Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is one of many NGOs and human rights groups which understand the practical and symbolic importance of Voice of America (VOA) radio and television broadcasts for victims of human rights abuses far better than the strategists and officials of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). This federal agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasts wants to silence VOA radio programs to Tibet and eliminate VOA Cantonese radio, television and Internet news to China. The BBG is also proposing severe program cuts to other countries without free media while at the same time expanding their bureaucracy and trying to limit Congressional oversight by weakening the Voice of America brand name and proposing a reorganization that would transfer U.S. international broadcasting resources from public domain and control to a small group of bureaucrats.
Annette Lantos, the wife of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, is the Chairman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. Click here for more information about Mrs. Lantos’ pro-human rights activities.
Reggie Littlejohn, the founder of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, serves on the Advisory Board for the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting, an independent, nongovernmental organization which supports free flow of uncensored news from the United States to countries without free media. WRWF is a non-partisan, international coalition to oppose forced abortion and human trafficking in China. Reggie Littlejoh is an internationally acclaimed expert on China’s One Child Policy. She has briefed the White House and testified twice before Congress and at the European and British Parliaments.
Annette Lantos Defends Voice of America Broadcasts to China
Annette Lantos, wife of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, has written a letter to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) defending Voice of America China broadcasts in Tibetan and Cantonese. The BBG put these broadcasts on the chopping block in its budget proposal earlier this year.
Herself a holocaust survivor, Mrs. Lantos recounted the way that VOA broadcasts “fanned the fires of resistance in the brave underground fighters who sought to destroy the brutal Nazi totalitarianism from within.” Her letter states:
“I well remember as a girl in Nazi-occupied Hungary, how every Sunday afternoon my family
would draw the shades, close the curtains, and gather around the shortwave radio, pressing our ears close so that we could catch each precious word of freedom and hope that poured out of that radio receiver like manna from heaven . . . The VOA and BBC broadcasts were our
one connection to freedom, our one connection to hope, and our lifeline that gave the resistance the courage to endure to the end. . . To cut off the VOA broadcasts would have been to cut off the very legs of the resistance.”
Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said, “I am deeply grateful to Mrs. Lantos for supporting Voice of America broadcasts into China, as she is a towering presence for human rights all over the globe, including millions who suffer at the hands of the brutal, totalitarian regime in China. With a wave of self-immolations in Tibet, now is not the time to cut off VOA broadcasting in Tibetan. The Cantonese broadcasts are essential as well.”
Littlejohn continued, “As Mrs. Lantos stated, ‘VOA has been the voice of freedom and democracy in China for 70 years. It is highly respected, even venerated, in China.’ Congressman Tom Lantos would not stand for any cuts to VOA. Mrs. Lantos is carrying on his powerful legacy. As Congressman Lantos warned: ‘We must remember that the veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians, and we can never rest.’”
Mrs. Lantos served as the Executive Director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, co-founded by Congressman Lantos, the only holocaust survivor ever to serve in the United States Congress. Mrs. Lantos now serves as the Chairman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. http://www.lantosfoundation.org/index.asp
Mrs. Lantos’ letter also urges restoring broadcasts to Russia. In addition, it commends the efforts of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), which works to ensure that U.S. government-funded broadcasts promote respect for human rights and freedom of the press, especially in nations where these basic freedoms are under attack. Littlejohn serves on the Advisory Board of the CUSIB.
Read Mrs. Lantos’ letter here:
http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/letter.pdf.pdf
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Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 min.) Link