The Prague Post Online: News: RFE/RL changes its tune

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RFE/RL changes its tune

New head to guide the former Cold War radio as it pushes into Asia

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 21st, 2007 issue

New President Jeffrey Gedmin will find himself overseeing a retooled Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) next month, with an increased focus on Iran and a diminished presence in Europe.

This month the Prague-based, U.S. Congress–funded station announced it is doubling the time slot of its evening newscast to Iran to one hour. The broadcast is operated by Radio Farda, a Farsi-language offshoot of RFE/RL that began in 1998.

Meanwhile, RFE/RL has implemented cutbacks in its European coverage and is scheduled to end its broadcasts to Romania and Macedonia and reduce them to Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and parts of former Yugoslavia.

In 2004, RFE/RL cut six European-language services: Slovak, Bulgarian, Croatian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.

RFE/RL now broadcasts to 20 countries in 28 languages, 18 of which address mostly Muslim audiences, according to the station. It broadcasts about 1,000 hours of programming a week from Prague and reaches about 35 million listeners. About 500 people, a third of them Czechs, work in the Prague office.

Of next year’s $668.2 million (14.4 billion Kč) budget request by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the body that oversees RFE/RL and other U.S.-funded stations, $142.4 million is allocated for programming to the Near East, South and Central Asia and Eurasia. Some $116 million will fund Arabic programming and $67.2 million is set aside for East Asia, $45 million for Latin America and $13.6 million for Africa.

The decision to shift its focus from Europe was influenced both by RFE/RL’s budget and by the extent to which it deems that a target country’s media is operating freely, according to D. Jeffrey Hirschberg, a member of the station’s oversight body, the BBG.

In light of the new directions and cuts in European services, some RFE/RL staff members have expressed concern about Congress’ commitment to keeping the station on the air. Originally founded in post–World War II Europe as a counterbalance to Soviet censorship, the station’s role in a post-USSR world has been debated in Washington.

Indeed, as European countries such as Romania enter the European Union and NATO, the need to broadcast there isn’t as great, according to Acting President Jeffrey N. Trimble.

“Weighed against other priorities, it’s time we end those broadcasts,” he said, adding that the greater need is for programming for the Middle East. “It’s a historic shift that’s been under way for a number of years,” Trimble said, but noted that such decisions are made by the BBG, not RFE/RL.

Hirschberg said he expects the station’s budget will decrease over the next year, but this “should not be taken as a decrease in [commitment from] Congress or the administration to see that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a healthy organization.”

And the U.S. government’s continued support for RFE/RL can be seen in its construction of new headquarters in Prague’s Hagibor district, which should be completed by 2008, Hirschberg said.

At the same time, Hirschberg said, “It is no secret that the country has had priorities it has had to fill.”

Shifting tone?
Along with the development of programming for Muslim listeners, some RFE/RL staff members have voiced concern that a new, conservative president could alter the station’s tone.

Gedmin, the newly appointed president, declined requests for comment. He currently directs the Aspen Institute in Berlin, a nonprofit organization with a mission “to foster enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue.” Before joining the institute in 2001, Gedmin was executive director of the right-leaning New Atlantic Initiative of the American Enterprise Institute. He is also a founder of Project for a New American Century, a major proponent of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Gedmin’s editorial pieces in various newspapers leave little room for doubt as to his political leanings. In a Nov. 20, 2006, article in the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard, Gedmin asks, “Will George W. Bush ever get his due?” and writes that the president “has forever changed the conversation about democracy and the Middle East to the benefit of humankind.”

Whatever Gedmin’s personal philosophy, said Hirschberg, a Democrat, he is confident Gedmin is committed to RFE/RL’s self-described mission: “to promote democratic values and institutions by disseminating factual information and ideas.”

“Jeff Gedmin has my unqualified support,” Hirschberg said.

He called Gedmin “an accomplished manager and accomplished leader” who has “boundless enthusiasm” for his new role. The board voted unanimously to appoint Gedmin as RFE/RL’s new president.

Hirschberg was equally as adamant that the U.S. government does not have a hand in the content RFE/RL broadcasts, which is decided solely by journalists, he said.

Trimble has been in charge of RFE/RL since former President Thomas Dine resigned in November 2005.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com

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