Article, “Helsinki Committee: Labor Practices of Radio Free Europe Are Immoral”, mentions BBG.
Dear BBG members,
English translation of the article, “Helsinki Committee: labor Practices of Radio Free Europe Are Immoral”, published last Friday, June 15, by the Czech national newspaper “Lidove noviny”, is attached. I am the author. Also attached, is the Statement by Czech Helsinki Committee “Employment of Foreigners at Radio Free Europe,” characterizing RFE/RL employment policies and actions as discriminative, deceptive, and immoral. The Statement was issued two days prior to the BBG’s arrival to Prague for its recent meeting at RFE/RL headquarters.
Czech Helsinki Committee is chaired by Anna Sabatova, UN Human Rights Prize laureate – as are Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, and such organizations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Together with late Vaclav Havel, she co-founded Charter 77. In 2001-2007 she was the deputy to ombudsman of the Czech Republic. Her name is under the Statement.
The Helsinki Committee Statement on RFE/RL was published, republished, and commented virtually worldwide: enter into your Internet search window, for instance, the titles “Czech Helsinki Committee criticizes RFE/RL over job contracts,” “ Czech Helsinki Committee: Croatian Snjezana Pelivan and other foreigners discriminated by U.S. Radio Free Europe in Prague,” “Czech Helsinki Committee decries immoral treatment of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Employees,” “Broadcasting Board of Governors told they use communist law to discriminate against foreign employees,” “Czech Helsinki Committee to American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague: Discrimination of the Radio’s foreign employees is “immoral,” “Czech Helsinki Committee Criticizes Employment Practices of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty”…
Just don’t search the sites of BBG and RFE/RL, there is not a word there – a ridiculous, especially in the age of World Wide Web, Soviet-style attempt to hide publicly available and accessible information. In the same absurd mode, RFE/RL strived to withhold from its very well informed staff the information that RFE/RL’s President Steven Korn was greeted March 15, on his arrival to Yerevan, by broadly circulated in Armenian mass media Anna Karapetian’s appeal, “Stripped of Rights Journalists Daily Herald about Human Rights on Liberty Airwaves. Open Letter to Those Who Will Receive President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Steven Korn in Yerevan.”
Internationally monitored and covered Karapetian’s and Pelivan’s lawsuits which triggered the Statement by Czech Helsinki Committee, make a mockery of American public diplomacy goals as reflected in RFE/RL’s and BBG’s officially proclaimed missions. RFE/RL: “To empower people in their struggle against violations of human rights,” “to promote democratic values and institutions,” “strengthen civil societies by projecting democratic values,” “provide a model for local media…” BBG: “To inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.” The reaction “around the world”? Short (!) List of relevant multilingual publications – not to be found on BBG and RFE/RL websites — follows.
By law, International Broadcasting Act of 1994, BBG serves as the exclusive Board of Directors for RFE/RL and “shall make all major policy determinations governing the operations of RFE/RL.” Then make them — in the interests of the United States and its reputation abroad:
a/ Stop the shameful for America’s image lawsuits in foreign courts by peaceful resolutions;
b/ Prevent similar lawsuits in the future by changing RFE/RL abhorrent employment policies.
Sincerely,
Lev Roitman
Ret. RFE/RL senior commentator (1974- 2005).
(The author is the husband of Snjezana Pelivan.)
Abbreviated list of international publications (in Czech, Serbo-Croatian, English, Russian, Armenian, etc.) condemning BBG- RFE/RL discriminative labor policies
“Stripped of Rights Journalists Herald about Human Rights on Liberty Airwaves,”
“At BBG and RFE/RL– Public Diplomacy is Public Scandal at Public Expense,”
“Snjezana Pelivan asks Croatian government to support her legal claim in Strasbourg,”
“’Prague winter’ for USA’s Radio Free Europe/Liberty,”
“A Spectre (ghost) Haunts ‘Free Europe’ ,”
“A Letter from Prague: Two Women Fighting to Uphold America’s Principles at America’s Radio,”
“Samizdat at Radio Free Europe/ Liberty describes discrimination against foreigners, women,”
“American Radio Free Europe violates equal rights of its foreign employees in Prague,”
“U.S.-Funded Radio Free Europe Invokes Communist Law to Violate the Will of Congress,”
“American RFE/RL Fights in Courts against Armenian Journalist. And Scores Against America,”
“From RFE/RL: Immorality as a Matter of Policy,”
“Czech Court Rules Against RFE/RL in Suit by Dismissed Armenian Employee,”
“In handcuffs of ‘Liberty’,”
“Czech Court to American Radio Free Europe: No Use for U.S. Laws in the Czech Republic. Hillary Clinton Will Not Be Asked to Testify,”
“Czech Court Rules RFE/RL Cannot Discriminate Against Its Own Foreign Journalists,”
“Radio Liberty Betrays Its Ideals,”
“Czech Supreme Court Rules Against Radio Free Europe. Karapetian’s Case Returned for New Consideration”,
“It’s the Morality, Stupid,”
“Radio Free Europe – Task for Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg,”
“Radio Free Europe – Guantanamo in Prague,”
“Armenian journalist appeals to Obama to Protect Rights of Foreign Journalists at U.S. Government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,”
“Equality With Precondition. Practice of Free Europe Contradicts Its Ideals,”
“U.S. Attorney General is Asked to Investigate Fraud at RFE/RL,”
“Doomsday of Radio Liberty. From Double Standards to Double Morals?”
“A Sense of Betrayal,”
“Czech Politician Accuses U.S. of Discrimination Against Foreign Journalists,”
“On Air in Legal Vacuum,”
“Czech MP Writes to U.S. Counterparts Over Work Conditions in RFE/RL,”
”New Administration Must Undo RFE/RL Anti-Diplomacy Abroad,”
“BBG, RFE/RL: Bring Public Diplomats Instead of Public Bureaucrats,”
“Don’t Feed Kremlin’s Public Diplomacy With U.S. Public Hypocrisy,”
“Public Disaster Instead of Public Diplomacy,”
“Cases of Karapetian and Pelivan as Morality Check for Obama Administration. Radio Free Europe to Face European Court of Human Rights,”
“Czech MP Questions Pelivan Case,”
“Czech Sovereignty Ends at RFE/RL,”
“At Radio Free Europe/Liberty, Bulk of Discriminated Employees is Muslims. Hillary Clinton Serves on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Board of Directors,”
“Free Europe With Its Own Laws in Colonial Czech Republic?”
“From Human Rights Show to Human Rights Court,”
“Prague Spring Leads to Strasbourg,”
”News Flashes From Radio Free/Radio Liberty. The Face of America Abroad,”
“Czech Senator Angry about Croat’s Lawsuit,”
“BBG-RFE: Lies Should Have Short Legs. But They Have Airwaves, Internet and Bureaucrats”…
“On Air in Legal Vacuum,”
“Czech MP Writes to U.S. Counterparts Over Work Conditions in RFE/RL,”
”New Administration Must Undo RFE/RL Anti-Diplomacy Abroad,”
“BBG, RFE/RL: Bring Public Diplomats Instead of Public Bureaucrats,”
“Don’t Feed Kremlin’s Public Diplomacy With U.S. Public Hypocrisy,”
“Public Disaster Instead of Public Diplomacy,”
“Cases of Karapetian and Pelivan as Morality Check for Obama Administration. Radio Free Europe to Face European Court of Human Rights,”
“Czech MP Questions Pelivan Case,”
“Czech Sovereignty Ends at RFE/RL,”
“At Radio Free Europe/Liberty, Bulk of Discriminated Employees is Muslims. Hillary Clinton Serves on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Board of Directors,”
“Free Europe With Its Own Laws in Colonial Czech Republic?”
“From Human Rights Show to Human Rights Court,”
“Prague Spring Leads to Strasbourg,”
”News Flashes From Radio Free/Radio Liberty. The Face of America Abroad,”
“Czech Senator Angry about Croat’s Lawsuit,”
“BBG-RFE: Lies Should Have Short Legs. But They Have Airwaves, Internet and Bureaucrats”…