As noted earlier, the central focus of U.S. international broadcasting is on reaching audiences that are underserved by their local media. According to Freedom House's year 2000 survey of press freedom, most countries rated as “not free” are located in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia (see app. I for a reproduction of Freedom House's current world map of press freedom).? While all five broadcast entities share the core mandate of reaching underserved populations, a key distinction among the entities is that the Voice of America and Worldnet broadcast to a global audience, while Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Radio/TV Marti serve as “surrogate” broadcasters in their respective regions and substitute for local media in countries where a free and open press is deemed not to exist or has not been fully established.8 In addition to adhering to a global mission for U.S. broadcasting, each broadcast entity has its own broadcast mission. As described in public documents and by Board officials, the Voice of America provides accurate and credible international, regional, and country-specific news to a global audience, with a particular emphasis on supplying information relating to the United States. However, in Africa where the Voice of America serves a surrogate role, greater emphasis is given to news of local interest. The Voice of America meets its mandate to broadcast the U.S. position on various foreign policy matters by including the views of U.S. officials in its regular programs and through daily editorials that are identified as representing the views of the U.S. government. It also broadcasts a number of public affairs programs which focus on discussions of U.S. policy by policymakers and experts. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty focuses on providing regional and local news to emerging democracies in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, and to Iran and Iraq. Radio Free Asia and Radio/TV Marti concentrate on providing news of local interest to audiences in Asia and Cuba, respectively, who generally do not have access to a free and open press. Figure 2 shows the regional coverage of the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Radio/TV Marti. 7 Freedom House is a bipartisan, nonprofit group that is partly funded by the U.S. government. 8 Congress created two additional surrogate services in 1998-Radio Free Iraq and Radio Free Iran-which are funded and administered under the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty grant. Note: This map shows transmission stations which are owned and operated by the International Broadcasting Bureau and does not include related technical infrastructure such as leased transmission facilities, communication satellites, or Internet operations. Source: Office of Strategic Planning, International Broadcasting Bureau. Shortwave broadcasting has dominated the history of U.S. international broadcasting for over 50 years. Over the past decade, however, the range of media options available to many listeners around the world has expanded to include local AM/FM programming, television, and the Internet. This diversified media environment has greatly increased the complexity of the strategic decisions the Board faces. These transmission modes and certain issues surrounding their use are described in appendix II. Radio Free The Board responded to the $75-million funding cap placed on Radio Free One key cost-cutting action that has not been implemented was the original In line with congressional expectations, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reduced its budget from $208 million in fiscal year 1994 to approximately $71 million in fiscal year 1996 by taking the following actions." 9 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pays a nominal rent of about $1 per month. 10 See Report on RFE/RL, Inc. dated March 16, 1999, to the Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate. 11 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's fiscal year 2000 budget is approximately $68 million. In 1995, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty relocated its headquarters from Munich, Germany, to quarters in Prague, Czech Republic, provided by the Czech Republic as a public service. • In conjunction with the move to Prague, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reduced its total staffing by almost 1,200 individuals, or almost 75 percent of its workforce. • Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America officials coordinated their respective broadcast schedules and eliminated over 300 weekly broadcast hours in overlapping and duplicative programming. • The Polish and Czech language services were reconstituted as separate, nonprofit corporations. 12 • Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty transmission facilities were turned over to the International Broadcasting Bureau in 1995 in connection with the consolidation of engineering and technical operations under the Bureau. Prior to this consolidation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty controlled a network of six transmission stations located in Germany, Portugal, and Spain. The two stations in Portugal were closed as a result of the consolidation. International Broadcasting Bureau officials estimate that the consolidation of engineering and technical operations initially resulted in more than $32 million in annual recurring savings and that current annual savings have grown to more than $50 million. 13 • A digital sound recording and editing platform was installed in connection with the move to Prague. This technology, under appropriate circumstances, allows one individual to produce a radio broadcast that previously would have required the services of an announcer, a producer, and a sound technician using the analog recording and editing technology that had been used in Munich. One Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty official noted that approximately 75 percent of the station's output lent itself to the streamlined mode of production enabled by digital technology. 12 The Polish service ceased broadcasting at the end of fiscal year 1997. 13 Other changes were made involving Voice of America transmission operations, and the International Broadcasting Bureau later assumed responsibility for managing Radio Free Asia's transmission needs. Radio/TV Marti remains something of a special case because it receives separate funding for its transmission operations. Specifically, Radio/TV Marti operates its own AM transmission facilities in Marathon, Florida, and an aerostat in Cudjoe Key, Florida, for television transmissions. Shortwave transmissions, however, are provided by the International Broadcasting Bureau from its transmission stations in Greenville, North Carolina, and Delano, California. First Language Service The Board completed its first annual language service review in January Review Used to 14 2000 and plans to use the results of this review to strategically reallocate approximately $4.5 million in program funds across broadcast regions on the basis of priority and impact ratings assigned to each language service. 14 The priority ratings reflected a number of factors, including the language service's contribution to furthering U.S. strategic interests, audience size, and other variables. The language service's impact was based on the mass audience size and the number of “elite” (that is, government and other influential decisionmakers) listeners reached. The Board plans to use next year's language service review to examine the issue of duplication in program content among the Voice of America and surrogate language services. We also found overlap in overseas news-gathering resources among broadcast entities. This is a potentially important duplication issue that the Board has not reviewed. We raised a similar issue in our 1996 report reviewing potential budget reduction options. 15 Board officials explained that a comprehensive language service review was not completed until January 2000 because the Board lacked adequate audience research on the number and type of listeners for such a review. Starting in 1997, the Board increased the budget devoted to audience research and in 1999 tasked the International Broadcasting Bureau's Office of Strategic Planning with developing a comprehensive set of program and performance data to be used as the basis for the comprehensive review of language services. Evaluation Process Used to Board members assigned priority and impact (audience) ratings to each language service as a basis for reallocating resources. The evaluation criteria used for the priority ratings included potential audience size, U.S. strategic interests, press freedom, economic freedom, and political 14 Although the Board included Radio Free Asia in its review, these language services were not part of the budget reallocation deliberations because they are relatively new, and gathering requisite evaluation data is difficult. However, the Board did note that as reliable data become available, Radio Free Asia will figure equally in the review process. Another exception in this review cycle includes the Voice of America's Worldwide English service. The Board did assess the priority of the Voice of America's English-language broadcasts, but, with the exception of Voice of America English to Africa, did not undertake an in-depth review of Voice of America worldwide English services. |