BBG Watch Commentary
Former Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member Ambassador Victor Ashe presented Radio Free Asia (RFA) staff with their Murrow, Gracie and New York Festival awards Friday at RFA headquarters in Washington, DC as he has done in the past. RFA President Libby Liu surprised him with an award for his exemplary service to Radio Free Asia and the audiences they serve.
RFA Chairman and BBG member Michael Meehan called in to say it was an honor to serve with Victor Ashe and to share his own remarks with the group.
“Victor truly cares about people and the work that you all do. It has been a pleasure to work side by side with you on the RFA Board,” Meehan said.
RFA President Libby Liu had these remarks:
“Today we’d like to honor the Honorable Victor Ashe for his exemplary service to Radio Free Asia and to the people we serve.
Victor was the very first Radio Free Asia Board of Directors Chairman and has served as our corporate leadership for the entirety of his tenure.
He has fought tirelessly and at great sacrifice to save RFA over and over again.
He is our steadfast champion inside the Beltway and all over the world.
He personally encouraged our field staff – on many occasions paying his own way.
He created the Employee Service Award program
He championed our 15th Anniversary.”
Libby Liu concluded with these remarks:
“Victor has always been there to do what was best for RFA.
He is a man of strength of integrity
He is a charming southern gentleman with a razor sharp intellect and a brilliant strategist
To me he is a mentor and a friend who I cannot bear to part with.
He will always be working for us and for people in closed societies everywhere.”
While serving on the BBG board, Victor Ashe was widely respected and admired by BBG journalists. He was, however, intensely disliked by some of the BBG’s top executives at the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), from whom he demanded better management and insisted on transparency and accountability.
Ashe received praise and awards for his BBG service from media freedom NGOs in the United States and Russia.