 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, January 15, 2009, San Francisco —
FreeMediaOnline.org has been reporting recently on the actions of U.S. political appointees and senior government agency officials who had stopped Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Russia 12 days before the outbreak of the war in the Caucasus, terminated VOA Hindi radio to India shortly before the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and ended VOA Ukrainian radio programs on December 31, 2008, just hours before Russia stopped the flow of natural gas supplies to Ukraine and the rest of Europe.Â
- Federal Human Capital 2008 Survey (FHCS)
According to the latest Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS), the employees of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) have recently given the BBG Board members and the officials of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) the worst ever rating for good management and placed the BBG at the very bottom of Federal agencies.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) describes the Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS)Â as “a tool that measures employees’ perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions characterizing successful organizations are present in their agencies. Survey results provide valuable insight into the challenges agency leaders face in ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce and how well they are responding.”
FreeMediaOnline.org, a San Francisco-based nonprofit supporting media freedom worldwide, is deeply concerned that the BBG’s actions are undermining access of international audiences to unbiased news and information from the United States. Especially hard hit are the very poorest groups as well as refugees and other victims of war and repression. In many countries around the world — including Russia, India, and Ukraine –the BBG and the International Broadcasting Bureau staff have abandoned Voice of America radio, which used to serve these audiences, in favor of relying exclusively on television and the Internet. This insensitive and elitist strategy has been condemned by labor leaders, human rights activists, as well as BBG’s own employees.
FreeMediaOnline.org is republishing a report on the latest Federal Human Capital Survey posted on the BBG Government Employees AFGE Local 1812 Union web site.
- American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812
2008 HUMAN CAPITAL SURVEY RESULTS EVEN WORSE FOR BBG
DATELINE: Washington, D.C. 01/09/09. The results of the 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey for the Broadcasting Board of Governors were released yesterday. It proved to be the worst survey yet for the BBG. Some examples of the results:
The BBG received a negative response of 37.1% to the survey question: “I recommend my organization as a good place to work”. The negative responses governmentwide averaged 14.9%.
It was a negative response of a whopping 50.9% for the BBG regarding the question: “How satisfied are you with the policies and practices of your senior leaders?”. The governmentwide negative numbers for this question were 28.9%.
For the question, “I can disclose a suspected violation of any law, rule or regulation without fear of reprisal”, the BBG earned a 33.3% negative response. Governmentwide the negative responses averaged 19.0%.
All the negative percentages for the BBG listed above are higher than the previous results for the same questions in the surveys of 2006 and 2004. Instead of working to improve the dismal showing on past surveys, the management of the BBG and the organizations under its umbrella seem to take pride in being if not the worst, one of the worst, places to work in all of government. Lisa Vandenberg, the president of the Union representing the employees at the FLRA, was quoted recently regarding the survey results for the Agency where she works, “We were led by people not interested in our mission or sustaining our program.”. That could very well be said by the people working under the BBG.
FreeMediaOnline.org has also been critical of the BBG for dismantling the Voice of America and favoring privatized U.S. broadcasting not designed or staffed to present American voices and explain American values to the world. These BBG policies have resulted in giving airtime on Alhurra Television to Holocaust deniers and allowing racist Russian politicians extensive access to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) airwaves. The BBG has also based much of RFE/RL’s reporting and administration in Russia, where locally-hired employees and contractors, who are Russian citizens, are subject to blackmail and other forms of intimidation from the Kremlin’s secret police and intelligence services.
- Senator Edward E. Kaufman, former top Democrat on the BBG, shared responsibility with other Democrats and Republicans for management decisions at the agency rated one of the worst in the Federal government.
The BBG executive director is Jeffrey Trimble, who was formerly acting president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Only five members currently serve on the bipartisan Board: Joaquin F. Blaya, Blanquita Walsh Cullum, D. Jeffrey Hirschberg, Steven J. Simmons, and Condoleezza Rice (ex officio).
One prominent former BBG member Edward E. Kaufman, recently appointed as a U.S. Senator from Delaware, (He had been Senator Biden’s chief of staff and replaces him in the Senate.) joined other Democrats and Republicans, including the BBG’s most recent Republican chairman James K. Glassman, who is now the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs,  in voting to end VOA radio programs to Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, and India — each time shortly before a major news emergency affecting these countries. Only one BBG member, syndicated radio host Blanquita Walsh Cullum, was reported to have opposed programming cuts to media-at-risk countries.Â
Some BBG employees have expressed hope to FreeMediaOnline.org that the new Obama Administration will undertake major reforms at the Agency. The Obama transition team has been credited with forcing the BBG to release contents of a highly critical independent study of Alhurra Television, conducted by the USC Annenberg School for Communication, which the BBG wanted to keep secret. The transition team was reviewing America’s international broadcasting services, including the Voice of America and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and advised the transition team working with the U.S. Department of State on public diplomacy issues.
- Ernest J. Wilson III
The international broadcasting services team was led by Ernest J. Wilson III, Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. BBG employees will have a chance to question him during a roundtable discussion which will take place January 22, 2009, 12:00 PM, at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Participants can register online on the USC Center on Public Diplomacy web site.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAccording to the “United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994”, BBG serves as the exclusive Board of Directors for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), its subordinate organization. BBG, farther, “shall make all major policy determinations governing the operations of RFE/RL”. Thus, BBG is in charge and responsible for RFE/RL’s personnel policies. An “Open Letter to Freedom of Press and Human Rights Organizations” titled “Actions of RFE/RL Betray Its Ideals. American Radio Discriminates Non-American Employees” by former RFE/RL editor Anna Karapetian was delivered on January 16th to some thirty addressees. Excerpts:
“At Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters the non-American employees, mainly broadcasters and editors, are as unprotected against arbitrary decisions and discrimination as their colleagues in the countries to which the Radio broadcasts… They are harassed and left without means of livelihood and work prospects by arbitrary separations from the Radio.”
“Signing in Prague a standardized Employment Agreement “governed by the applicable laws of the United States, the laws of the District of Columbia or the Policies of the Company”, the non-American journalists trustfully and proudly placed themselves under the protective hand of RFE/RL, a beacon of human rights.”
“The personnel ‘philosophy’ of RFE/RL, the so called “employment at-will” doctrine unknown outside U.S., permits the Radios, as is written in RFE/RL ‘Policy’, to fire its employees ‘at any time, for any reason or without reason’. In America itself, this doctrine that has its roots in the age of slavery, is nick-named the ‘employment-at-whim’.”
“Only after landing on the streets of Prague, RFE/RL non-American employees learn that from 1991 the foreigners working for an American employer abroad are expressly, specifically exempt from the protection provided to Americans by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and that Federal Civil Rights Act is not applicable to them. The 1977 District of Columbia Human Rights Act, being subordinate to U.S. federal legislation, also excludes them from protection… The management of RFE/RL perfectly knows that and intentionally gives the non-American employees agreements discriminating against them from the first day of employment.”
The question is: Who is going to support the RFE/RL journalists working in legal vacuum in Prague? Scandalous court cases caused by RFE/RL double standards are moving ever higher: now to the Czech Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. RFE/RL is accused of violations of its foreign employees’ labor, civil and human rights (national equality)… to the detriment of RFE/RL’s public mission and invaluable historical reputation.”
“ ‘We have as RFE/RL our intellectual and moral compass… We also need to lead by example…’, said President of RFE/RL in one of his frequent interviews. By speaking out, you might help him to be true to his words – for the sake of RFE/RL and trustworthiness of its multilingual voices.”
Just to fantasize, what would be the rate of positive/negative responses by RFE/RL employees to the question asked of their BBG colleagues: “How satisfied are you with the policies and practices of your senior leaders?” Or how many of them would volunteer to “recommend my organization as a good place of work”? Or will any RFE/RL employee to give a negative answer under his/her own name and be subjected to RFE/RL personnel “philosophy”?
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