tell America's story to the world in 44 languages. From news reports of political developments in the United States to discussion of social issues, VOA tells the rest of the world how America works, the reasons behind our policies, the thinking of our leaders, and the ideas of freedom, human rights and democracy that motivate us. VOA also broadcasts daily editorials clearly representing the views of the U.S. Government and provides discussion of these policies on other programs. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty requests $73 million to continue its broadcasts, more than half of which are directed to countries or regions where the majority populations are Muslim. RFE/RL's mission is to promote democratic values and institutions by disseminating timely, accurate and objective news, information, and analysis. RFE/RL focuses on local and regional developments in places where media are engaged in a difficult transition from totalitarian control and where threats to democracy remain. Radio Free Asia requests $29 million to provide objective in-country news and information to China, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Tibet, and Vietnam. RFA provides accurate and timely information, news, and commentary about events in these countries. RFA is also a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within Asian nations whose people do not enjoy freedom of expression. Radio and Television Martí request $28 million to broadcast to Cuba. Radio and Television Martí are dedicated to providing a reliable source of news and information that is accurate and objective as well as the promotion of freedom and democracy in Cuba. Radio and Television Martí 's primary areas of coverage include the Cuban economy, human rights, U.S.-Cuban relations, and international stories such as elections around the world. Programming is focused on advancing the cause of civil society, a free press, and democratic institutions in Cuba. In all of these broadcast initiatives, we strive to give our audiences the same tool we have always provided through international broadcasting: the information they need to assess their own leadership and to compare their political, economic, and social systems to those that exist elsewhere in the world. Inter-agency Coordination In creating a broadcast environment that also reflects the foreign policy priorities of the United States, we look to the Department of State for guidance, expertise, and participation in our programs. I have served four Administrations in Washington - all of them connected with international broadcasting. Never have I seen a better working relationship between the White House, the State Department, and international broadcasting. The White House Office of Global Communications has been extraordinarily supportive in helping us assess priorities and expand what we are doing as in Middle East Television. This office also has been a major enabler in helping the BBG to gain access to policy makers for interviews on major world events. The Department of State, through the membership of the Secretary of State on our Board, provides us with foreign policy guidance and a sense of priorities on where we should broadcast. Secretary Powell has provided unprecedented support for VOA's news-gathering capability, ensuring the freedom of correspondents to travel to volatile areas where important stories are breaking, without having to wait for country clearance from posts abroad. Under Secretary Margaret Tutwiler, who represents the Secretary at Board meetings, has been deeply interested in broadcasting's strategic goals and priorities and is a full participant in Board decision-making. Our diplomats overseas also have helped us gain valuable transmission resources in countries to which we broadcast. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided important financial support for broadcasts - support that was critical in our recent ability to expand our programming to Zimbabwe. But all of these government officials are sensitive to the primary reason why the Board was created - to serve as a firewall between the Department of State and the broadcasters in order to ensure the journalistic integrity of the programs. In passing the U.S. International Broadcasting Act, the Congress prevented "the international broadcasting entities from being merged into the State Department, where the credibility and journalistic integrity of the broadcasters would be threatened. The rationale for creating this arms-length distance from the State Department is two-fold: (1) to provide "deniability" for the Department when foreign governments voice their complaints about specific broadcasts; and (2) to provide a "firewall" between the Department and the broadcasters to ensure the integrity of journalism." This is an objective that serves the interests of the American people by demonstrating the openness, transparency, and regard for the truth that characterize our political system. We continue to see the wisdom of this organizational approach as we develop programming for increasingly sophisticated listeners abroad. Many of these audiences are accustomed to state-controlled programming. One of Sawa's professional staff explains: "Our competition is largely state-controlled radios. They sound like state-controlled radios. If our programming has to conform to government-dictated policy guidance, we will sound like a state-controlled station, and we will lose our competitive advantage." We need to understand the importance of maintaining the strength of public diplomacy and the traditions of international broadcasting. I am convinced that we will not be successful in our overall mission of delivering our message to the world if we fail to grasp that these are two different spheres and that they operate according to two different sets of rules. It is very important that government spokesmen take America's message to the world - passionately and relentlessly. We should not be ashamed of public advocacy on behalf of freedom and democracy and the United States of America. International broadcasting, on a parallel and complementary track, is called upon to reflect the highest standards of independent journalism as the best means of demonstrating to international audiences that truth is on the side of democratic values. Thirty years ago, RFE/RL and VOA began broadcasting the Watergate hearings. Those broadcasts caused heartburn for many in Washington, but looking back we see they constituted a veritable civics lesson on the importance of separation of powers and rule of law. Over the years I have heard so many citizens of post-communist countries tell how those broadcasts helped them understand the real meaning of freedom and democracy. Alhurra is fortunate to make its debut in a Presidential election year. It will cover the U.S. race from one end to the other, showing day by day how our election process works and how inelegant, yet splendid, it can be. We in America are fortunate that telling the truth works to our long-term advantage. That is why international broadcasting is so important to this country. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my formal statement. Norm and I will be happy to answer any questions that your Subcommittee might have. |