A reader has noted that action alerts from the Joint Baltic American National Committee keep appearing with regularity on these pages, calling for Baltic Americans to lobby their elected representatives to restore funding to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty broadcasts in a number of countries in Eastern Europe. Wonderment exists - is this necessary? After all, are not the countries affected democratic, no longer under the Soviet yoke?
We know full well the influence and effect of all forms of media. Newspaper headlines, carefully worded, can skew what really took place. 15 second sound bytes on television rarely reflect an entire speech or statement. Even radio news can tilt opinion by virtue of how - or by which - a news item is received. Selection works as well as omission in news.
It can be argued, however, that it is radio, that has the most ethics these days. Radio must work hardest to captivate the audience. And it is to radio we turn when we want updates on events. Not all people are glued to CNN or all-news television - and in the case of power outages, as so recently was demonstrated, TV has yet to discover how to be omnipresent. Seems that way sometimes, but while pictures do have their worth, words carefully chosen have a greater effect. How many times did people see the WTC crumble? The image lost its effect by sheer repetition.
You cannot repeat pictures on radio - and broadcasts always have to be updated. All-news radio stations are similar to CNN in their emptiness - but the radio stations with carefully constructed hourly news, weekly newsmagazines, special events analysis, are far more credible.
Here one thinks of the BBC’s global importance - the CBC’s Radio Canada used to keep pace before cutbacks, -providing a global audience with a serious source of credible, unhyped non-bombast laden news. Then there is short-wave radio - perhaps unrivalled because of its truly global coverage.
Eastern Europe is slowly recovering from the decades long set-back delivered by communism. Incomes are not commensurate with American ones. Big city dwellers have access to TVs, but it is the rural people who rely on radio for news. And how wonderful to have local and international news items delivered in your own native tongue as is the case with RFE/RL. RFE/RL is much like the BBC, known for careful analysis, high standards.
Consider what Romania’s Florin Negrutiu wrote in the Denver Post last Sunday in defence of beleagured RFE/RL. He called cutbacks “turning off the light of freedom”. During Ceaucescu’s reign of terror, RFE broadcasts provided the truth. Thousands of people in Negrutiu’s home Carpathian region listened - in their own homes, huddled under blankets, to “real news reported by real people - so much different from the ordinary ‘comrades’.” Those comrades - the Securitat, - were actually RFE’s most loyal listeners, to find out what was being said. Why the intense effort to jam the radio signals from Black Sea to Baltic? To deny people the knowledge that people can live in a country where they were free to express their opinion. RFE was a breath of fresh air. One that grew into the wind of democratic change.
Many people in the Baltics can attest to what Negrutiu wrote. Yet, as is the case today, in the new democracies nobody listens to RFE broadcasts like they used to. Thus the move to cut funding, close services.
Negrutiu argues that this would be a mistake. RFE’s goals are not yet achieved. Free elections and NATO accession have not totally cut the bridges with the past. The nostalgia for communism still lingers among many. Radio Free Europe’s role as being a source of reliable news cannot be discounted.
This Tuesday, Josh Muravchik wrote in the Washington Post that closing RFE services means giving the “New Europe” the silent treatment. He argues that while Voice of America - also threatened - presents “official US views on issues”, then RFE presents “reportage that while not slanted toward the United States is also not tilted against it as is so much European journalism ”. (Emphasis TN).
It is the New Europe - the NATO and EU accession countries - that have been the US’s staunchest allies in the war against terrorism. Muravchik argues that because of some foreign policy blunders world public opinion has turned sharply against the US. The need for effective public diplomacy is thus urgent. He notes with great insight, that much of the journalism in Eastern Europe is sensationalist, and standards of professionalism are weak. In Negrutiu’s Romania, for example, journalists have been fined for publishing disclosures about politicians - even though courts have acknowledged them to be true. Press freedom is certainly not secure in the entire region. RFE and VOA, however, are immune to intimidation, while setting a model of responsible reportage. “Broadcasting and other forms of public diplomacy are the essential components to our military efforts in the war against terrorism”, he writes.
While many in the region affected might feel complacent about events taking place in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, the fact of the matter is that Russia is very active in her former sphere of influence. RFE/RL’s Media Watch, for example, routinely discloses abuses of press freedoms by Russia, Ukraine - even Poland and the Czech republic. It is there that President Vaclav Klaus is “making hay” by taking potshots at US policy. Which is allowable in a democracy, not so when both sides of the coin are not presented to the people.
During Soviet times RFE/RL provided the people with news from the side of the coin that has “Liberty” stamped upon it. Now, by cutting off services, the United States is “kissing off the few friends in Europe it has”...
Thus providing a vacuum, and we know what kind of real propaganda will fill the void. Just consider the Russian press views surrounding Patriarch Alexei’s visit to Estonia. Is this what Baltic Americans want? While the Baltics may have the “free-est” press in the region, RFE/RL routinely provides balanced coverage of local events as well as international ones (See RFE/RL Baltic States Report at www.refrl.org for confirmation).
Thus, listen to our own lobby organization, JBANC, heed their action alerts, let your Free Voice be heard, here and in the Baltics. If Romania falls again, can the Baltics be far behind?
Leader: Why RFE/RL still matters
Arvamus
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