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CUSIB Appeals to Kerry

BBG watcher suggests downsizing bureaucracy

The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting, an advocacy group often critical of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the International Broadcasting Bureau, has issued a public plea to incoming Secretary of State John Kerry for reform of the BBG and the international broadcasting apparatus.

CUSIB asks for a reduction in the central BBG bureaucracy because it has “grown beyond all measure at the expense of programming” and reform the “bureaucracy’s nerve center, the International Broadcasting Bureau” to create an “agile, unbureaucratic BBG with new executive leadership and sufficient funding for its important media freedom mission.”

It explains, “We have warned repeatedly that a bigger central bureaucracy envisioned in the controversial strategic plan does not make a better and more efficient media organization.”

And adds: “CUSIB is absolutely convinced that smaller and autonomous news and information/broadcasting units focused on their assigned regions and run by specialists can do a much better job of communicating with the world using traditional and new technologies, and at a much lower cost to American taxpayers, than a consolidated central media behemoth run by bureaucrats. Targeted programs and specialization are key ingredients of success in international broadcasting. They are not found in large bureaucracies.”

In addition CUSIB asks for the reinstatement of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists laid off in a restructuring.

CUSIB also criticizes the recent State Dept. Inspector General report.

Related:
BBG on IG Report: We Take Findings Seriously
IG Report Criticizes BBG

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