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US radio /Dictatorial Regimes





U.S. `radio free' stations growing despite long ago end of Cold War 
Houston Chronicle; Houston, Tex.; Dec 20, 1998; BOB DROGIN; 

Sub Title: 
          [2 STAR Edition]
Start Page: 
          34
Dateline: 
          WASHINGTON

Abstract:
Never mind that the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang sometimes jams Radio Free
Asia's
twice-daily broadcasts. Or that few North Koreans own shortwave radios. Or
that most radios
there are configured to receive only government propaganda channels.

Radio Free Iraq and a special Farsi language service for Iran were launched
Oct. 30. Like Radio
Free Asia, both are "surrogate" stations, reporting stories that Baghdad and
Tehran might
censor - news about local corruption, human rights abuses and other
sensitive topics.

Not surprisingly, the new networks infuriated their targets. Iran almost
immediately recalled
its ambassador from the Czech Republic for consultations and froze trade
ties to protest the
American broadcasts, which are directed from offices in Prague. Tehran radio
quoted a
Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that the Czech Republic had "backed
hostile action by
America."

Full Text:
Copyright Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, The Hearst
Corporation (the
"Houston Chronicle") Dec 20, 1998


WASHINGTON - It is late afternoon, but here in the studios of Radio Free
Asia, Jenny Choi is reading
the 7 a.m. news - to North Korea.

Speaking softly in Korean, she and a co-anchor report on long- running
Korean negotiations, an upcoming
visit by an American envoy and the mysterious deaths of 71 cattle shipped to
the famine-stricken nation.
Every story is about North Korea.

"Today we have so much news," program director Jaehoon Ahn says happily.

Never mind that the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang sometimes jams Radio Free
Asia's twice-daily
broadcasts. Or that few North Koreans own shortwave radios. Or that most
radios there are configured
to receive only government propaganda channels.

Such problems fail to discourage those who champion U.S. government
broadcasts as a way of opening
closed societies. Indeed, radio networks created to help fight communism not
only survived the Cold War:
They are growing as never before.

Radio Free Iraq and a special Farsi language service for Iran were launched
Oct. 30. Like Radio Free
Asia, both are "surrogate" stations, reporting stories that Baghdad and
Tehran might censor - news about
local corruption, human rights abuses and other sensitive topics.

Not surprisingly, the new networks infuriated their targets. Iran almost
immediately recalled its ambassador
from the Czech Republic for consultations and froze trade ties to protest
the American broadcasts, which
are directed from offices in Prague. Tehran radio quoted a Foreign Ministry
spokesman as saying that the
Czech Republic had "backed hostile action by America."

The United States uses the airwaves against 29 countries, from emerging
post-Communist democracies to
some of the world's most repressive regimes. That is nine more than at the
height of the Cold War.

The United States also sponsors the Voice of America, Washington's official
broadcast arm. Voice of
America transmits international and American news, rather than local
reports, in a record 52 languages, up
from 36 a decade ago.

Congress approved $397 million for overseas broadcasting this fiscal year,
the most ever.

"I think we have vastly more support in Washington today than we did five
years ago," said Paul Gobel,
Washington spokesman for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which still
broadcasts to the former Soviet
republics and most of Eastern Europe.

"And that's because the euphoria is over. When the Berlin Wall came down,
and then the Soviet Union
collapsed, people were saying, `History is over, capitalism and democracy
have won, the bad guys are
finished. Good job, everybody, go home.' Well, it didn't work out that way."

Gobel paused, then smiled. "Frankly," he said, "I don't see any likelihood
we'll close any time soon."

Such optimism - or pessimism perhaps - is recent.

Founded and funded by the CIA in the early 1950s, Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty came under
congressional control in 1971. By 1994, with the Iron Curtain long down,
Washington was ready to pull
the plug.

RFE/RL then cost $220 million a year, and a scandal erupted over reports
that officials at the headquarters
in Munich, Germany, were drawing $200,000-plus salaries. Critics called it a
gold-plated Cold War relic.

But allies began surfacing in high places. They argued that uncensored U.S.
broadcasts had played a key
role in bringing down communism, and that the job wasn't finished.

Vaclav Havel, the dissident-turned-president of the Czech Republic, weighed
in with lavish praise,
declaring that free and credible media were crucial for the transition to
democracy. He offered the network
a new home in the former parliament building in downtown Prague - for $1 a
month.

The result: After bitter debate, Congress cut RFE/RL's budget by two-thirds
to $70 million. President
Clinton backed off a pledge to eliminate the network by 1995.

The organization moved from Munich to Prague. It slashed its staff by nearly
three-fourths, restructured
itself, and still managed to continue broadcasting.

Although RFE/RL is running the new Iraq and Iran services from Prague,
transmission is from Greece,
Germany and the United Kingdom. Initial broadcasts were only 30 minutes a
day, but within a year, six
hours daily are planned.

As usual, the services will rely largely on exiles and emigres as reporters,
and programs will use sensitive
material smuggled out, as well as more traditional news sources.

Iranian officials began complaining even before the broadcasts began,
calling them an obstacle to warmer
relations with Washington.

But complaints also came from what would appear an unlikely source - the
Voice of America.

VOA officials noted that with few interruptions, they have been broadcasting
non-political news and
features to both Iran and Iraq since 1942, and have a large following. So do
the British Broadcasting
Corp., German radio and other international networks.

"The fact is that in Iran, the VOA has a huge listenership," said former VOA
director Geoffrey Cowan.
"They know they get balanced information about Iran. And we had a gigantic
listenership in Iraq. That's
how people get their news."

VOA's ire is aimed mostly these days at Radio Free Asia, which went on the
air two years ago and now
broadcasts to Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Tibet and North Korea.
All of those countries
already received VOA local-language broadcasts.

"The reality is RFA is very often jammed more than not," said Evelyn S.
Lieberman, current VOA director.
In any case, she added, "we already have high listenership in many of the
places they're broadcasting to."

VOA says its research shows that 83 million people listen to its shortwave
broadcasts each week. And
that, spokeswoman Mary Ellen Glynn gleefully added, "is more than watch ABC,
CBS and NBC news
combined."

RFA cannot yet demonstrate that it has a large audience, or indeed a
significant audience at all. Senior
U.S. diplomats and journalists in China and Vietnam, the two countries where
jamming is heaviest, say
they can't find anyone who regularly listens to RFA or can even find it on
the dial. That has raised doubts
on Capitol Hill.

"I'm very skeptical of how useful it is," said a senior congressional
staffer who follows Asia. "I've asked,
but never seen, any concrete evidence that this is an effective use of our
financial resources in terms of
listenership."

In response, RFA officials cite mail, tapes, phone calls and other evidence
of what they believe to be a
growing audience.

"A lot of activists feel this is their organization, their radio, democracy
radio," said Soe Thinn, head of
RFA's Burma service, which has received more than 800 letters from listeners
inside Burma. "They want
us to support them."

Credit: Los Angeles Times