Aiming to improve understanding

The image of the United States may have taken a beating, thanks to its international policies and pursuits, but James K. Glassman's mission has nothing to do with building a positive image for his country.

The recently elected chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors says his focus is to promote democracy and support development around the world.

According to Glassman, credibility is achieved through reportage of good and bad news in a fair and balanced manner — the professional reporting values he says he would try to inculcate among the broadcasters during his tenure as BBG chairman.

The BBG is a 65-year-old entity under which the Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks Incorporated operate.

Radio Sawa and Al Hurra TV form part of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks Incorporated.

Glassman said he was satisfied with the credibility that BBG's Arabic service had achieved in the region and that he was looking to further strengthen the presence of Radio Sawa and Al Hurra television.

Al Hurra would soon broadcast daily business reports from the financial markets in Dubai and present it to viewers along with reports from the New York Stock Exchange. “The programme will, in a way, link the two markets and inform viewers about business opportunities available in both countries,'' Glassman said.

Five years after the launch of Radio Sawa, and almost four years after the start of Al Hurra TV, the networks have a large audience among Arabic-speaking people.

“The Arabic-speaking audience for the broadcasts was about 2 million when we began. Today we have 35 million viewers. We have established a credibility that is really exceptional,'' Glassman said.

He, however, admits that when the operations began, there was a great deal of misunderstanding regarding the mission of the US broadcasting services.

“We are on air to promote freedom and democracy and to improve understanding through journalism and other programming that is objective, fair and professional. We do that through different media,'' he said.

“When we started in 1942, we were a short wave operation. Now we have short wave, medium wave (AM) and FM radio, and television. We are also on the internet, which means that it is a much more complex operation.''

This entire operation is overseen by the BBG, which comprises nine members appointed by the president of the United States. Four of them must be Republicans and four Democrats. One member is appointed to the board by the Secretary of State.

The board is then confirmed by the US Senate. The members of the board also hold other jobs. “It is not unusual in such appointments and gives the board the advantage of gaining a perspective from outside the government, which is important. We are civilians who bring our experience and knowledge to America's overseas broadcasts,'' Glassman said.

Al Hurra's broadcasts cater to three main audiences: the greater Arabic-speaking world, the Iraqis and the Arabic-speaking people in Europe. Radio Sawa follows a similar pattern.

“We have special programming for Cuba and then we have Voice of America, which broadcasts in 45 different languages throughout the world with special focus on Africa.

Forty per cent of Voice of America programming is for Africa. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty now broadcasts mainly to countries that were part of the former Soviet Union as well as to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Radio Free Asia broadcasts to nine countries in Asia.''

Unrestrained reach

In cases such as Radio Free Asia, he said, the service broadcasts even to countries that do not enjoy a free press. “In a way, we provide a free press in these places.

It has been very important, especially in recent years. [During the recent crisis] in Myanmar, for example, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and BBC were the only means for the people to find out what was going on in their country,'' Glassman said.

This is also true in Pakistan where, Glassman said, the networks continued to broadcast over two frequencies that were not banned under the emergency.

“We continue our broadcasts over medium wave and short wave to reach out to the people. The broadcasts are a vital source of information. Throughout our broadcast, we believe in professional journalism. This is not a propaganda operation,'' he said.

“We have been in international broadcasting for a long time. We understand that there are tactical considerations as far as distribution of information is concerned, but that is not what we do.

We do this for the long term and for the strategic part, so that as in Myanmar, where we have been broadcasting for 60 years, people trust us and listen to what we have to say,'' he added.

Stating that he was proud of what the Middle East Broadcasting Networks have done in the last four or five years, Glassman, who was on a visit to Dubai, added: “It is really only a beginning and that is the reason why I am here — to emphasise the good things we have done with Radio Sawa and Al Hurra.''

“I think it takes time to build credibility. There are trials and errors and there are mid-course corrections. I think Al Hurra has had growing pains because it was introduced to correct the image of the US in the Arab world.

I firmly believe that Al Hurra is now absolutely on the right track.'' When local people appear on Al Hurra, they understand that they are able to voice their views on this medium and that it is not the US government talking, Glassman said.

“Over time, the fact that it is a US-government funded organisation becomes less important to the viewers than the actual content. We are moving to that point. We are accepted now by the masses.

In the Arabic-speaking world, viewers are very sophisticated and they will compare news. They will watch Al Hurra, then they may watch Al Arabiya or Al Jazeera. We want this part of the conversation to happen,'' he said.

“To begin with, we had problems in getting Arab docents and promoters of democracy as guests on our programmes, but little by little we found people looking forward to presenting their views through Al Hurra TV.''

But suspicion remains and it will take some time for the networks to gain the credibility that could boost their service to levels equal to those of commercial channels.

“As we get more guests, take unpopular shows off the air and come up with new ones that work, we think we are moving in the right direction,'' he said.

“We pursue guests who don't have a voice on other channels and give them time on our programmes. I heard the story of a woman who was talking about issues related to freedom of women in the Arab world on Al Arabiya.

After just two minutes, she was taken off air because she was saying things that went against the station's editorial policies. So we are trying to find such people and give them an opportunity,'' he said.

Asserting that it was certainly not the job of Al Hurra or Sawa to defend the US policies in Iraq and elsewhere, Glassman said: “I have certain views about the policies, and other people on the board have theirs.

The views may be in favour or against the policies of the administration. For example, a member of the board was the chief of staff to Senator Joe Biden who is very critical of President George W. Bush's policies on Iraq.

The views of this member, or mine, however, do not play a role in the work we do. Our work is to help build a professional broadcasting network.

“One of the things that we know is that Al Hurra now has a larger audience than Al Jazeera does in Iraq. People are listening and watching and I think there is a fatigue occurring in the region as a result of the kind of broadcasting that Al Jazeera and other channels have been doing,'' he said.

“We are trying to do something different from the yelling and screaming against the US,'' he said.

“When the president gave his speech about Iraq a month ago, Al Hurra and Sawa broadcast that speech eliciting a strong response from the Democrats. To establish the kind of credibility we have today, we have shown that we also present the differences in opinion.''

“Al Jazeera focuses only on the negative side. We understand that policies in Iraq are not popular among the Arabs, but in some cases it is because they are presented through Al Jazeera's perspective.

Our job is to provide both sides. Let the viewers decide what they want to believe. People need all the information for them to arrive at an opinion. Listening to one side, you are not always going to have the right opinion,'' Glassman said.

It is really hard to understand what people think of what we do. It is difficult in the US as well. We have people in the Congress asking us why we were not aggressive in advocating American policies. In my view the answer is simple: That is not our job.''

Broadcast destination

Glassman was in Dubai because he found the city an important destination for Middle East broadcasters. “We have a large office and we expect to do more broadcasting from here for both Radio Sawa and Al Hurra.

We will be expanding Al Hurra from the region. It produces just two shows a week at present. We will build a studio and a satellite link facility here instead of sending the signal from Dubai to Washington for uplink.''

He said there were twin advantages in broadcasting from the region. “We know that when we broadcast from Washington, it has an effect on our credibility. We want to have more programmes here so as to get a feel of the audience's pulse. We want to be a pan-Arab station.''

In order to achieve that status, Glassman says the network “plans innovative programmes in which Dubai will play a very important role. Dubai is the media centre of the Middle East. If I did not understand that before I got here, I know it now. I can see it around.''