State Department defends journalistic interference with VOA

By Gene Mater
freedomforum.org

09.25.01

Printer-friendly page

The U.S. State Department yesterday defended a decision to ask the U.S.-funded Voice of America not to air an interview with Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.

"We didn't think it was right. We didn't think that the American taxpayer, the Voice of America, should be broadcasting the voice of the Taliban,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at his news briefing yesterday.

The story was first reported in The Washington Post yesterday and led to Boucher's being asked for the rationale that led the State Department to oppose the broadcast.

"We were informed that the Voice of America intended to accept an offer from Mullah Omar to be interviewed," Boucher said. "We indicated at that time we thought it wouldn't be appropriate for a number of reasons. One is that his commentaries have already appeared on other broadcasts. Unless he was going to accept the requirements of the United Nations, then there was no news or anything newsworthy in any interview like that."

(The U.N. resolutions require that Afghan-based Osama bin Laden be extradited in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. Bin Laden also is a prime suspect in the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11.)

"And carrying the interview would be confusing to the millions of listeners to what is essentially a U.S. government broadcast, paid for by the U.S. government," Boucher contended.

"So we — the State Department has a seat on the board — we talked to other board members, other Board of Broadcasting governors, about this and indicated that we felt as a matter of policy the board should not -- that Voice of America shouldn't be making these broadcasts, putting this man's voice on our radio.

"And we think, whether it was the Board of Governors or the Voice of America that ultimately made this decision, it was the right decision, and we think good sense prevailed."

The nine-member, bipartisan Broadcasting Board of Governors, created in 1994, oversees all U.S. government-supported civilian overseas broadcasting and includes one State Department member.

The Washington Post reported that Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage and senior National Security Council officials contacted members of the Board of Governors to express concern that airing the interview would amount to granting a platform to terrorists. The VOA board members in turn contacted VOA staff.

Joseph O'Connell, a VOA spokesman, said VOA never had any intention of using Omar's words as a stand-alone interview but as part of a larger piece on the Afghan reaction to President Bush's speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Sept. 20, the Associated Press reported.

In its story of the incident, the Post reported that "the decision not to air the story angered VOA staff."

In response to a briefing question about whether VOA has editorial independence, Boucher said that "we recognize the independence of the Voice of America. The Voice of America works for the Board of Broadcasting Governors, and we have a seat on the board. The VOA works according to its charter. Its charter says that they should explain U.S. government policy and present responsible discussion about it. We don't consider Mullah Omar to be responsible discussion."

Asked what would happen "if bin Laden himself called up VOA and said, 'Would you like to interview me?'," Boucher replied, "If he wanted to tell them something newsworthy about where he expected to turn himself in, it would be fine."

Boucher was then asked how he would know if it was newsworthy. "Well, generally, people might say that if they were calling up," he replied. "Otherwise we don't think it's up to the U.S. taxpayer to be broadcasting these voices back into Afghanistan."

And when asked whether "the journalists — the editorial wing of Voice of America — could not make decisions on their own as to what would be confusing to listeners or what would actually be considered news," Boucher said, "It's a policy decision above the Voice of America. It's a policy decision by the Board of Broadcasting Governors."

Update

VOA journalists win censorship battle with State Department
Broadcast of interview with Taliban leader airs after all.  09.26.01

Related

Voice of America works to circumvent China's Net defenses
Officials say they expect to hire CIA-funded Internet company to set up servers aimed at anonymously routing Chinese surfers to censored sites.  09.03.01