Save VOA Broadcasting to China

Helle Dale / April 15, 2011

The decision to cut Voice of America (VOA) Broadcasting to China has attracted a good deal of congressional attention, as well it should. While China has launched a worldwide public diplomacy and media offensive, the United States is looking at a greatly reduced international media presence if the projected cuts go through.

Last week, the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations under Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R–CA), asked, “Is America’s Overseas Broadcasting Undermining our National Interest and the Fight against Tyrannical Regimes?” If you ask the reporters and editors of the VOA’s Chinese service, who are on the cutting block, they would probably answer, “Yes.” Reporters and editors there are deeply distressed over having their work of decades summarily chopped. (more…)