Description of document: Monthly Reports to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Board from January 2012 through July 2015 Requested date: 16-June-2017 Released date: 25-August-2017 Posted date: 02-April-2018 Source of document: BBG FOIA Office Room 3349 330 Independence Ave. SW Washington, D.C. 20237 Fax: (202) 203-4585 The governmentattic.org web site (“the site”) is noncommercial and free to the public. The site and materials made available on the site, such as this file, are for reference only. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals have made every effort to make this information as complete and as accurate as possible, however, there may be mistakes and omissions, both typographical and in content. 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Broadcasting 330 Independence Ave.SW T 202.203.4550 Board of Cohen Building, Room 3349 F 202.203.4585 Governors Washington, DC 20237 Office of the General Counsel Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Office August 25, 2017 RE: Request Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act - FOIA #17-058 This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act .(FOIA) request dated June 16, 2017 to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which the Agency received on June 20, 2017. In your request, you sought a copy of the Monthly Reports to the BBG Board from January 2012 through July 2015. On June 30, 2017, our office notified you that your request had generated $227 .65 in chargeable fees. As that amount exceeded the amount you had initially agreed to pay, we offered you the opportunity to amend your request by narrowing its scope. · You responded to us via letter dated July 6, 2017, which the Agency received on July 11 , 2017, and stated you wanted to narrow your request to include only the reports from the IBB and VOA during the applicable time period. You also agreed to pay up to $50 in fees for your amended request. On August 9, 2017, our office notified you that your amended request generated $77.80 in chargeable fees. On August 21, 2017 we received your check payment in that amount, and the documents responsive to your amended request are provided on the enclosed CD-ROM. No information was redacted or withheld, and all documents responsive to your amended request have been provided to you. This concludes the Agency's response to your request and it is now closed. If you have any questions regarding your request, please contact me at 202-203-4550 or the Office of the General Counsel at the above address. You may also contact the Agency's FOIA Public Liaison at 202-203-4550 or the same address for additional assistance or to discuss any aspect of your request. Sincerely, ~~Andrew T. Krog FOIA and Privacy Act Officer DATE: March 14, 2014 MEMORANDUM FOR: Broadcasting Board of Governors FROM: Interim Management Team SUBJECT: IBB Summary Report for February 2014 FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY ISSUES • BBG FM transmitters in N’Djamena, Chad and Kigali, Rwanda were repaired and returned to operational status in February. In March, TSI expects to continue planning and site surveys for FM transmitters in Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the installation of a new transmitter in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The refueling ship offloaded 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel to power the BBG Sao Tome Transmitting Station in record time. Deliveries of this nature occur approximately every nine months. • The annual Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) audit will begin in March. • The Office of Strategy and Development (OSD) worked with RFE/RL, VOA, and other agency elements to respond quickly to the crisis in Ukraine. With OSD coordinating BBG- wide efforts in the region, the agency secured additional funding for Ukrainian, Russian, and Tatar-language programming from the U.S. Department of State and uncovered a number of potential new affiliate arrangements in Ukraine. • The Office of Performance Review (OPR) conducted two spot-checks of VOA and RFE/RL online (in English) coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. The review found that timeliness of our reporting was heavily dependent on time of day, and that the two broadcasters did not consistently share online content. • On March 19, OPR will host a discussion with VOA and RFE/RL to evaluate how greater cooperation among the two entities can improve BBG’s impact in this critical market. • In recognition of his team’s effort to launch a news app in 43 languages, South by Southwest conference organizers invited Will Sullivan, Director of Mobile in the Office of Digital and Design Innovation (ODDI), to discuss his team’s experiences in executing such an unprecedented feat among media organizations. • ODDI and TSI responded to “digital graffiti” on the site for VOA’s pronunciation guide, http://pronounce.voanews.com. The attack was unsophisticated and the offending source IP was successfully blocked from future attacks. ODDI staff addressed a vulnerable piece in the site’s code shortly after the incident. March 14, 2014 MEMORANDUM FOR: Broadcasting Board of Governors FROM: David Ensor, VOA Director SUBJECT: VOA’s Monthly Report for March KEY ISSUES/CHALLENGES • There is a new reason of concern for VOA about the safety of our people and the issue of press freedom in South Sudan. On March 13, VOA South Sudan Project bureau chief Andrew Green was picked up from the Juba office for questioning by national security officers of the South Sudan government. VOA Juba bureau staff immediately contacted VOA English to Africa Service Chief Sonya Laurence Green, who forwarded the information to the VOA Language Service management and to the South Sudan Project funding partners at the State Department. After being detained for about 5 ½ hours, Green was released, following a visit by a U.S. Embassy Consular officer to the national security services office. Green says that what appears to have aroused the concern of the South Sudan government is a section of the February 7 show, in which listeners expressed anger about the presence of Ugandan troops in South Sudan and blamed the South Sudan government and opposition leader Riek Machar for the country’s crisis. The situation in Juba is currently calm, but the situation is not calm elsewhere. In a note sent Friday morning, Andrew Green said another VOA reporter, Michael Atit, was detained yesterday by security forces in the city of Wau and questioned about a story he is working on. Atit was not harmed and has been released, but security officials told him that he cannot do any additional reporting in Wau unless he meets with them first to get permission on specific stories. VOA journalists in South Sudan have asked that their names not be used publicly when discussing these incidents. • There is also growing concern for the safety of journalists in Afghanistan, after a Western reporter was fatally shot in Kabul March 11. VOA’s Islamabad-based correspondent Sharon Behn, who will be in Kabul for the April elections, said the reporter was walking with his interpreter down a heavily guarded street when two men came up to him and shot him in the head. In another incident that same day, VOA Afghan stringer Farooq Faizi was briefly detained by the campaign staff in Herat of a leading presidential candidate. Faizi, who reports for Ashna TV and Karwan from Western Afghanistan, was visiting the campaign offices in Herat of presidential contender Zalmai Rassoul and talking with campaign workers when the office manager became upset and ordered his guards to lock Faizi up in a room. He was released about an hour later after local journalists intervened on his behalf. Rassoul’s campaign has issued a statement expressing regret for the incident and announcing that the office manager has been removed. • Meanwhile, the VOA Deewa reporter in the Waziristan region of Pakistan has been threatened by a Taliban group in that area. On Friday morning (March 14), Adnan Khan received a phone call from someone who identified himself as Azam Tariq, a member of Pakistani Taliban. The caller accused Adnan of working for “spy agencies” and warned him to stop reporting on the region or he should prepare to be tried by a Taliban court that would punish him for his reporting. Nafees Takar, the Deewa chief, has advised Adnan to stop reporting for a while and keep a low profile. • A stringer for VOA’s Azerbaijani Service was assaulted February 21 while covering a student demonstration in Baku. Tapdig Farhadoglu said the chief of the security force at Baku State University struck him and kicked him in an attempt to get him to stop recording video of security personnel attacking the demonstrators. About 500 students were protesting a new credit system they say is designed to get them to pay more money to the university. They were also angry at what they claimed was the widespread corruption of university officials. In spite of the attack, Farhadoglu managed to keep his video of the demonstration and filed it to the Azerbaijani Service, which broadcast it the same day the incident occurred.