Long before the conflict in Afghanistan, back before even color television and hula hoops, even prior to Disneyland, there was a major American effort to persuade a foreign people of the worth of America and its ideals.
    Back in 1951, Radio Free Europe broadcast its first U.S.-funded shortwave radio news messages to communist-bloc countries.
    Fifty years later, Radio Free Europe, now joined with Radio Liberty, is still broadcasting, and in the ongoing conflict it might well be called into action.
    A bill now in Congress calls for the reinstatement of Radio Free Afghanistan, which operated from 1985-1993 in response to the Soviet invasion.
    As the spotlight returns to the so-called freedom radios, questions of propaganda will revisit the government and the media industry.
    RFE/RL is funded by grants from the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors.
    But RFE/RL says that relationship doesn't make it a propaganda machine.
    Does the relationship, then, between RFE/RL and the U.S. government better resemble the agreement between commercial stations and their advertisers?
    No, says RFE/RL spokesperson Paul Goble.
    "Advertisers, as we all know, especially at local stations, have a great deal more influence over radio programming than the U.S. government does over RFE/RL."
    But while RFE/RL vehemently rejects the label "propaganda," it acknowledges that the goal of spreading American democracy differentiates its organization from, say, NPR or the BBC.
    "Propaganda, if by that one means distorted information, or information that is put out on request, that’s not what we do," says Paul Goble, spokesperson for RFE/RL.
    "We have a journalistic code, which is intended so that if some assistant secretary or congressman says we should broadcast something, we can say no. And we have the absolute expectation that that will stick.
    "By providing carefully-sourced, balanced reporting, we’re exemplifying what the U.S. media scene is about. Is that an advertisement for the U.S.? Yes."
    The RFE/RL was originally established to deliver the news to countries as a substitute for free media in places behind the Iron Curtain.
    The RFE/RL tagline, taken from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states: "Everyone has the right . . . to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medium regardless of frontiers."
    Some inevitably criticized the broadcasts as a tradeoff of American propaganda for communist propaganda.
    In a letter congratulating the organization on its 50^th anniversary, President George W. Bush calls Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty a tool "that helped freedom-loving peoples win the Cold War."
    The RFE/RL web site looks not unlike web sites of most American news media.
    Ubiquitous red, white and blue colors tint the site, but there’s no mention of the function of the U.S. government in the administration of the messages. And there’s nary an American flag in sight.
    The coverage reflects that relationship, though, with a large complement of U.S. news alongside coverage more specific to the broadcast regions themselves.
    Headlines read: "Russia: FSB, CIA Believe Neo-Nazis, Not Bin Laden Behind Anthrax Scare" and "Ukraine: Last Missile Silo destroyed, nation 'nuclear free.'"
    Fifty years after its first broadcast, Radio Free Europe expanded its broadcasts to most of the former Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq and much of central Asia.
    RFE/RL now broadcasts the news in 26 languages over 12 time zones.
    Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the networks used shortwave broadcasts exclusively.
    Since then, RFE/RL has established affiliate relationships with 300 stations in its listener areas.
    Shortwave broadcasts are still used to reach places like Iran and Iraq, where affiliate relations do not exist.
    And while listener surveys have not been taken, RFE/RL estimates its listeners to be about 35 million.
     "For reasons I’m sure you can understand, we haven’t done a recent poll of listeners in places like Tehran, Iran," says Goble.

November 7, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Jamie Jones is a staff writer for Media Life.

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