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National Review, a mainstream conservative magazine founded by author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955, has published online an interview with Voice of America Ukrainian Service television anchor Myroslava Gongadze. Her husband, journalist Georgiy Gongadze, was abducted and murdered in Ukraine in 2000.
Myroslava Gongadze is the host of a highly popular VOA Ukrainian television program which was started during the Orange Revolution in 2004.
JAY NORDLINGER/NATIONAL REVIEW: As a rule, VOA people are democratic, patriotic, and idealistic. They are not naïve, having seen too much to allow for that. But they are probably not cynical. They are engaged in the important work of transmitting genuine news to their native lands, in their native tongues. They serve both their adoptive country and their original one. Sure, they have gripes about their work, like everyone else. But they are conscious of doing something vital and good.
Myroslava Gongadze alluded to National Review on Voice of America’s difficulties as a U.S. government operation within the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) federal agency.
JAY NORDLINGER/NATIONAL REVIEW – MYROSLAVA GONGADZE/VOA: She continues, “We are doing this job because we believe both in America and in our native countries. We are passionate about building democracies in the countries that we left owing to different reasons, and we care about America very much, because this country gave us a chance for a new life. So we can help unite our native countries and the United States.” The VOA is “not perfect,” she says. “It’s still the government.” (I love that line.) “It’s bureaucratic, it’s difficult. We don’t have nearly enough support. But the job we do, despite all that, is fantastic.” I don’t doubt her.
READ MORE: Myroslava Gongadze and the importance of the VOA, By Jay Nordlinger, National Review, April 25, 2016, Issue
In 2012, National Review published an op-ed “Silenced by Washington,” written by BBG Watch cofounder Ted Lipien and former Radio Liberty Russian Service director Mario Corti. The op-ed was in response to the 2012 mass firing of Radio Liberty journalists in Russia. In his former Voice of America job, Ted Lipien helped to launch the VOA television program to Ukraine.
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