USAGM CEO's Move To Cement Trump Appointee Control Of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty And Radio Free Asia Draws Protest From Senior Staffers

Dispute Over Autonomy

An unprecedented move by U.S. AGENCY FOR GLOBAL MEDIA CEO MICHAEL PACK to keep conservative political appointees running RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY and RADIO FREE ASIA for years beyond the tenure of the Presidential administration which put them there is being battled by over two dozen senior staffers at the stations, who sent a blistering letter to PACK, copied to Congressional and Senate leaders, protesting the move.

PACK, in a new grant agreement for the stations, has included language in the document that would keep the new appointees at RFE/RL and its Board in place for two years, deep into a BIDEN administration; the agreement is awaiting signature by new RFE/RL Pres./CEO TED LIPIEN, a PACK appointee to the RFE/RL presidency and a former VOICE OF AMERICA official who runs a blog critical of the VOA from a conservative viewpoint.

In the letter, sent WEDNESDAY (12/30), the RFE/RL Editorial Board and 21 Language Service Directors allege that PACK's actions "compromise the freedom from political influence that for seven decades has characterized RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY (RFE/RL) as an independent surrogate news organization for countries with no free press of their own." The grant agreement, the letter states, "will strip the organization of nearly all of its financial and operational authority," constitutes "an unprecedented departure from RFE/RL's tradition of working in a bipartisan manner with changing U.S. administrations," and is "precisely the kind of political power maneuver that RFE/RL regularly witnesses in places like RUSSIA, HUNGARY, BELARUS, and TAJIKISTAN. We never thought we'd see it from our own oversight agency."

The letter rips PACK for taking "deliberate steps to attack and weaken this organization, precisely at a time when the coronavirus pandemic and increasing aggressions in RFE/RL's target countries have left us at profound operational and security risk."

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