Voice of America..Not made in USA

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

Hmmm, that's amazing.  VOA moves their night news operation from the USA to China, saving $300,000 a year, paying people in the PRC, and no VOA employee lost hours?  By all means let's hear those facts.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4603928

Eight jobs were eliminated and moved overseas.  OK, I see that the workers were reassigned and didn't lose their jobs.  I really not sure about their hours, though, or whether they got promoted to dumpster supervisors or bottle washers.  But for VOA to push the $300,000 savings and to expand with "expatriate" workers (what do they mean by that?) smacks of... what shall I call it?  Outsourcing.  And it seems... how shall I say?  Inappropriate.  They should call it the Voice of ... The Pacific Rim?

I can't believe I didn't catch this back in mid-April when it happened.  April first would have been appropriate for something like this.

Why not the moon? There's an American flag there.

Yes, but you'll have to admit that there is the important consideration of the high cost of housing and transportation.  I doubt that the $300,000 savings would be realized with VOA night news facilities on the moon.

At the same time I'd be interested to know how much the American workers got paid, what the prevailing payscale for thier old jobs is in the USA, and what the new workers in Hong Kong get paid, and what their benefits are.  And what exactly does VOA mean by "expatriate English-speakers?"  Expatriate from where?  US workers in Hong Kong?  Also I'd like to know what jobs the displaced workers are doing at VOA now, how their hours and payscale were affected, etc.  Did they lose overtime or night differential?  Etc.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

You are the one making the charge. Provide some facts to back it up. I already showed no one lost hours, no one lost a job. You claim eight jobs were eliminated Please show any evidence, you know, facts and such.

You act as though personnel working in Hong Kong are non-VOA/USG personnel per se. Yet you provide nothing to prove this. Show the facts of this claim.

You claim you are not sure about the VOA employees losing hours, yet in the previous paragraph you question my claim they did not. You appear to be contradicting yourself.

You seem to claim that moving jobs to Hong Kong is inappropriate, yet provide no logical reason.

You seem to claim that moving jobs to Hong Kong will somehow change, modify or otherwise dilute the 'message' (whatever that is) of VOA (your "you should call it the Voice of ... The Pacific Rim?" comment). Yet you provide no tangible evidence that your claim is true. Please show evidence foreign, or US citizens working overseas will not conform to VOA's Journalistic Code. I've already shown VOA, RFE, RL and others have employed foreigners, even in overseas locations. If this recent hiring is a problem, then it must have been a problem for a long time, April first not withstanding.

You ask about expatriate. I wondered about that too. I suppose they could be from anywhere, excepting Hong Kong. But a clue lies here.

"He [Iliff] suggested that a network of British, American and Australian expatriates in China would comprise a likely hiring pool, and he added the agency has already spoken to one of its regular freelance reporters who is interested in working for VOA in Hong Kong."

 -- http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/041305h1.htm


Anyway, I agree to disagree on this one. You call it outsourcing and I don't. Sorry if we bored others.

[Ed KB1HVS]

Maybe CRI will outsource to the U.S.

[WA3VJB]

And there is no crime in the Soviet Union.

The VOA staff move to communist-held Hong Kong may look benign, but there's a subtle loss of U.S. editorial control likely.

Freelance or local hires do not enjoy the same status as U.S. nationals assigned in a foreign bureau, in this case VOA Hong Kong.  One example is credentialling. The controlling government agency in Beijing can revoke more easily the operating permits that allow access for newsgathering.

W3JN may have a better take on this, but China could consider the issuance and ongoing status of such credentials an "internal matter" for ex-patriate, third-party English speakers, and not a "diplomatic matter" were the person a U.S. citizen on assignment.

This consequently exerts pressure on that journalist to avoid hard-hitting or controversial coverage of China affairs, lest they risk their credentials and ability to work in that socialist country.

------
An interesting story on the state of government-run news outlets in China.

Xinhua : the world's biggest propaganda agency
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/Report_Xinhua_Eng.pdf

On the eve of the 56th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, Reporters Without Borders releases a report of an investigation into the role of the news agency Xinhua News Agency in the system of propaganda and censorship put in place by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

With less than three years to go before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the worldwide press freedom organisation calls on the Chinese government to reform the state-run media.

Although it is more and more regularly cited as a credible source - nearly one third of the news reports on China selected by Google News originate from the agency - Xinhua, the head of which has the rank of minister, is the linchpin of control of the Chinese media.

Successor to the agency, Red China that was founded by Mao Zedong, Xinhua adopted its current name in January 1937. Since October 1949, this state-run news agency has been completely subordinate to the CCP.

The Reporters Without Borders' report includes accounts from several Xinhua journalists who agreed, on condition of anonymity, to explain how the control imposed by the CCP's Propaganda Department operates on a daily basis.

With the help of former French journalist on Xinhua, Reporters Without Borders exposes the distortion of facts, hatred for its enemies (particularly the United States and Japan) and its support, through the treatment of international news, for the world's worst regimes.

Despite a certain economic liberalisation of the media sector, Xinhua remains the voice of the sole party. Hand-picked journalists, who are regularly indoctrinated, produce reports for the Chinese media that give the official point of view and others - classified "internal reference" for the country's leaders.

After being criticised for its lack of transparency, particularly during the Sars epidemic, Xinhua has for last few months been putting out news reports embarrassing to the government, but they are designed to fool the international community, since they are not published in Chinese.

[Paul, K2ORC]

One final question, I wonder if any expat Russians worked at RFE or RL twenty-five years ago?

I suspect your question's rhetorical, Steve, but in fact such was the case.  We had a family friend in England who was an Eastern European refugee.   He worked as a presenter/commentator for one of the examples you mentioned that was beaming into Eastern Europe.  His language facilities and political orientation made him ideal for the job. 

Additional: The friend worked in the UK and did not -- could not -- perform news gathering chores in the countries to which his voice was directed.  His trips abroad were limited to destinations west of the Iron Curtain. In these places he maintained a network of expatriates and refugees with contacts further east who were carefully used sources.  It was the stuff of thrillers set during the Cold War in Europe in the 1960s  and I intentionally am keeping things vague. 

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

I missed where it was proven that there were no lost hours, and yes we disagree, I think it is insanity to have a core news operation of the VOA operating out of the PRC.  A regional bureau, OK, but the core of night news, with some editor in the States supervising?  Incredible.

On the other hand, it probably won't make much difference now.  It's just one more ironic bit of cognitive dissonance at this point, like US Flags made in China and Japan, US bank phone centers and help lines operating from India, and "Made in America" stitched on in Saipan.

[w3jn]

This is nothing new at all.  The VOA has used foreign nationals, many posted overseas, some working in the US, for years.  They've been used as on-air talent, editors, stringers, reporters, technicians/engineers, in fact every instance where US citizens have been used.  I worked with several Kenyan VOA employees when I was posted to Nairobi - one a ham, Gad, 5Z4GK(?)

What is the big deal here?

I tend to avoid contentious threads like this but I see VJB has asked a very good question.  I would say *generally* the VOA prefers to use US citizen reporters who *generally* have diplomatic immunity in the country in which they are stationed.  This diplomatic immunity does *not* extend to other countries; e.g. if a VOA reporter is stationed in China and enjoys immunity there, but then travels to Korea for a job, he does *not* have diplomatic immunity in Korea.  I can't answer whether this would affect a foreign national's work or not.

I would think (althouigh I am not sure) that credentialling reporters would be a reciprocal basis.  So if the Chinese gave us grief over credentialling US reporters, Xinhua might have problems with their reporters getting visas, WH press credentials, etc.

HK is **not** the same environment as mainland CHina.  HK still enjoys many freedoms non-existent on the mainland.  Freedom from internet censorship for example.

[WA1GFZ]

In china a buck is a buck and they don't want to mess up the flow of bucks from HK. It serves as a model to their commie government to watch and learn.
They seem to be interested in changing their commie ways to compete with the world without losing grip on the public.

[k4kyv]

What does "communist" mean when used to describe China?  They call themselves communist, but I would say they could be better described as a plain old dictatorship.  With their worldwide manufacturing and trade, they seem more capitalist than marxist these  days.  Remember, the regime in Germany under Hitler was called National Socialism. I would say that China abandoned the principles of Marxism after Mao died,  even before international communism imploded along with the Soviet Union.

A police-state dictatorship is just that.  What difference does it make if it calls itself communist, socialist, fascist or capitalist?

This same argument could be extended to the USA.  This country long ago abandoned the principles set forth by its founders under the constitution.  Look at all the wars we have been involved in the last 50 years, yet the last time we formally declared war was in 1941.  The final straw that broke the camel's  (or constitution's?) back was two  recent supreme court rulings: one for CT regarding seizure of private property to turn it over to another private entity in order to collect more taxes, and the other was the reaffirmation of a 1940 ruling, this time regarding medical marijuana, saying that growing an agricultural product (originally corn) for your own use on your own property is still interstate commerce because of what you are NOT buying (pot or corn) via interstate markets.

[Warren]

There is a famous VOA QSL card where they Reversed the negative!:
http://www.jazzkeyboard.com/jill/radio/shortwave.html
The picture shows the former World Trade Center on the right (East) side of Manhattan, when in fact it was on the left (West) side. The VOA must have reversed the negative when printing the picture.
I spent most of the first 35 years of my life in NY and watched the WTC being built.

I wonder if Hong Kong could do much worse than the guys here have.

73 Warren K2ORS/WD2XGJ
http://www.w4dex.com/wd2xgj.htm

[Warren]

There is a famous VOA QSL card where they Reversed the negative!:
http://www.jazzkeyboard.com/jill/radio/shortwave.html
The picture shows the former World Trade Center on the right (East) side of Manhattan, when in fact it was on the left (West) side.

   To see how Manhattan really looked check out:
http://www.skypic.com/newyork/5-5280.jpg

73 Warren