BBG Watch Commentary
“Greenpeace’s actions were just to create a political scandal and draw more attention to Greenpeace. They probably need more money and to get new sponsors because their money is running out,” the U.S. taxpayer-funded Voice of America reported quoting a Russian politician without offering any retort from Greenpeace to this accusation. VOA also quoted a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain as saying that “boarding an offshore oil rig would be prosecuted in the United States,” without specifying that both the U.S. legal process and most likely only civil penalties against peaceful protesters in the U.S. would be far more lenient.
The Voice of America (VOA) English news website posted a news report which repeats concrete accusations from a Russian politician that some could consider as slanderous against Greenpeace, without offering any specific balancing response from the environmental NGO. The VOA report also appears to mislead international audiences into thinking that the U.S. legal system would treat peaceful protesters the same way as the Russian authorities are treating 30 Greenpeace activists jailed recently in Russia and awaiting trial.
The Voice of America report started out just fine by pointing out that “Facing international outcry over the jailing of 30 Greenpeace activists in the Russian Arctic, President Vladimir Putin sent a signal to prosecutors for leniency. ‘It is obvious they’re not pirates,’ he said Wednesday [October 23] at an Arctic conference in Salekhard. ‘However, formally, they tried to seize our platform,’” the VOA report quotes Putin.
The problem was the substance of the report: further claims by President Putin and a presumably slanderous accusation against Greenpeace made by another Russian politician. They were not specifically challenged or questioned in any way in the VOA report.
BBG Watch cannot be sure how the report was filed, how it was edited, or whether any relevant information might have been removed to make it shorter for posting on the VOA website — apparently a common practice among VOA web desk editors. We only know what has been posted online several days ago and apparently not edited, changed or appended after the posting. [The report is still on the VOA website and is re-posted below our commentary as we found it and copied it earlier today.]
In our opinion, posting of this report as it is was clearly at the very least a major failure by VOA editors in charge in charge of the content on the website. We note for the record that many VOA correspondents have complained in the past that their news reports were improperly changed or even distorted. We do not know what happened in this case, but this report remains on the VOA website.
“Salekhard is 500 kilometers southeast of the Pechora Sea, where Greenpeace activists tried last week to board Russia’s only offshore oil production platform in the Arctic,” online readers are told in the VOA report. “Last year, Greenpeace activists boarded the same rig and hoisted a protest banner,” the report adds. So far so good.
The next three paragraphs in the VOA report also do not raise any major journalistic objections except that there is no elaboration on the only short response from Greenpeace that the piracy charges were “absurd,” while President Putin and another Russian politician are quoted making their points quite clear in several sentences.
From VOA news report:
“Russian Border Police intervened, arresting 30 activists and towing their boat, the Arctic Sunrise, to Murmansk. On Tuesday, Russian prosecutors said they were investigating, charging many of the activists with piracy, charges that can bring up to 15 years in jail.
This news drew a protest petition signed by more than 40 international environmental groups, asking President Putin to release the boat and its crew – activists from 18 countries.
Greenpeace representatives did not attend the Arctic Dialogue conference Wednesday. Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo denounced the piracy charges as ‘absurd.’”
But while quoting President Putin and another Russian politician, the VOA report fails to explain why Greenpeace considers the piracy charges “absurd.” It also does not explain why Greenpeace also completely disagrees with “hooliganism” charges.
It is toward the end of this short VOA report, however, where journalistic standards, including those required by the Voice of America Charter, are seriously lacking.
The Voice of America is a public institution run by the U.S. government. The VOA Charter is public law in the United States. It requires VOA to provide international audiences with “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” news. The VOA Charter also says that “VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.” This is what American taxpayers are paying for.
From VOA news report:
“At the Arctic conference, President Putin warned of the dangers of this kind of activism.
‘They created circumstances that threatened health and lives,’ he told the Arctic conference. ‘Are such PR actions worth the possibility of such severe consequences?’
Agreement came from other Russians at the conference, largely government officials or political supporters.
‘Greenpeace’s actions were just to create a political scandal and draw more attention to Greenpeace,’ said Mikhail Slipenchuk, a Duma deputy from the ruling United Russia party. ‘They probably need more money and to get new sponsors because their money is running out.’
Lawson Brigham, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, said that boarding an offshore oil rig would be prosecuted in the United States.
‘It’s a very dangerous operation they’re trying to perform offshore – cold water, extreme environment – they are risking their lives,’ he said.”
The Voice of America English news website posted what many would say amounts to a slanderous comment against Greenpeace from a Russian politician without offering any specific response to his charge from Greenpeace. We do not know whether it’s true that Greenpeace is facing financial problems. VOA had an obligation to ask Greenpeace for a response.
The VOA report also mentions a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain (it’s not clear whether the captain is also a lawyer or a legal expert, but he probably is not) as reportedly saying that “boarding an offshore oil rig would be prosecuted in the United States.” It is not clear whether the captain had said anything else to clarify his statement, but if there were any clarifications or qualifications from the U.S. captain, they were not reported by VOA.
The comment from a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain is probably in a strict sense legally and technically correct. But without any further explanation, it is still highly misleading, especially for international audiences not very familiar with the U.S. legal system.
VOA editors should have known this and should have provided a proper balance in this story. They have not, as they have failed on many other occasions, including a recent VOA report on President Obama’s meeting at the White House with Pakistani girls’ rights advocate Malala Yousafzai that lacked both substance and balance. The VOA newsroom and the VOA web team were alerted to the White House meeting by a VOA correspondent and given all the information well ahead of time but failed to post a comprehensive and journalistically solid news story.
Protesters in the U.S. engaged in a similar peaceful activity would most likely face trespassing charges, but it is extremely unlikely that they would face 7 or 15 years in prison under U.S. laws that might be applicable in such cases. In the United States, it would most likely be a misdemeanor charge resulting in a civil fine. The accused would be entailed to bail and probably released from jail within 24 or 48 hours while awaiting trial. None of this happened in Russia.
There are also no anti-hooliganism laws in the United States, designed the same way as in the Soviet Union and in Russia, that could result in a 7 year prison sentence for staging a peaceful protest during which no one was hurt, no weapons were used by the protesters, no illegal drugs were used or found, and there was no major damage to property.
The anti-hooliganism law in the Soviet Union, as well as in Russia now, has been used often to punish dissidents and political protesters. None of this was explained in the VOA report.
During the Cold War, the Voice of America was well known for challenging Soviet propaganda of the similar but less subtle kind than the Russian government propaganda repeated in the report. These days, in many cases VOA does not even follow basic principles of good journalism and often does not even report on human rights-related news events, some of them dealing with Putin’s Russia, critics say.
The Voice of America is not only NOT consistently informing international audiences about America; it appears to mislead international audiences into believing that America is just like Putin’s Russia in how it treats peaceful protesters. This is how many of us, journalists and foreign policy experts, read this report.
If international audiences now believe that the U.S. legal system would deal just as harshly with Greenpeace protesters, they might also believe that it would treat imprisoned Russian Pussy Riot young women protesters the same way if they staged their protest in the United States. Pussy Riot members are serving long prison sentences charged under the Russian law with “aggravated hooliganism” for performing their “Mother of God Drive Putin Away” peaceful protest in Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral in February 2012. They might be charged in the United States for disturbing the peace and fined, but they would not be sent to prison.
The VOA report did nothing to clarify this issue, but instead confused and mislead VOA’s international audiences. The VOA website is also accessible in the United States and under the recently modified Smith-Mundt Act, U.S. domestic media outlets can more easily republish and re-use such VOA reports, especially broadcast-quality video and audio reports. U.S. taxpayers might very likely be also paying for misleading Americans with this kind of news reporting.
It may not have been the intention of the writer and the editors, but the VOA report also clearly uses the authority of a former U.S. military and U.S. government official to create a misleading impression that what the Russian authorities are doing to Greenpeace protesters is no different from what might have happened to them in the United States. The report ignores material facts. It repeats and promotes Putin’s propaganda, without any significant challenge — all at U.S. taxpayer’s expense.
This is simply wrong, especially since VOA is required by U.S. law to specialize in providing news for foreign audiences. VOA is 100% funded by U.S. taxpayers who pay for the high salaries and benefits of Voice of America executives and editors.
These days, international audiences cannot be sure what news they might find on VOA websites and how quickly they will be posted, if at all. Some senior VOA correspondents pointed out to BBG Watch that their comprehensive and balanced reports are often not posted promptly, edited down, or not posted at all.
The vast majority of hard working VOA journalists and exploited journalist-contractors are not at fault. The organization itself has been mismanaged by top executives to such a degree that the VOA news reporting process has collapsed. It was described by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as “dysfunctional” and “defunct” in terms of telling America’s story abroad. U.S. public diplomacy also suffers when VOA cannot do its journalistic job properly and effectively.
Due to widespread mismanagement, there seems now practically no editorial control over the content of the VOA English news website, VOA journalists and outside critics say. They accuse top managers, VOA Director David Ensor, his deputy Steve Redisch, as well as the agency’s top managers, soon to retire International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo, his deputy Jeff Trimble and a few other key executives, of ignoring these problems and contributing to the management meltdown within the U.S. international broadcasting agency, especially at the Voice of America.
The Voice of America has not reported in any detail that at least two of the jailed Greenpeace activists are American citizens, including the Greenpeace ship’s captain Peter Willcox. The other American is a son of famous former Soviet political prisoner, Pavel Litvinov, who recently published an op-ed in The Washington Post about the plight of his son and called for his immediate release. The Litvinov family has lived in the United States for many years. Dimitri Litvinov, an American citizen who is now in the Russian jail, was educated in American schools, but in recent years he has lived in Sweden with his Swedish wife and their children.
The VOA English news website did not report on the Washington Post op-ed, a recent lengthy article in The New York Times, or on CNN and FoxTV reports on the two imprisoned Americans. The VOA Russian website also had no reports on these two American prisoners in Russia. Unlike CNN and Fox, the Voice of America did not interview the wife of the American captain of the Greenpeace ship.
READ: Voice of America ignores plight of American Greenpeace activists jailed in Russia, BBG Watch, November 3, 2013.
The heavy focus of the VOA report on presenting official Russian positions on the Greenpeace incident without sufficient balance is disturbing. Even Russia’s state-supported media outlet Russia Today, while repeating some of the same official Russian claims, devotes much more attention than VOA to presenting the Greenpeace side of the story. On October 27, Russia Today reported that 5,000 protesters marched in Moscow in support of political prisoners, including Greenpeace activists. The VOA English news website had no separate report on this protest.
Russia Today, the Voice of Russia, BBC and other international media reported Saturday that Greenpeace prisoners will be moved from Murmansk to St. Petersburg. The VOA English website had no such report.
READ: ‘Arctic 30’ activists to be moved to St Pete – Greenpeace’s lawyer, Russia Today, November 1, 2013.
READ: Arctic Sunrise activists being moved from Murmansk to St. Petersburg – Greenpeace, Voice of Russia, November 1, 2013.
READ: Russia ‘moving Greenpeace detainees to St Petersburg’, BBC, November 1, 2013.
VOA should have reported on this, especially since at least two prisoners are American citizens.
Ironically, not only Russia Today, but also another Russian state international media outlet, the Voice of Russia, posted news reports that had much more balance in favor of Greenpeace than the VOA report in question.
Greenpeace activists: pirates or hooligans? by Anna Khrustalyova, Voice of Russia, October 25, 2013.
Neither Russia Today nor the Voice of Russia quoted the presumably slanderous comment against Greenpeace by a Russian Parliament member.
The VOA report on Greenpeace also does not challenge Putin’s claim that the protesters presented a serious danger to health and lives, as even the Voice of Russia report did.
The Voice of Russia quoted The lawyer of Greenpeace Russia, Anton Beneslavsky:
From Voice of Russia:
“The charge of piracy was absurd, but the charge of hooliganism is both absurd and ridiculous. What actually took place was a peaceful protest, and there is no article in the Russian Criminal Code that a peaceful protest would fall under. Those tried on hooliganism charges under Russian law normally get long prison terms, even though hooliganism is a less severe crime than piracy. Since the activists may get prison terms, their lawyers will try to deny that charge, too, all the way until they are set free.”
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_10_25/Greenpeace-activists-pirates-or-hooligans-4166/
Neither the Voice of Russia nor Russia Today focused on the U.S. angle of the news story and jailed American citizens. This is not their job. It is not BBC’s job. It is not Reuters’ job. It’s VOA’s job.
There is also something terribly wrong with U.S. international broadcasting when both Russia Today and the Voice of Russia can, at least on this occasion, offer a far more detailed and balanced reporting on the Russian role in the Greenpeace incident.
These outfits, of course, practice anti-Americanism on other news stories and especially in their commentaries, often provided by paid American and British commentators, but there is no reason why VOA should help them in this case by not challenging dubious claims by Russian officials and by providing incomplete and misleading information about America in its own reports.
Russia Today reported that “the activists didn’t try to take over any ship and certainly didn’t use force.” Russia Today also quoted Greenpeace Russia spokesman Aleksey Kiselev telling ITAR-TASS that “In the 42 years of its existence Greenpeace never used weapons. We are against the use of weapons.” Russia Today also reported that “the organization staged similar protests at rigs owned by Shell, Exon, BP and other oil companies, and none of them suspected Greenpeace of trying to take their property.”
A BBC report on Putin’s statement about Greenpeace, “Greenpeace activists broke law, says Putin,” BBC, October 25, 2013, was also far more detailed and balanced than the VOA report.
If VOA allows Greenpeace’s motives to be questioned by a pro-Putin Russian politician in a nearly slanderous manner, it should have also questioned in the same report President Putin’s political and economic motives behind the handling of the incident. BBC in its report did question Putin’s motives; VOA did not.
VOA Director Ensor said recently that “the state of VOA is strong and is getting stronger all the time.” Richard Lobo, the agency’s top manager, said that “today we are reaching and engaging audiences like never before.”
“A lot of people still think of us as being just on radio, when in fact we are multimedia, which includes television, and the web and especially social media and mobile platforms,” Ensor said. “As VOA Director, I oversee 45 languages services and I like to say we have 45 different marketing strategies,” Director Ensor said last week at a public panel in Washington, DC.
We wonder what kind of social media and marketing strategy Director Ensor had in mind when VOA news fails to report quickly, objectively and comprehensively on major news developments. The reports VOA posts often get less than 10 Facebook “Likes” on the VOA website while similar reports on Al Jazeera, BBC, and Russia Today websites get hundreds and thousands of “Likes.”
Some VOA managers have claimed that balance is achieved not through a single report but in many reports over a period of time. This argument is clearly a cop-out since there are no guarantees that international audiences will follow all VOA reports over many media platforms over a period of more than a month, as in this case.
It is much more likely that a clearly misleading statement or unchallenged slander will stick with an online reader or social media user who does not have enough specific information about America and American institutions. In addition, the badly managed VOA more and more relies these days on Reuters reports instead of providing original reporting. Reuters, a UK based news agency, does not specialize in explaining American institutions to international audiences. The VOA report in question, however, was originated by VOA.
It should be pointed out that IBB executives do not exercise direct, day-to-day control over VOA’s news content, but they have enormous direct and indirect control over resources and management practices and management culture within the U.S. international broadcasting agency — all of which affect how VOA news is produced and handled. The IBB bureaucracy has less control over U.S. government-funded surrogate media outlets, such as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which are doing a much better job of specialized local reporting than VOA does on reporting general international and U.S. news.
But as bad as things look at VOA and IBB, there may be hope on the horizon. Both VOA and IBB report to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a bipartisan oversight body now lead by a new dynamic chairman, Jeff Shell. He and the other board members, some of them newly-appointed, are planning major management changes, sources told BBG Watch. Let’s hope these reforms will happen soon.
###
VOA: Putin Signals Lighter Charges For Greenpeace Arctic Protests
September 25, 2013
MOSCOW — Facing international outcry over the jailing of 30 Greenpeace activists in the Russian Arctic, President Vladimir Putin sent a signal to prosecutors for leniency.
“It is obvious they’re not pirates,” he said Wednesday at an Arctic conference in Salekhard. “However, formally, they tried to seize our platform.”
Salekhard is 500 kilometers southeast of the Pechora Sea, where Greenpeace activists tried last week to board Russia’s only offshore oil production platform in the Arctic.
Russian Border Police intervened, arresting 30 activists and towing their boat, the Arctic Sunrise, to Murmansk. On Tuesday, Russian prosecutors said they were investigating, charging many of the activists with piracy, charges that can bring up to 15 years in jail.
This news drew a protest petition signed by more than 40 international environmental groups, asking President Putin to release the boat and its crew – activists from 18 countries.
Greenpeace representatives did not attend the Arctic Dialogue conference Wednesday. Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo denounced the piracy charges as “absurd.”
“We welcome President Putin’s recognition that our activists are clearly not pirates, and acted purely out of concern for the Arctic environment,” he said in a statement. “Our climbers attempted to attach themselves to the side of the platform to raise attention to the threat of Arctic oil drilling in this fragile environment, and the urgent need to deal with climate change.”
Last year, Greenpeace activists boarded the same rig and hoisted a protest banner.
At the Arctic conference, President Putin warned of the dangers of this kind of activism.“They created circumstances that threatened health and lives,” he told the Arctic conference. “Are such PR actions worth the possibility of such severe consequences?”
Agreement came from other Russians at the conference, largely government officials or political supporters.
“Greenpeace’s actions were just to create a political scandal and draw more attention to Greenpeace,” said Mikhail Slipenchuk, a Duma deputy from the ruling United Russia party. “They probably need more money and to get new sponsors because their money is running out.”
Lawson Brigham, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain, said that boarding an offshore oil rig would be prosecuted in the United States.
“It’s a very dangerous operation they’re trying to perform offshore – cold water, extreme environment – they are risking their lives,” he said.