WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK: VOA: From the priorities of yesterday to new priorities for tomorrow (08/27/00)

WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK

by Oksana Rudiuk
Ukrainian National Information Service

VOA: From the priorities of yesterday to new priorities for tomorrow

WASHINGTON - Some people believe that the mission of the Voice of America (VOA) was accomplished with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Those pundits are convinced that VOA was a Cold War institution that does not have any reason to exist after the end of an ideological war with the communist system. Personally, I remember a lot of Ukrainians who once kept the radios by their beds tuned-in to the Voice of America at night (it was easier to catch VOA's short-wave during that time frame, whereas no one would be caught listening to the "propaganda program of the West" and be reported to the KGB).

Today, Ukrainians listen to various national radio stations providing a lot of commentary and international, national, and local news. Ah, the times have changed! As a result, VOA's broadcasting to the former Soviet bloc countries faces new changes and challenges. The competition in the media market within the NIS makes VOA's role more complicated now than it was in the times of Soviet informational isolationism when the Voice of America was a reliable source of information regarding world events, as well as regarding situations within those countries.

But, how does the Voice of America see its mission today? "The end of the Cold War did not bring the end of the repressive regime," said the Chief of the Ukrainian Branch of VOA, Lydia Rudins. "Our mission is growing today," she continues. According to recent Freedom House informational research, more than four billion people throughout the world still live in societies where governments severely control or suppress print and broadcast media. Therefore, the Voice of America continues to see its role in the new century as being a voice of human rights and democratic freedom, with new global challenges and priorities to address.

"For example," emphasized Ms. Rudins, "the Ukrainian service of VOA not only provides information about U.S. policy, as well as democratic and free market institutions, but also provides stories that are ignored or not objectively covered by Ukrainian mass media."

In her opinion, since VOA supplies objective information otherwise not readily available in Ukraine, the radio program does not have a lot of competition, at least not from Ukrainian radio stations. In the situation where the Ukrainian mass media is politically and financially dependent on the government or oligarchs, the Voice of America can express a more independent point of view than any other mass media in Ukraine.

VOA's Ukrainian branch chief elaborated further on VOA's informational structure: "We are independent from U.S. politicians even though we are funded by Congress. We readily receive requests from politicians or business people who want to be interviewed [on VOA's programs]. If we do interview a politician, we also broadcast a politician with an opposite point of view."

The radio service understands that in order to compete with FM radio stations that usually have larger audiences, VOA has to be equally entertaining and informative. But this is not how the radio programmers see its future and its mission. According to Ms. Rudins, VOA's target audience in Ukraine includes the political, intellectual and business elite. "We also try to reach the NGO's," she commented, "those organizations that are involved in forming a civic society in Ukraine."

Since the independence of Ukraine, VOA's Ukrainian Branch has received a lot of visitors, scholars, and artists, as well as exchange students. This year alone, VOA has hosted four summer interns from various regions in Ukraine. From these experiences, Ms. Rudins observed, "In general we feel that we know much more about the Ukrainian reality than we did during the Cold War."

VOA's radio services are also improving their effectiveness by using all the technological advantages of the multi-media world. "We have to stay with the time. We must compete in a multimedia world. The media we choose to use is the combination of radio, TV and Internet. We are going in that direction," she said.

The strategy of VOA is to reallocate resources from countries with democratic governments to those that are still repressed or struggling to establish democracy. The fall of the communist system in Central and Eastern Europe led to some reductions in the broadcasting in that region. According to congressional testimony regarding VOA's broadcasting, 16 language services would be reduced, and 13 would be enhanced this year. This reduction principally affects Voice of America broadcasting in the Polish, Hungarian, and Czech languages.

These societies are estimated to have free and open media. Ms. Rudins, commenting on the downsizing of other East/Central European services explains: "Broadcasting to areas where democracy has taken hold will be cut. We have nothing to worry about. And resources will be reallocated to other areas of the world that are trying to establish democracy, which, I think, will include Ukraine. So far the reduction has not affected the Ukrainian branch."

In its congressional testimony, VOA stressed that "international broadcasting will continue to be vital as long as segments of the world's population are denied access to a free press and hunger for alternative sources of news and information about their own countries and the rest of the world." Hopefully, one day VOA will state in its congressional testimony that it has completed its mission and that freedom reigns around the world. Until that day comes, the Voice of America is truly that - the voice of freedom throughout the world.

Oksana Rudiuk is a Fulbright Scholar from Ukraine studying at Colorado University in Denver. Ms. Rudiuk interned this year at UNIS during her summer semester.

| Home Page |