Voice of America, 70 Years Later, Faces Bureaucratic Troubles
Voice of America, 70 Years Later, Faces Bureaucratic Troubles - US News and World Report
When prominent Burmese dissident-turned-opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi visited Washington last month, she made a stop at a nondescript WWII-era government building on Independence Avenue for an interview that would be broadcast throughout Burma. The broadcaster, Voice of America, has been the U.S. government’s method of communication with populations abroad since 1942, when the institution broadcast anti-Nazi radio addresses to the German people in their native language.
Today, the service broadcasts in 43 languages in various formats, including radio, television, and social media, and boasts a weekly audience of 141 million. It employs 1,115 federal workers and 650 contractors, more than Fox News Channel’s reported workforce last year. It also remains an important tool of public diplomacy. For 2012, VOA and its five smaller sister stations requested a budget of $767 million—$230 million more than the State Department budgeted for overall public diplomacy that year.
But 70 years after taking on Adolf Hitler and then communism, VOA is plagued with bureaucratic problems, including a bloated budget, redundant programming, and a uninterested board of governors. And despite the broadcaster’s ubiquity abroad, a number of Americans do not even know VOA exists. In part, this may be due to federal law that prevents VOA’s reports from being broadcast within America.
“Government building #38,” jokes VOA executive editor Steve Redisch, who came to the broadcaster after a two-decade long career at CNN.
David Ensor, who became the head of VOA a year ago after a stint at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and three decades in journalism, says the broadcaster’s problems are more about its makeup.
“This is a big, complex organism,” he says.
VOA has five smaller sister broadcasters to augment what it does: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the International Broadcasting Bureau. They all work under an umbrella agency called the Broadcasting Board of Governors, made up of an 8-person, bipartisan panel chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The secretary of state serves as a ninth, ex officio, member.
