Media Highlights – September 17, 2012
Media Highlights – September 17, 2012
About Our Broadcasters
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi visits US, milestone in her journey from prisoner to stateswoman – AP, September 17, 2012
She spends four days in Washington, where she will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — who made a landmark visit to Myanmar last December — and House and Senate leaders. The White House has yet to announce whether she will meet Obama. Suu Kyi will also address human rights activists and meet Burmese journalists at Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
Also mentioned in AFP
Use Social Media to Combat Terrorism – U.S. News & World Report, September 15, 2012
In short, the terrorists have been successful in focusing social media as a weapon. What has been the American response? Articulate statements from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Indignant statements put out by our embassies. In-depth news reports on Voice of America. All of these are executed with great professionalism. None of them, however, has a prayer of countering the power of something like the “Innocence of Muslims.” What we need, instead, is a U.S. effort to develop effective social media responses in Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu.
BBG Takes Steps Toward CEO Hire – Radio World, September 14, 2012
The Broadcasting Board of Governors has taken further steps toward realizing the goal of creating a Chief Executive Officer position for U.S. International Broadcasting. “The board should proceed [with the appointment] as a matter of urgency,” according to the governance committee, said Alternative BBG Presiding Gov. Dennis Mulhaupt at the Sept. 13 BBG meeting.
Radio Liberty Hires Gessen – The Moscow Times, September 17, 2012
Masha Gessen, who was fired as editor of the Vokrug Sveta magazine for refusing to cover President Vladimir Putin’s hang-gliding stunt with cranes earlier this month, has been appointed head of the Russian service of U.S.-government-funded RFE/Radio Liberty.
Media Citations of BBG Broadcasters
Alleged Filmmaker Says He Has No Regrets About Movie That Sparked Mideast Violence – Forbes, September 14, 2012
A man claiming to be the writer of the movie that sparked the latest round of protests in the Middle East reportedly gave an interview to Radio Sawa, a U.S. backed Arab language radio station, today. As with so many facts around this “film,” these could turn out to be untrue. But the broadcasters believed they were talking to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a California Coptic Egyptian who is believed to be the filmmaker behind the propaganda video. In the interview, Nakoula says he was sad that Ambassador Chris Stevens had been killed but he did not regret making the film. Voice of America has a transcript of the conversation.
Also covered in The Daily Star, Bikya Masr, Gulf News, SBS World News Australia, and many other publications.
Vlad vs. Wild: Russia’s Vladimir Putin Admits His Crazy Wildlife Stunts Were Setups – Time, September 14, 2012
Most recently, he hopped onto a glider plane last week to lead six baby cranes to migration. According to Radio Free Europe, not all of the birds were so trusting of their new mother: “When some of [the birds] declined to follow him on his “flight of hope,” he used it as an opportunity to take a swipe at protesters who have demonstrated against his return to the presidency in recent months, describing those who refused to take his lead as “the weak ones.”
Turkey Clamps Down On Border Control, Leaving Syrian Refugees In The Lurch – International Business Times, September 14, 2012
Voice of America reported that 80,000 refugees are living in Turkish camps near the Syrian border, and tens of thousands more — many of whom are undocumented — have either found other lodgings within Turkish borders or are simply living without roofs over their heads.
New dengue fever vaccine an improvement – UPI, September 15, 2012
Tests show the drug, which would be the first vaccine for the fever, appears effective at preventing three of the four related viruses that trigger the disease, Voice of America reports.
Anti-American Protests Spread Beyond Middle East – Neon Tommy (USC Annenberg blog), September 14, 2012
At least four people have been killed in Yemen, according to Voice of America, and 224 people have been injured, according to Reuters, in what is the fourth day of protests that first began on the eleventh anniversay of the 9/11 attacks. The violence first began on Tuesday when U.S. Ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and two other American diplomats were killed after an attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya out of anger of the film.
Zim abuzz with sex and scandal – Mail & Guardian, September 17, 2012
But the affair has further tainted Tsvangirai’s image at a time when he has been shown in two recent surveys to trail Mugabe in terms of support. Tsvangirai told the Voice of America that he should not be judged by his personal life. “All I know is that I’ve met a woman, I love her and I’m moving forward. If people want to make a judgment of my leadership on that basis, we certainly cannot have that as a yardstick for measuring my leadership,” he said.
In the foreign-language press:
Two Masterpieces from Cuban Artist Rafael Soriano Become Part of the Smithsonian Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection – Diariodecuba, September 09, 2012
Rafael Soriano the abstract painter donated two paintings from his own collection to the Smithsonian Museum of Art. Born in 1920 in Matanzas Cuba Soriano is considered one of the most important Latin American painters. Soriano has lived in exile in Miami FL since 1962 but his lifelong works were inspired by topography of his place of birth. The web page Diariodecuba rebroadcast the TV Marti interview with the artist in its entirety.
Of Interest
A Call From The Kremlin – International Herald Tribune, September 16, 2012
Secretly I had felt that I had made Vladimir Putin up. I had spent years studying his interviews, his speeches and his ad-libbed statements, and he had come out flat and gray. Some people claimed he had a secret dimension, others said he possessed charm — I saw no evidence of it. But then, I had never talked to the man: As a journalist, I had apparently been blacklisted by the Kremlin at the very beginning of his reign — I could not even get accredited to a press conference.
[Commentary by Masha Gessen, the new head of RFE/RL‘s Russian service]
Arab Spring: Tech as tinder – Politico, September 14, 2012
The Internet tools of the Arab Spring have become the weapons of a new Arabian nightmare playing out at American diplomatic missions across North Africa and the Middle East. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube that spread an obscure movie trailer depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad in offensive ways are facing a clamp-down from governments and even Internet companies in some cases.
Pakistan Press Freedom: Journalists’ Choice: Face Death Or Jail – AP, September 16, 2012
The telephone call to local journalists generally comes in the late evening. The voice on the other end is harsh. He has a statement he wants printed, and he prefaces it with a terse order: “Report our messages without making any changes or we will kill you.”