BBG's Ashe meets women fighting discrimination at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The Czech Helsinki Committee described their treatment by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) as “immoral.” The Croatian Times newspaper reported:

“A statement from the Czech Helsinki Committee (CHC), a respected human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO), has slammed the employment policies of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), saying that there policies are immoral and that Croatian Snjezana Pelivan and other foreigners are discriminated against by the Prague based broadcaster.”

Sources told BBG Watch that Ms. Pelivan and another former RFE/RL employee, Armenian journalist Anna Karapetian wrote an email to Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member Ambassador Victor Ashe who has been an outspoken supporter of improving management-labor relations and employee morale at the broadcasting entities managed by the BBG. They include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. According to our sources, Ashe responded to the email and met with the two women in Prague, where he was attending a BBG board meeting.

The policy of treating foreign, non-Czech and non-American employees at RFE/RL headquarters in Prague as second class citizens by denying them some of the key protections of the Czech labor law is supported by the BBG’s International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executives. Ms. Pelivan is suing RFE/RL at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.