Foreign Relations Authorization for Fiscal Year 2000-2001: Public Diplomcy Programs
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FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000-2001: PUBLIC DIPLOMCY PROGRAMS HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEEOF THE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MARCH 4, 1999 Serial No. 106-17 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 56-756CC WASHINGTON : 1999 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-058543-0 )44 -&8o COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania SAM GEJDENSON, Connecticut JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa ELTON GALLEGLY, California MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey DANA ROHRABACHER, California SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida PETER T. KING, New York PAT DANNER, Missouri STEVE CHABOT, Ohio EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama MARSHALL "MARK" SANFORD, South BRAD SHERMAN, California Carolina ROBERT WEXLER, Florida MATT SALMON, Arizona STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey AMO HOUGHTON, New York JIM DAVIS, Florida TOM CAMPBELL, California EARL POMEROY, North Dakota JOHN M. McHUGH, New York WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts KEVIN BRADY, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RICHARD BURR, North Carolina BARBARA LEE, California PAUL E. GILLMOR, Ohio JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York GEORGE P. RADANOVICH, California JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado RICHARD J. GARON, Chief of Staff KATHLEEN BERTELSEN MOAZED, Democratic Chief of Staff SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania CYNTHIA A. MCKINNEY, Georgia HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indianr, Samoa CASS BALLENGEF. North Carolina EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama PETER T. KING, New York BRAD SHERMAN, California MATT SALMON, Arizona WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York GROVER JOSEPH REES, Subcommittee Staff Director GEORGE COLVIN, Pearson Fellow for Ranking Member DOUGLAS C. ANDERSON, Counsel CATHERINE A. DuBois, Staff Associate CONTENTS WITNESSES Page The Honorable Tim Roemer, a Member of Congress from Indiana .................... 3 The Honorable Penn Kemble, Acting Director, U.S. Information Agency .......... 8 Mr. Edward E. Kaufman, Member, Broadcasting Board of Governors .............. 9 Mr. Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy ................ 10 APPENDIX Prepared statements: Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative- in Congress from New Jersey and Chairman, Subcommittee on International Operations and H um an R ights ....................................................................................... 27 Honorable Cynthia A. McKinney, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights ............................................ 30 Honorable Tim Roemer, Member of Congress from Indiana ........................ 32 H onorable Penn K em ble .................................................................................. 34 M r. Edw ard E. Kaufm an ................................................................................. 38 Mr. Carl Gershman ................................................... 44 Ms. Evelyn S. Lieberman, Director, Voice of America and Director, Inter- national Broadcasting Bureau .................................................................... 61 Mr. Richard Richter, President, Radio Free Asia .......................................... 66 Mr. Thomas A. Dine, President, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ............. 71 Mr. Harold Pachios, Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Pub- lic Diplomacy ............................................. 81 Additional material submitted for the record: February 25, 1999, Boston Globe article, submitted by Representative Tim R oem er ................................................................................................... 84 U.S. Information Agency, Insert on Tibet, East Timor, Burma Programs .. 94 (llI) FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2000-2001: PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PROGRAMS THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1999 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:10 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher Smith (chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. Mr. SMITH. [presiding] The Subcommittee will come to order. Good afternoon. This is the second in a series of hearings on legislation to author- ize the foreign relations agencies in the United States for Fiscal Years 2000 and 2001. Today, the Subcommittee will consider the functions collectively known as public diplomacy, the International Broadcasting Services Exchange Programs, and other information services now operated by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and the worldwide pro-democracy activities of the National Endowment for Democracy. Most Members of this Subcommittee, both Democrat and Repub- licans, have been strong supporters of public diplomacy. I fully ex- pect that this will continue. We are particularly concerned with preserving the integrity of the public diplomacy function after USIA merges with the State Department. But we will succeed in this effort only if we can show our col- leagues and the American people that public diplomacy programs continue to serve their original purpose-the transmission of Amer- ican values or, more accurately, the universal values embodied in the American experiment of freedom and democracy. Our International Broadcasting Services which, after September 30th of this year, will be funded through a separate and independ- ent broadcasting entity, will survive and prosper if and only if they continue to get the message of freedom to people whose government hate this message. It is an important fact of modern life that the need for freedom broadcasting is as great as ever not only in coun- tries with totalitarian regimes such as Cuba and Vietnam, Iran and Iraq, China and Tibet, North Korea and Burma, but also in the astounding 80 percent of the world's nations in which, according to Freedom House, the government still abridges freedom of the press. (1) I want to acknowledge the presence today of the heads of our International Broadcast Services. We're honored to have them here today. Evelyn Lieberman of the Voice of America (VOM), Tom Dine of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Richard Richter of Radio Free Asia, and Herminio San Roman. I know the Subcommittee will have questions for you, and your prepared statements will be made part of the record. But I want to begin by congratulating each of you and thanking you. I want to call attention in particular to the new services initi- ated during the last year, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Iraq and Persian Language Services as well as the Albanian Language Broadcast into Kosovo that will begin next Monday. VOA's new Macedonian Service and its worldwide Child Survival Broadcast and Radio Free Asia's new Vighur and Wu Services. I also want to call attention to the continuing struggle to over- come jamming of our freedom broadcasting by totalitarian regimes. The worst problems are the Hanoi's jamming of Radio Free Asia's Vietnam Service and the continued jamming by the Castro regime of TV Marti. These battles are frustrating, but they're not unwinnable. They're a test of American technology and creativity, of our re- sources and our willingness to use them in a worthy cause. Letting the bad guys win these battles at exactly the wrong time and would provide a fresh dose of despair for the long-suffering people of Cuba and to Vietnam. On international exchanges, we confront many of the same issues. Exchanges are worth the money the U.S. taxpayers spend on them only if they promote American values. In order to do this, we need to include more human rights advocates and fewer apparatchiks, more victims and fewer oppressors. We also need to act forcefully to minimize the number of participants in our tax- supported exchange programs who happen to be spies for totali- tarian regimes. This should go without saying. But as late as last year, a major USIA grantee brought in several officials of an institute that have been reliably reported to be a front for a Chinese military intel- ligence. I believe this needs to stop, and it needs to stop now. Although I'm not thrilled with the way the USIA has been imple- menting some of our exchange programs, I believe things could get even worse if we incorporate these programs into the State Depart- ment in the wrong way. I fought hard during the legislative consid- eration of the reorganization bill to preserve the integrity of public diplomacy functions. Unfortunately, there are some important re- spects in which the State Department's reorganization plan may erode that integrity. For instance, conducting educational and cultural exchanges is a very different kind of activity