The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting welcomed new Broadcasting Board of Governors CEO John Lansing and provided him with a list of suggestions.
Central to the CUSIB suggestions is that if there are budget cuts from Congress, that any shrinkage be from bureaucracy rather than broadcasting elements.
In a video statement, CUSIB said, “CUSIB believes that if the BBG is reorganized through proposed Congressional legislation, there will be a reorganization of the IBB. Either at that point or before, CUSIB is hopeful that Mr. Lansing will consider if there are too many attorneys or managers on staff for this news agency, if there are too many managers on staff, and if that money would be better spent on broadcasting.”
It was particularly concerned about maintaining or even increasing services to Afghanistan, China and other Asian nations.
On Afghan efforts CUSIB noted that Afghanistan was “a country where most people live in rural areas,” and therefore proposed cuts “[T]he people in Afghanistan will only get two hours of broadcasting services.”
Concerning China it said, “With China’s great firewall, great cannon – and all of Chinese government related hacking in mind — the BBG cannot rely solely upon the Internet to broadcast news into China and Tibet. We all know that radio is a relatively low-cost media platform and the people inside China and Tibet who listen to it cannot be monitored.”
CUSIB also said that it was going to be looking into the travel expenses of bureaucrats.
