The Foreign Service Journal, January 2004

vice listenership in the Middle East has been static at less than 2 percent of poten- tial listeners. Hence the desire to prioritize the use of limited resources to reach larger audiences in key markets in support of U.S. national interests. Support for the war on terrorism is one of the BBG’s principal mis- sions. According to a U.S. General Account- ing Office report issued in July 2003 for the House Committee on International Relations, the BBG has done a commendable job of advancing solutions to the challenges of technological innovation and better coordination of its seven separate broadcast entities. But the board needs to set measur- able objectives, and has yet to address the problem of overlapping language services, the GAO report notes pointedly (“U.S. International Broadcasting: New Strategic Approach Focuses on Reaching Large Audiences but Lacks Measurable Program Objectives,” GAO-03-772). As of April 2003, the GAO states, the BBG had a 55- percent overlap between VOA and the surrogates broad- casting in the same language: 23 of RFE/RL’s 31 language services overlapped with VOA’s language services, as did eight of RFA’s nine services and Radio/TV Marti’s Spanish services. Though the BBG refuses officially to accept the premise that there are “duplicate” services, it is currently conducting an in-depth assessment of the utility and prac- ticality of integrating current overlap language services. The findings will be reported as part of its Fiscal Year 2005 budget submission. “Overlap” is only one aspect of the skirmishing over the language services. The BBG conducts an annual review intended to address the need to delete or add language cov- erage to streamline operations. More than $9 million has been reallocated through the elimination or reduction of language services since the first review in 2000: VOA Portuguese to Brazil was eliminated, and VOA Arabic and RFE/RL’s Persian service were eliminated (replaced by Radio Sawa and Radio Farda respectively), and the scope of operations of another 25 services has been reduced so far. But Congress has begun to challenge the efficiency moves. The BBG’s 2004 budget request, reduced at OMB’s direction by $8.8 million to reflect the proposed elimination of nine language services assessed as low pri- ority/low impact in the BBG’s 2001/2002 language service review, ran into roadblocks when senators objected to ending service in some coun- tries where a free and fair press is not yet assured. As the GAO report notes, the total number of language services has actu- ally increased, from 91 to 97, between the BBG’s 2000 review and today. Despite the many difficulties, as the BBG’s “Vision 2010” strategic plan asserts — and several recent commissions deplor- ing the state of public diplomacy have noted — the need for U.S. international broadcasting has never been greater. The challenge for the Foreign Service personnel and other professionals working at the IBB, VOA and regionally directed services will be to organize and direct the official broadcasting behemoth to accom- plish this mission, despite circumscribed budgets, increased competition from other governmental and com- mercial broadcasters, and omnipresent political sensitivi- ties about program content. F O C U S J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 19 America was the last major power to enter the world of international broadcasting.