Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Meagan Wiseley - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Edward Kaufman (D-Del.) praised the work of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and their entities, Thursday, for successfully broadcasting news into the war-zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I think it is really extraordinary when you have two countries ... listening to U.S. and international broadcasting on a regular basis and getting both sides of every discussion," said Kaufman.

In October 1999, Congress established the BBG as its own federal agency. The Board consists of four Republicans and four Democrats. The board was created to preserve the so-called “firewall” separating policy-makers from broadcasting.

BBG broadcasters distribute programming in 60 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 175 million people via radio, TV, the Internet and other news media. According to the BBG website, the board works to serve as an example of a free and professional press, reaching a worldwide audience with news, information, and relevant discussions.

Governor Jeffrey Hirschberg said, “today in Iraq and Afghanistan, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and our newer broadcasters, Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV, are serving citizens caught up in tribal sectarian strife and violent extremism”, adding, “RFE/RL and VOA are together the number one broadcasting entity in Afghanistan in audience reach.

On a daily basis RFE/RL and VOA say 26% of their audience consists of a hard-to-reach audience of insurgents, or those who strongly oppose the Afghan government.

“The role of broadcasting in war-zones is particularly critical, because it creates channels of communication with and among the population, which plays a role in ‘winning hearts and minds," Kaufman said.

“In many of the places in the world, if it wasn’t for U.S. and International Broadcasting the people would never hear what any of our public officials have to say on absolutely anything," Kaufman added.