From the February 22, 2006 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0222/p09s02-cojh.html

Radio programs articulate US values to the global community

The message that all people have the right to liberty is as important
as ever.
By John Hughes

SALT LAKE CITY - When I was a foreign correspondent in Africa and
Asia, the most valued part of my kit after my portable typewriter was a
little shortwave radio. It was my link to the outside world in the remotest
parts of those continents. Across the static over thousands of miles, I
would tune in each night, when reception was better, to the news from Voice
of America - its rousing familiar introductory chords momentarily stirring
pangs of homesickness - to get a trusted briefing on what was happening in
America and elsewhere in the world.

Years later, when I served as director of VOA, my admiration for it
was only heightened by my association with the talented journalists, foreign
service officers, and expatriates from various lands who so carefully
gathered the news and broadcast it around the globe in a multitude of
tongues. Though it was not directed internally to an American audience,
Scotty Reston, the famous New York Times columnist, told me that it was his
favorite newscast and that he listened to it every night on a shortwave
radio.

Today the typewriter is an anachronism, supplanted by the laptop
computer, and many have abandoned shortwave radio in favor of television and
more modern methods of communication such as Internet websites.

There is a question as to whether there is any longer a critical mass
for shortwave listening, and whether VOA and the other government radio
stations have outlived their usefulness. Their heyday was in the cold war,
and that is long since gone.

The methods of delivery may change, but the subversive message sent to
not-yet-free nations - that all men and women have the right to liberty - is
as important as ever.

We are engaged in a war against terrorism that, since 9/11, President
Bush has warned will be long. It requires force of arms but is also a war of
ideas. With the lands of Islam as the heartland of this war, it is
understandable that the focus of institutions like VOA, whether the message
be delivered by satellite television, or shortwave, or FM radio, should be
directed at them. Sadly this means that language services beamed elsewhere
are being cut or abandoned, so that broadcasting to Iran and the Arab
countries of the Middle East in their own languages can be increased.

One of the casualties is English- language broadcasting to many parts
of the world (except Africa). This is unfortunate because even in countries
whose native language is not English, English is often the language used by
the elite and the leadership, who are especially desirable targets for VOA's
programming.

Other language broadcasts by radio to be cut are Croatian, Turkish,
Thai, Greek, and Georgian. Radio broadcasts to go, but which will be
continued on TV, are Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Serbian, Russian, and
Hindi.

The budget proposed for US international broadcasting in the coming
financial year is $671.9 million, actually about 4.3 percent more than the
budget in fiscal year 2006. This is a pittance compared to the billions
being spent on military operations against terrorists. The ideal would be a
budget that could encompass the needs for broadcasting to Islamic lands but
still maintain English programs for lower priority but nonetheless important
regions. Ironically, China Radio International has just cranked up a new FM
transmitter in Kenya beaming Chinese, Swahili, and English to African
audiences. Also broadcasting in English is the Voice of Iran. Al-Jazeera has
a round-the-clock TV channel in English.

The New York Times reports that "with the retreat of Voice of America
from the international market for news delivery in English," a Berlin radio
station long used by VOA will be taken over in April by National Public
Radio, broadcasting programs like "Car Talk" and "Fresh Air." The Times says
NPR seeks to become a respected global voice.

If the war of arms against terrorists is likely to be long, so is the
war of words. As we have seen in Iraq, the terrorists have mastered the most
modern technology for disseminating their message. We must look beyond the
suicide bombers of today, who may be beyond reason. We must reason with the
next generation now undergoing brainwashing in the madrassahs, or schools of
the Islamic lands.

Nor can the US ignore the rest of the world. Even America's friends
must not be taken for granted. They, as well as foes, must hear American
policies explained, and America's values and principles reasserted.

In these challenging times, America's voice to the world should be
strengthened, not diminished.

• John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, served as a director of
the Voice of America in the Reagan administration.

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