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VOA Reacts to the Sequester

Cuts select broadcasts, notably to Central Asia

The Voice of America is responding to the sequester budget cuts by eliminating select services, especially those aimed at Central Asia.

According to a release, “cross-border shortwave and medium-wave broadcasts to Albania, Georgia, Iran and Latin America will be curtailed, along with English language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan.”

In addition, “The new broadcast schedule calls for reductions in some shortwave and medium wave radio broadcasts in Cantonese, Dari/Pashto, English to Africa, Khmer, Kurdish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Urdu and Vietnamese.” Though, “Direct radio broadcasts to all of these regions will continue.”

VOA says, however, that all is not lost, it will continue to get its message out “through a host of other platforms, including radio and TV affiliate stations, direct-to-home satellite, web streaming, mobile sites and social media.”

It says that it made these moves because “the transmission reductions allow VOA to comply with budget cuts required by sequestration and to avoid furloughs of staff members.”

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