BBG Watch Media

Independent NGO, the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org), has an article in Radio World, in which CUSIB executive director Ann Noonan urges the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to promptly search for a replacement for former BBG CEO Andy Lack.

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CUSIB ARTICLE

CUSIB director urges prompt search for new CEO at U.S. broadcasting agency

 
APRIL 1, 2015
 
In Radio World article posted online on March 31, 2015, Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) director Ann Noonan urged the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) federal agency to promptly find a replacement for homer CEO Andy Lack who had resigned after a few weeks on the job to be in charge of NBC News.

Ann Noonan expressed disappointment over the departure of Andy Lack with whom she and other CUSIB members had met before he started his short tenure at the BBG and were impressed by his openness and abilities. Ann Noonan wrote that the BBG must move forward with the selection of a new CEO and stressed the need for management reforms at the Voice of America (VOA).

In her article, Ann Noonan also stressed the importance of radio and satellite television broadcasts to China which blocks Radio Free Asia (RFA), VOA and other Western news websites. She also described how CUSIB worked successfully with journalists, media freedom advocates and Congress to prevent BBG’s agency officials from ending direct VOA radio and satellite broadcasts to China.

ANN NOONAN: “While many people in China do, in fact, own cell phones and can go online, there are a good majority of poor people, especially in rural areas, who cannot afford cell phones and many people have no access to the Internet. They deserve the same access to information as any other person who deserves basic human rights. They can’t get them in China and in many other countries.
 
That’s where the BBG steps in and that’s the reason U.S. taxpayers are willing to pay for radio and television broadcasts, as well as the Internet and other new media if they are available and are not censored.”

READ MORE: The Only Right Direction Is Forward, By Ann Noonan, Radio World, March 31, 2015