The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) does not often find itself in the headlines, but its budget request for fiscal year 2012 may change that. The reason: The BBG has proposed halting all of Voice of America’s Mandarin and Cantonese radio and TV broadcasts to China, and relying instead on an enhanced web-only platform using expanding new media technologies.
Not everyone believes this is the right move, or the right time to make such a move….
As a former Director of the Voice of America, I worry that this strategy will leave VOA too vulnerable to censorship or blocking.
To be fair, the BBG’s technology experts are among the best in the world at evading blocking efforts, and they’ve had to be, since the Chinese have thrown up roadblocks to VOA’s Mandarin language website since it went public in 1997. Unfortunately, the Chinese are just as good at coming up with new ways to block us.
(Source : Public Diplomacy Council)
No comments:
Post a Comment