Funding Cuts to Voice of America Chinese Language Services

Media Release: China
February 21, 2011

Funding Cuts to Voice of America Chinese Language Services

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned by reports of large funding cuts to Voice Of America’s (VOA) Chinese language services.

The United States Government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees the operation of VOA and several other international broadcasters such as Radio Free Asia, announced a 57 per cent reduction in staff numbers to its Mandarin service and closure of all Cantonese-language programming, VOA reported on February 16.

According to a proposal before the United States Congress, the BBG would reallocate funds to enhance the agency’s global satellite transmission infrastructure and expand efforts to move VOA to an all-digital broadcast platform.

“While we were told that we will move to a news service utilising the internet and mobile communications technologies, these budget amendments raise questions about whether there will be sufficient manpower for news gathering,” a VOA reporter said.

“We’ve had no assurances of job security among these changes to an all-digital platform and we are mindful that China ’s cyber policing efforts could prove to be problematic.”

David Wu, a Democratic member of Congress from Oregon , told VOA on February 16 that he is “utterly opposed” to any reduction in the broadcaster’s Mandarin service. Wu said he will raise the matter with speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner and chairman of the House committee responsible for the BBG budget Frank Wolf.

The BBG also decided to close its Croatian-language service operated by Radio Free Europe. According to VOA, various congressmen have already expressed their opposition to the proposed changes. Former BBG member Blanquita Cullum said: “This is not the time to retreat. This is the time to advance and reach out with more broadcasting.”

“Recent internet blacklistings on internet searches on the Egypt and Iran protests have shown that China ’s capacity for controlling the internet and blocking access to information is second to none,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

“Furthermore, there are a great number of Chinese citizens who live in poverty and would have tremendous difficulty accessing VOA services online .

“The IFJ urges the United States Congress to overrule the proposal and the BBG committee to consider other means of expanding the VOA service which will not threaten the job security of media practitioners, or the public’s ability to access the service.”

ENDS

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