Voice of America is the official external
broadcastBroadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
institution of the
United States federal governmentThe federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the
Broadcasting Board of GovernorsThe Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all non-military, international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S government. It was previously a department within the United States Information Agency until 1999.-Origins:Starting in...
(BBG). VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio and TV and the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
outside of the U.S. in 44 languages. VOA produces about 1,500 hours of news and feature programming each week for an estimated global audience of 123 million people, "to promote freedom and democracy and to enhance understanding through multimedia communication of accurate, objective, and balanced news, information and other programming about America and the world to audiences overseas." Its day-to-day operations are supported by the
International Broadcasting BureauThe International Broadcasting Bureau is an entity within the Broadcasting Board of Governors , which is a U.S. independent agency. The IBB supports the day-to-day operations of Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting...
(IBB).
A 1976 law signed by President Gerald Ford requires VOA to "serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news." The VOA Charter states: "VOA news will be accurate, objective and comprehensive."
VOA radio and television broadcasts are distributed by satellite, cable and on FM, AM, and shortwave radio frequencies. They are streamed on individual language service websites, social media sites and mobile platforms. VOA has more than 1,200 affiliate and contract agreements with radio and television stations and cable networks worldwide.
Transmission facilities
One of VOA's radio transmitter facilities was originally based on a 625 acres (2.5 km²) site in
Union TownshipWest Chester Township, formerly known as Union Township, is a township located in the southeast corner of Butler County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, one of thirteen townships in the county. It is situated between Sharonville and Monroe, about 18 miles north of Cincinnati, and...
(now West Chester Township) in
Butler County, OhioButler County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of 2010, the population was 368,130. Its county seat is Hamilton. It is named for General Richard Butler, who died in 1791 fighting Indians in northern Ohio. Butler's army marched out of Fort Hamilton, where the city of...
, near Cincinnati. The
Bethany Relay StationThe Voice of America's Bethany Relay Station was located in Butler County, Ohio's Union Township about 25 miles north of Cincinnati, adjacent to the transmitter site of WLW. Starting in 1944 during World War II it transmitted American radio programming abroad on shortwave frequencies, using...
operated from 1944 to 1994. Other former sites include
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(
DixonDixon is a city in northern Solano County, California, United States, located from the state capital, Sacramento. The population was 18,351 at the 2010 census. Other nearby cities include Vacaville, Winters and Davis....
,
DelanoDelano's climate is characteristic of the San Joaquin Valley. The weather is hot and dry during the summer and cool and damp in winter. Frequent ground fog known regionally as "tule fog" can obscure vision. Record temperatures range between 115°F and 14°F...
),
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Okinawa,
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
,
Costa RicaCosta Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, and
BelizeBelize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
.
Currently, the VOA and the IBB continue to operate shortwave radio transmitters and antenna farms at one
siteThe International Broadcasting Bureau Greenville Transmitting Station is the transmitting station for Voice of America, in Greenville, North Carolina. It is also known as the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station or Voice of America Greenville Transmitting Station. Originally at three sites, only...
in the United States, located near
GreenvilleGreenville is the county seat of Pitt County and principal city of the Greenville, North Carolina metropolitan area. Greenville is the health, entertainment, and educational hub of North Carolina's Tidewater and Coastal Plain and in 2008 was listed as the Tenth Largest City in North Carolina...
,
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. They do not use FCC issued callsigns. Other radio stations on US soil are required by FCC rules to have and use callsigns.
The IBB also operates a transmission facility on
São Tomé-Transport:São Tomé is served by São Tomé International Airport with regular flights to Europe and other African Countries.-Climate:São Tomé features a tropical wet and dry climate with a relatively lengthy wet season and a short dry season. The wet season runs from October through May while the...
for the VoA.
The Voice of America is fully funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Congress appropriates funds annually. VOA's FY 2010 budget estimate was $206.5 million.
Languages
The Voice of America currently broadcasts in 44 languages (TV marked with an asterisk):
- Afan Oromo
Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...
- Albanian
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
*
- Amharic
Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working...
- Arabic
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
*
- Armenian
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
*
- Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
*
- Bangla
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
*
- Bosnian
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
*
- Burmese
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
- Cantonese*
- Creole
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
- Croatian
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
*
- Dari
Dari or Fārsī-ye Darī in historical terms refers to the Persian court language of the Sassanids. In contemporary usage, the term refers to the dialects of modern Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized...
*
- English
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
* (also Special EnglishSpecial English is a controlled version of the English language first used on October 19, 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America. World news and other programs are read one-third slower than regular VOA English. Reporters avoid idioms and use a...
)
- French
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
* |
Georgian Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
GreekGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
*
HausaHausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...
Hindi
IndonesianIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
*
KhmerKhmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
Kinyarwanda
KirundiKirundi, also known as Rundi, is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language spoken by some 8.7 million people in Burundi and adjacent parts of Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa, as well as in Uganda. It is the official language of Burundi...
KoreanKorean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
KurdishKurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
LaoLao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...
MacedonianMacedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
*
Mandarin*
NdebeleThere are at least two languages commonly called Ndebele:*The Northern Ndebele language, a Nguni language spoken in Zimbabwe*The Southern Ndebele language, classified as Nguni language or Sotho–Tswana language, spoken in South Africa, heavily influenced by surrounding Sotho–Tswana languages and...
PashtoPashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...
*
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
* |
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
RussianRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
*
SerbianSerbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
*
ShonaShona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...
SomaliThe Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
*
SwahiliSwahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
ThaiThai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
TibetanThe Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
*
Tigrigna
TurkishTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
*
UkrainianUkrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
*
Urdu*
UzbekUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
*
VietnameseVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
|
The number of languages broadcast and the number of hours broadcast in each language vary according to the priorities of the United States Government and the world situation. In 2001, according to an International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) fact sheet, VOA broadcast in 53 languages, with 12 televised. For example, in July 2007, VOA added 30 minutes to its daily Somali radio broadcast, providing a full hour of live, up-to-the-minute news and information to listeners. VOA estimates it produces 1,500 hours of programming each week to an audience of 123 million
Overview
The Voice of America has been a part of several agencies:
From 1942 to 1945, it was part of the Office of War Information, and then from 1945 to 1953 as a function of the State Department. The VOA was placed under the U.S. Information Agency in 1953. When the USIA was abolished in 1999, the VOA was placed under the Broadcasting Board of Directors, which is an autonomous U.S. government agency, with bipartisan membership. The Secretary of State has a seat on the BBG.
VOA's parent organization is the presidentially-appointed
Broadcasting Board of GovernorsThe Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for all non-military, international broadcasting sponsored by the U.S government. It was previously a department within the United States Information Agency until 1999.-Origins:Starting in...
(BBG). The BBG was established as a buffer to protect VOA and other U.S.-sponsored, non-military, international broadcasters from political interference. It replaced the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB) that oversaw the funding and operation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a branch of VOA.
American private shortwave broadcasting before World War II
Before the Second World War, all American shortwave stations were in private hands. The
National Broadcasting CompanyThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's International, or White Network, which broadcast in six languages, The Columbia Broadcasting System, whose Latin American international network consisted of sixty-four stations located in eighteen different countries,
as well as the
Crosley CompanyThe Crosley Broadcasting Corporation was a radio and television broadcaster founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley, Jr.. The company was an early operator of radio stations in the United States. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley's flagship station was WLW...
in
Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, had shortwave transmitters. Experimental programming began in the 1930s. There were fewer than 12 transmitters, however.
In 1939, the Federal Communications Commission set the following policy:
A licensee of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.
Washington observers felt this policy was to enforce the State Department's
Good Neighbor PolicyThe Good Neighbor policy was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt toward the countries of Latin America. Its main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America...
but many broadcasters felt that this was an attempt to direct censorship.
In 1940, the Office of the Coordinator of Interamerican Affairs, a semi-independent agency of the U.S. State Department headed by
Nelson RockefellerNelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, began operations. Shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter
Nazi propagandaPropaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
. Initially, the Office of Coordination of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news.
World War II: VOA Begins
Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government's
Office of the Coordinator of InformationThe Office of the Coordinator of Information was an intelligence and propaganda agency of the United States Government, founded on July 11, 1941 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, prior to U.S. involvement in the Second World War...
began providing war news and commentary to the commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis. Direct programming began shortly after the United States' entry into the war. The first live broadcast to Germany, called
Stimmen aus Amerika ("Voices from America") took place on Feb. 1, 1942. It was introduced by "
The Battle Hymn of the Republic"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is a hymn by American writer Julia Ward Howe using the music from the song "John Brown's Body". Howe's more famous lyrics were written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It became popular during the American Civil War...
" and included the pledge: "Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war. . . . The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth."
The Office of War Information took over VOA's operations when it was formed in mid 1942. The VOA reached an agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation to share medium-wave transmitters in Britain, and expanded into Tunis in North Africa and Palermo and Bari, Italy as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the American Broadcasting Station in Europe.
Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in California in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in Hawaii and, after recapture, the Philippines.
By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages. Programming was broadcast from production centers in New York and San Francisco, with more than 1,000 programs originating from New York. Programming consisted of music, news, commentary, and relays of U.S. domestic programming, in addition to specialized VOA programming.
About half of VOA's services, including the Arabic service, were discontinued in 1945. Also in 1945, VOA was transferred to the Department of State.
The Cold War
In 1946, Voice of America was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of State.
In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to the Soviet citizens in
RussianRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
under the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media, according to "Cold War Propaganda" by John B. Whitton. The Soviet Union responded by initiating aggressive, electronic
jammingRadio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
of VOA broadcasts on 24 April 1949.
Charles W. ThayerCharles W. Thayer was an American diplomat and author. He was an expert on Soviet-American relations and headed the Voice of America.-Early years:...
headed VOA in 1948–49.
Over the next few years, U.S. government debated the best role of the Voice of America. The decision was made to use VOA broadcasts as a part of its Foreign Policy to fight the propaganda of the Soviet Union and other countries.
The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the
Suez CrisisThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
of 1956, and was 6 hours a day by 1958.
In 1952, the Voice of America installed a studio and relay facility aboard a converted U.S. Coast Guard cutter renamed
Courier whose
target audienceIn marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed .....
was Russia and its allies. The
Courier was originally intended to become the first in a fleet of mobile, radio broadcasting ships (see
offshore radioOffshore radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures, usually in international waters. The claimed first wireless broadcast of music and speech for the purpose of entertainment was transmitted from a Royal Naval craft, the HMS Andromeda, in 1907...
) that built upon
U.S. NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
experience during WWII in using warships as floating broadcasting stations. However, the
Courier eventually dropped anchor off the island of
Rhodes, GreeceRhodes is the principal city and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It has a population of approximately 80,000. Rhodes has been famous...
with permission of the
Greek governmentThe Politics of Greece takes place in a large parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament...
to avoid being branded as a
pirate radioPirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
broadcasting ship. This VOA offshore station stayed on the air until the 1960s when facilities were eventually provided on land. The
Courier supplied training to engineers who later worked on several of the European commercial offshore broadcasting stations of the 1950s and 1960s.
Control of the VOA passed from the State Department to the U.S. Information Agency when the latter was established in 1953. to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China (PRC). In the 1980s, the USIA established the WORLDNET satellite television service, and in 2004 WORLDNET was merged into VOA.
During the 1950s and 1960s, VOA broadcast American jazz, which was highly popular, world wide. For example, a program aimed at South Africa in 1956 broadcast 2 hours nightly, along with special programs such as "The
Newport Jazz FestivalThe Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...
". This was done in association of tours by U.S. musicians, such as
Dizzy GillespieJohn Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
,
Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, and
Duke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, sponsored by the State Department.
Throughout the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored
jammingRadio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956, Poland stopped jamming VOA, but Bulgaria continued to jam the signal through the 1970s. and Chinese-language VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976. However, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies. The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts. Cuba has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to Iran from its Russian-built transmission site at
BejucalFor the Maya archaeological site in Guatemala see Bejucal Bejucal is a municipality and city in the Mayabeque Province of Cuba. It borders to the north Boyeros; to the east with San José de las Lajas; to the south with Quivicán; and on the west with San Antonio de los Baños. It was founded in 1874...
. David Jackson, former director of the Voice of America, noted "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, VOA covered some of the era's most important news including Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech, and Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon. During the Cuban missile crisis, VOA broadcast around-the-clock in Spanish.
In the early 1980s, VOA began a $1.3 billion rebuilding program to improve broadcast with better technical capabilities. Also in the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
,
Radio MartíRadio y Televisión Martí is a radio and television broadcaster based in Miami, Florida, financed by the United States government , which transmits Spanish radio broadcasts to Cuba...
and
TV MartíTV Martí was created by the US government to provide news and current affairs programming to Cuba. It is named after Cuban independence leader José Martí, and is the television equivalent to Radio Marti.-History:...
. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba.
In September 1980, VOA started broadcasting to Afghanistan in Dari and in Pashto in 1982. At the same time, VOA started to broadcast U.S. government editorials, clearly separated from the programming by audio cues.
In 1985, VOA Europe was created as a special service in English that was relayed via satellite to AM, FM, and cable affiliates throughout Europe. With a contemporary format including live disc jockeys, the network presented top musical hits as well as VOA news and features of local interest (such as "EuroFax") 24 hours a day. VOA Europe was closed down without advance public notice (even to its own audience) in January, 1997, as a cost-cutting measure. Today, stations are offered the VOA Music Mix service.
In 1989, Voice of America expanded Mandarin and Cantonese programming to reach the millions of Chinese and inform the country, accurately about the pro-Democracy movement within the country, including the demonstration in Tiananmen Square.
Starting in 1990, the U.S. consolidated its international broadcasting efforts, with the establishment of the Bureau of Broadcasting.
Post Cold War (1991 – present): Changes in services
With the breakup of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe, VOA added many additional language services to reach those areas. This decade was marked by the additions of Tibetan, Kurdish (to Iran and Iraq), Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian, and
Rwanda-RundiRwanda-Rundi or Ruanda-Rundi is a Bantu language, actually a dialect continuum, of Central Africa. Neighboring dialects are mutually intelligible, but more distant ones may not be. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as official languages, of Burundi and Rwanda...
language services.
In 1993, the Clinton administration advised cutting funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as it was felt post-Cold War information and influence was not needed in Europe. This plan was not well received, and he then proposed the compromise of the International Broadcasting Act. The Broadcasting Board of Governors was established and took control from the Board for International Broadcasters which previously oversaw funding for RFE/RL.
In 1994, President Clinton signed the International Broadcasting Act into law. This law established the International Broadcasting Bureau as a part of the U.S. Information Agency and created the Broadcasting Board of Governors with oversight authority. In 1998, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act was signed into law and mandated that BBG become an independent federal agency as of October 1, 1999. This act also abolished the U.S.I.A. and merged most of its functions with those of the State Department.
In 1994, the Voice of America became the first broadcast-news organization to offer continuously updated programs on the Internet. Content in English and 44 other languages is currently available online through a distributed network of commercial providers, using more than 20,000 servers across 71 countries. Since many listeners in Africa and other areas still receive much of their information via radio and have only limited access to computers, VOA continues to maintain regular shortwave-radio broadcasts.
The Arabic Service was abolished in 2002 and replaced by a new radio service, called the Middle East Radio Network or
Radio SawaRadio Sawa is a 24-hour 7-day-a-week Arabic language radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. The station is a service of theMiddle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. and is publicly funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the U.S. Congress...
, with an initial budget of $22 million. Radio Sawa offered mostly Western and American popular music with periodic brief news bulletins.
In September 2010, VOA launched its radio broadcasts in Sudan. As U.S. interests in Southern Sudan have grown, there is a desire to provide people with free information.
In February 2011, VOA announced that it plans to end all radio and TV Broadcast in Mandarin and Cantonese in October. The Chinese service is the second largest of its language services.
Law
Under § 501 of the Smith–Mundt Act of 1948, the Voice of America is forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens. The intent of the
legislationLegislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
is to protect the American public from propaganda actions by its own government. Although VOA does not broadcast domestically, Americans can access the programs through
shortwaveShortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
and streaming audio over the Internet.
Copyright status
All text, audio, and video material produced exclusively by the Voice of America is
public domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
.
The VOA Charter
Under the Eisenhower administration in 1959, VOA Director Harry Loomis commissioned a formal statement of principles to protect the integrity of VOA programming and define the organization's mission, and was issued by Director George V. Allen as a directive in 1960 and was endorsed in 1962 by USIA director
Edward R. MurrowEdward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
. On July 12, 1976, the principles were signed into law on July 12, 1976, by President
Gerald FordGerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
. It reads:
The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Voice of America must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts. 1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive. 2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions. 3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.
"Two-Source Rule"
An internal policy of VOA News to build reliability is that any story broadcast must have two independently corroborating sources or have a staff correspondent actually witnessing an event, according to former VOA correspondent Alan Heil.
Broadcasting Board of Governors services
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a bipartisan panel of eight private citizens appointed by the
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and confirmed by the U.S. Senate (the
U.S. Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
is an ex officio member of the Board), is the oversight body for official U.S.
international broadcastsInternational broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching...
by both federal agencies and government-funded corporations. In addition to VOA, these include the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB, which includes Radio and TV Marti) and grantee corporations: the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN, which includes
Radio SawaRadio Sawa is a 24-hour 7-day-a-week Arabic language radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. The station is a service of theMiddle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. and is publicly funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the U.S. Congress...
and Al Hurra television in Arabic);
Radio FardaRadio Farda is the Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's broadcast services. It broadcasts 24 hours a day in the Persian language from its headquarters Prague, Czech Republic. Radio Farda first aired December 2002. Radio Farda broadcasts political, cultural, social, and art news...
(in
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
) for
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
;
Radio Free Europe / Radio LibertyRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
and
Radio Free AsiaRadio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that operates a radio station and Internet news service. RFA was founded by an act of the US Congress and is operated by the Broadcasting Board of Governors . The RFA is supported in part by grants from the federal government of the United States...
, which are aimed at the ex-
communist stateA communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist-Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state...
s and countries under oppressive regimes in
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. In recent years, VOA has expanded its television coverage to many areas of the world. This governing body was established in 1993 to replace the Board for International Broadcasters, which was created in 1973 to manage broadcasting companies previously funded by the CIA.
Many Voice of America announcers, such as
Willis ConoverWillis Clark Conover, Jr. was a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and television. By arranging concerts where people of all races were welcome, he is credited with...
, host of
Jazz USA, Pat Gates, host of the
Breakfast Show in the 1960s, and Judy Massa, noted country music expert and host of
Country Music U.S.A., became worldwide
celebritiesA celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, although not in the United States.
The Voice of America headquarters is located at 330 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC, 20237, USA.
Urdu Service
The Voice of America's
UrduUrdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
-language program Khabron Se Aage (
Beyond the Headlines) is telecast in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
by
GEO NewsGeo News is a Karachi-based Pakistani news channel, fully owned and operated by Jang Group. The channel started its broadcasting in November 2005 and has millions of Urdu-language viewers around the world.- Popular Shows :...
, VOA's affiliate and one of the country's most popular stations. Voice of America pays an undisclosed amount of money to GEO TV to telecast its broadcast but in spite of this arrangement has been forced to take off many of its programs on numerous occasions due to conflicts with the GEO TV management. This half-hour program features reports on politics, social issues, science, sports, culture, entertainment, and other issues of interest to Pakistanis as seen by the US government.
Comparing VOA-RFE-RL-RM to other broadcasters
In 1996, the USA's international radio output consisted of 992 hours per week by VOA, 667 hpw by RFE/RL, and 162 hpw by Radio Marti.
Programming
Voice of America's central newsroom has hundreds of journalists and dozens of full-time domestic and overseas correspondents, who are employees of the U.S. government or paid contractors. They are augmented by hundreds of contract correspondents and stringers throughout the world, who file in English or in one of the VOA's 44 other radio broadcast languages, 25 of which are also broadcast on television.
In late 2005, VOA shifted some of its central-news operation to Hong Kong where contracted writers worked from a "virtual" office with counterparts on the overnight shift in Washington, D.C., but this operation was shut down in early 2008.
Many of the radio and television broadcasts are available through VOA's website.
While VOA is prohibited by the
Smith-Mundt ActThe US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 , popularly referred to as the Smith–Mundt Act, specifies the terms in which the United States government can engage global audiences, also known as public diplomacy....
of 1948 from broadcasting within the U.S., citizens are able to hear the hourly newscasts online. These are provided in 5 minute clips every hour from their website.
Voice of America relays and simulcasts on
Radio AustraliaRadio Australia is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Australia's public broadcaster.- History :...
for digital radio.
In Focus
In Focus is a 30-minute daily TV magazine that brings information about Africa, the United States, and the world to viewers across Africa. It is scheduled Monday thru Friday. In Focus Features interview with newsmakers, analysts, American and African government officials and everyday citizens presenting a variety of opinions on issues affecting the African continent. The program showcases stories about African, Diaspora topics, African-American interests and immigration, pop-culture, box office hits, music, sports, and highlights from Hollywood round out the program. Contributor Linord Moudou reports on timely and practical health news and has conversations with doctors and expertise on African health issues including malaria, meningitis, measles and polio.
On the Line
On the Line features host Eric Felten discusses important international issues with to officials, public policy experts, and scholars. It is scheduled for Fridays only. On the Line is a lively forum hosted by Eric Felten where newsmakers, policy experts, diplomats, activists, academic and journalists discuss U.S. foreign policy and world events. On the Line focuses on the critical issues shaping the future and gives those issues the vigorous, serious debate they deserve. On the Line broadcasts worldwide twice a week on VOA television, and is also heard on VOA radio. Condensed versions of the program can be heard in translation in over 40 languages via VOA radio’s language services.
Straight Talk Africa
Straight Talk Africa is hosted by Shaka Ssali. This call-in program examines topics of special interest to Africans. It is scheduled for Wednesdays. Straight Talk Africa is an international call-in talk show hosted by Shaka Ssali. Shaka and his guests discuss topics of special interest to Africans, including politics, economic development, press freedom, health, social issues and conflict resolution.
The Link
The Link is VOA’s weekly look at breaking trends on the Internet. The program examine up and coming trends and ideas online.
Money in Motion
Money in Motion is a program that looks at business stories from around the world that have global effects. The program is scheduled for Fridays.
Going Green
Going Green is a program that explores new trends and technologies in environmental science and services. It is scheduled daily.
Now You Know
“Now You Know” is a webcast that provides vital but little known details about some of the world’s biggest stories. Now You Know is hosted by Todd Grosshans. He brings clarity to important global issues. The program is scheduled for Fridays.
English
English Language Broadcast Frequencies
| Target audience In marketing and advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed .....
| Frequencies (Khz) |
Europe, Middle East, and North Africa
|
1593, 5970, 9480, 13570, 15530 |
| Africa |
909, 1530, 4930, 4940, 4960, 6080, 9850, 9855, 12015, 12080, 15580, 17585, 17895 |
| Sudan |
9675, 12015, 13825 |
| Zimbabwe |
909, 4930, 11605, 15775 |
| Afghanistan |
1296, 7555 |
| East Asia, South Asia, Oceania |
1170, 1575, 5895, 5915, 7430, 7460, 7540, 7575, 9510, 9760, 9780, 11705, 11955, 12075, 12150 |
| Not Applicable |
1170, 1575, 1593, 6140, 7430, 7460, 7465, 7485, 7520, 9485, 9570, 9630, 9760, 9780, 9820, 11725, 11840, 11890, 12005, 12080, 13570, 13805, 15145, 15205, 15290, 15340, 17820 |
Other Languages
Other Language Broadcast Frequencies
LanguageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
| Frequencies (Khz) |
| Afaan Oromoo |
11520, 11905, 11925, 12140, 13870 |
AlbanianAlbanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
|
3995, 5945, 6040 |
| Amharic |
6055, 7300, 11790, 11905, 11925, 12140, 13630, 13870 |
| Azerbaijani Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
|
7220, 9850, 13580 |
| Bangla |
1575, 7260, 9320 |
| Burmese The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
|
1575, 5865, 5955, 6185, 7430, 9320, 9940, 11820, 11910, 11965, 12120, 15110, 15620, 17775 |
| Cantonese Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
|
1170, 7365, 9355 |
| Mandarin Chinese |
6110, 6135, 7205, 9510, 9545, 9845, 9985, 11785, 11805, 11825, 11830, 11925, 11965, 11990, 12040, 13610, 13740, 13775, 15170, 15250, 15255, 15385, 15665, 17765, 17775, 17855, 21705 |
| Creole A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
|
5835, 6135, 7465, 7590, 9505, 11905, 13725, 15390, 17565 |
CroatianCroatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
|
5975, 6145, 7295 |
| Dari |
1296, 7555, 9335, 11565, 11580, 15090, 15380 |
| Deewa |
7495, 9310, 9380, 9390, 9700, 9780, 11535, 12015 |
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
|
1530, 4960, 6035, 6170, 6095, 9815, 9830, 9880, 12035, 12080, 13710, 15185, 15730, 17550 |
| Georgian Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
|
9435, 13745 |
HausaHausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people...
|
1530, 4940, 4960, 6045, 6170, 7230, 9600, 9815, 11785, 11890, 11905, 13820, 15185, 17800 |
| Hindi |
|
IndonesianIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
|
7225, 7550, 9535, 9700, 9890, 9945, 11805, 12010, 13705 |
KhmerKhmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
|
1575, 5955, 6060, 9320, 11540, 15340 |
| Korean Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
|
648, 1188, 5870, 5890, 6060, 7225, 7365, 9490, 11935 |
| Kurdish Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
|
1593, 11645, 15130, 17750 |
| Laotian Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language. Being the primary language of the Lao people, Lao is also an important second language for...
|
1575, 9810, 11930 |
| Ndebele - Ethnic groups :*South Ndebele people, located in the South Africa*Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe, and Botswana- Languages :*Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele...
|
909, 4930, 11605, 15775 |
PashtoPashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...
|
1296, 7495, 7555, 9310, 9335, 9380, 9390, 9700, 9780, 11535, 11565, 11580, 12015, 15090, 15380 |
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
|
648, 1593, 5860, 5970, 6040, 6105, 7295, 7455, 9390, 9840, 11780 |
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
|
1530, 9800, 12080, 12120, 15740, 21590 |
| Rwanda-Rundi Rwanda-Rundi or Ruanda-Rundi is a Bantu language, actually a dialect continuum, of Central Africa. Neighboring dialects are mutually intelligible, but more distant ones may not be. Two dialects, Kirundi and Kinyarwanda, have been standardized as official languages, of Burundi and Rwanda...
|
7340, 9540, 11750, 12010, 17785 |
| Shona Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...
|
909, 4930, 11605, 15775 |
| Somali The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....
|
88, 1431, 5945, 12110, 13580, 15445, 15460, 15545 |
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
|
5890, 9885, 11625, 13715, 15590 |
SwahiliSwahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
|
7380, 9440, 9815, 15365, 15730 |
TibetanStandard Tibetan is the most widely used spoken form of the Tibetan languages. It is based on the speech of Lhasa, an Ü-Tsang dialect belonging to the Central Tibetan languages. For this reason, Standard Tibetan is often called Central Tibetan...
|
7250, 7330, 7465, 7565, 9480, 9565, 9855, 11510, 11975, 15265, 15490, 17735 |
| Tigrigna Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...
|
11520, 11905, 11925, 12140, 13870 |
| Turkish Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
|
7265 |
| Urdu Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
|
972, 1539, 7460, 11860, 11975, 15725 |
| Uzbek Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
|
801, 9670, 11780, 13755, 15185 |
VietnameseVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
|
1575, 5955, 6060, 9720, 9355, 15340 |
VOA as a propaganda tool
Various sources consider Voice of America an instrument of the United States'
propagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
campaigns.
National sovereignty
The Cuban government and allied critics have suggested that the U.S. government violates national
sovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
by broadcasting and operating in their countries, despite Cuba's own broadcasts to the US and elsewhere. This argument has been used to justify open attempts by the Cuban government to jam VOA broadcasts, as well as respond with equally powerful shortwave transmissions of English-language political broadcasts and communiques directed at the United States. Time interval signals identical to those used by
Radio Havana CubaRadio Havana Cuba is the official government-run international broadcasting station of Cuba. It can be heard in many parts of the world including the United States on shortwave at 6000 kHz and other frequencies...
have also been detected in coded
numbers stationA numbers station is a shortwave radio station of uncertain origin. In the 1950s, Time magazine reported that the numbers stations first appeared shortly after World War II and were using a format that had been used to send weather data during that war.Numbers stations generally broadcast...
broadcasts that are allegedly linked to espionage activity in the U.S.
Paying for appearances
Recently, news media have reported that VOA has for years been paying
mainstream mediaMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
journalists to appear on VOA shows, although such practices are relatively common worldwide for media programs. According to
El Nuevo HeraldEl Nuevo Herald is a McClatchy newspaper published daily in Spanish in Miami, Florida, in the United States. El Nuevo Heralds sister paper is The Miami Herald, also produced by the McClatchy Company.-About El Nuevo Herald:...
and the Miami Herald, these include: David Lightman, the Hartford Courant's Washington bureau chief; Tom DeFrank, head of the New York Daily News' Washington office; Helle Dale, a former director of the opinion pages of
the Washington TimesThe Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
; and
Georgie Anne GeyerGeorgie Anne Geyer is an American journalist and columnist for the Universal Press Syndicate. Her columns focus on foreign affairs issues and appear in approximately 120 newspapers in North and South America. She is the author of several books, including a biography of Fidel Castro.Geyer was born...
, a nationally
syndicated columnistThis list of syndicated columnists comprises columnists whose recurring columns are published in multiple periodical publications .*Ghaith Abdul-Ahad*Yasmin Alibhai-Brown*Timothy Garton Ash*Lucius Beebe*Max Boot...
.
In response, spokesmen for the Broadcasting Board of Governors told the newspaper
El Nuevo Herald that such payments do not pose a
conflict of interestA conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
. "For decades, for many years, some of the most respectable journalists in the country have received payments to participate in programs of the Voice of America," one of the spokesmen, Larry Hart, told
El Nuevo Herald.
Mullah Omar interview
In late September 2001, VOA aired a report that contained brief excerpts of an interview with then Taliban leader
Mullah Omar MohammadMullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...
, along with segments from President Bush's post-9/11 speech to Congress, an expert in Islam from Georgetown University, and comments by the foreign minister of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. State Department officials including
Richard ArmitageRichard Lee Armitage, GCMG AC CNZM was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005.-Early life and military career:...
and others argued that the report amounted to giving terrorists a platform to express their views. In response, reporters and editors argued for VOA's
editorial independenceEditorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
from its governors. The VOA received praise from press organizations for its protests, and the following year in 2002, it won the University of Oregon's
Payne Award for Ethics in JournalismThe Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism were created at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communications in 1999. In the words of the school's dean, Tim Gleason, the awards were created "to honor the journalist of integrity and character who reports with insight and clarity in...
.
Abdul Malik Rigi interview
On April 2, 2007, Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundullah, a militant group with possible links to
al-QaedaAl-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, appeared on Voice of America's Persian service. VOA introduced Rigi as "the leader of popular Iranian resistance movement". The interview resulted in public condemnation by the
Iranian-AmericanIranian-Americans are Americans of Iranian ancestry or people possessing Iranian and American dual citizenship.Iranian-Americans are amongst the most highly educated groups in the United States...
community, as well as the Iranian government. Jundullah is a Sunni Islamiist militant organization that has been linked to numerous attacks on civilians, such as the
2009 Zahedan explosionThe 2009 Zahedan bombing was an explosion on May 28, 2009 that occurred during Maghrib prayers in Zahedan killing 20 people and wounding 50. There was no immediate claim of responsibility...
.
Ethiopia jamming
In January 2008, Ethiopia was accused of jamming the VOA Amharic and Oromifa programs. The government denied the accusations claiming technical difficulties as the cause of radio disruptions.
See also
- Alhurra
Alhurra is a United States-based Arabic-language satellite TV channel funded by the U.S. Congress that broadcasts news and current affairs programming to audiences in the Middle East and North Africa...
- American Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...
- Frank Shozo Baba
Frank Shōzō Baba was a Japanese American Nisei and worked for broadcasting during World War II in United States and post war in Japan. He spent twelve years in Japan, from the age of 6 months, 6 years from age 29, and 4 and half years from age 46...
- BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
- Border Crossings
Border Crossings is a live, all-request, music-oriented radio show that is broadcast worldwide by the US government-operated Voice of America. Premiering at 1505 UTC on October 14, 1996 with Judy Massa as host, it is one of VOA's longest-running music programs, surpassed only by Willis Conover's...
- China Radio International
China Radio International , the former Radio Beijing and originally Radio Peking, founded on December 3 of 1941, is one of the three state-owned media in China along with China National Radio and China Central Television in the People's Republic of China .As the PRC's external radio station, CRI...
- Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...
- DZRJ-AM (Voice of the Philippines)
DZRJ-AM , also known by its tagline The Voice of the Philippines, is an AM radio station of the Rajah Broadcasting Network, Inc. in the Philippines. The station was located on the roofdeck and tower of the J&T Building along Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard...
- FreeMediaOnline.org
Free Media Online is a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and advancing free speech and freedom of the press worldwide through journalistic, educational and information sharing activities. It was founded in 2006 by a group of media specialists with backgrounds in...
- George Kao
George Kao was a Chinese American author, translator, and journalist. He is best known for translating English-language classics into Chinese and for his efforts to bring Chinese classics to English-speaking audiences.-Biography:...
- Pentagon Channel
The Pentagon Channel is a TV channel broadcasting military news and information for the 2.6 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is widely available on US Public, educational, and government access cable tv channels, can be viewed FTA in most Central and Western European countries ,...
- PRESS TV
Press TV is a 24-hour English language global news network owned by the Iranian government. Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran, with bureaux in Beirut , Damascus , London , Seoul and Washington DC ....
- Radio Australia
Radio Australia is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Australia's public broadcaster.- History :...
- Radio Canada International
Radio Canada International is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Until 1970, it was known as the CBC International Service and was sometimes referred to as the "Voice of Canada" in its early years.- The early years :The idea for creating an...
- Radio Farda
Radio Farda is the Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's broadcast services. It broadcasts 24 hours a day in the Persian language from its headquarters Prague, Czech Republic. Radio Farda first aired December 2002. Radio Farda broadcasts political, cultural, social, and art news...
- Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...
- Radio Free Asia
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that operates a radio station and Internet news service. RFA was founded by an act of the US Congress and is operated by the Broadcasting Board of Governors . The RFA is supported in part by grants from the federal government of the United States...
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
- Radio Netherlands
Radio Netherlands Worldwide is a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands...
- Radio Sawa
Radio Sawa is a 24-hour 7-day-a-week Arabic language radio station broadcasting in the Arab world. The station is a service of theMiddle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. and is publicly funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the U.S. Congress...
- Radio Taiwan International
Radio Taiwan International is the English name and call sign of the international radio service, the Central Broadcasting System of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan...
- VOA Indonesia
VOA Indonesia is the Indonesian service of the Voice of America . Broadcasting from Washington, DC, USA, the service produces programs for radio, television and website that especially catered for the Indonesian audience in their native language, Indonesian...
- Voice of Indonesia
Voice of Indonesia is an autonomous division under Radio Republik Indonesia . The organization is a public broadcasting service. It is a national radio station that broadcasts all over Indonesia and abroad to serve all Indonesia citizens anywhere in the country and abroad. RRI also provides...
- Voice of Russia
Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service owned by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. Its predecessor Radio Moscow was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.-Early years:Radio Moscow...
External links