With the Cold War over and spending priorities melting in the face of pressure to cut the federal deficit, U.S.-government-sponsored foreign broadcasts are on the congressional chopping block.
Congress continued Wednesday to plan an overhaul of the TV and radio operations that have tried to foster democracy through the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
The State Department’s U.S. Information Agency administers the VOA, while the Board for International Broadcasting oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
With the decline of communism in Eastern Europe, many in Congress agree that the time is ripe to consolidate the services, which overlap in at least 14 languages.
Disagreement lies in determining which agencies will survive and in what form.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on International Operations, has suggested elimination of the Board for International Broadcasting but is open to all options, he said. He wants a solution for fiscal 1995, which begins Oct. 1, 1994.
Mary Bitterman, a VOA director under President Jimmy Carter, agrees that VOA is capable of being the sole source of America’s international broadcasts.
Two arguments against VOA programming-that it carries an American bias and that it does not provide news from inside countries that hear it-are bogus, Bitterman told House members.
The budget of the Board for International Broadcasting is about $220 million, essentially the same as the budget of VOA, although VOA broadcasts in 49 languages and the board’s units broadcast only regionally in 23 languages, Bitterman testified.
“I have the impression that the (Board for International Broadcasting) budget has been unduly generous,” she said.
While Bitterman opposes plans to transfer VOA to a new agency, Richard Carlson, a VOA director in the Bush administration and now president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, favors it.
“CPB could be the link between the government and international broadcasting-it’s logical,” Carlson said. “This is the exact role CPB has now with public broadcasting. It’s a link between broadcasters and the government on the one hand, and a heat shield standing between broadcasting politics on the other hand.”
President Clinton has not endorsed any particular route, although he has promoted the idea of a Radio Free Asia, and there seems to be consensus on Capitol Hill on the need to increase broadcasting to Asia.
Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.) is sponsoring legislation to create such a broadcast service.
The nomination of a new director for the USIA, expected to be Joseph Duffey, American University president and Clinton friend, may add another opinion to the debate.
