United States Broadcasting Board of Governors Issues Statement Critical of Arab Broadcasting Charter
The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has criticized adoption of a new broadcasting charter on February 12, 2008 by Arab information ministers and is urging the League of Arab States to reconsider the decision.
In a statement released today, the BBG says the new charter “threatens restrictions on the practice of a free press” and adds that truth will only be served by “competition among free media.”
The full BBG statement follows.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency, supervising all U.S. government-supported, non-military international broadcasting, whose mission is to promote freedom and democracy and to enhance understanding through multi-media communication of accurate, objective, and balanced news, information, and other programming about America and the world to audiences overseas. BBG broadcasting organizations include the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Mart