RFE BROADCASTS MAY BE BACKFIRING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950078-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 78
• Publication Date: April 19, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950078-3
Al"..7 I CLE
ON
WASHINGTON POST
19 April 1985
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
RFE Broadcasts May Be Backfiring
Radio programs broadcast to Soviet-bloc
countries by two U.S. government-financed
stations in Munich often insult the people
they're trying to win and contain questionable '
criticism of the United States and its allies,
according to internal congressional reports.
The problems with the two stations?Radio Free
Europe and Radio Liberty?stem more from
mismanagement than malice, concluded one
congressional staff memo obtained by our associate
Indy Badhwar. But the memo notes that the s
problems are serious, involving the broadcasting of
"unacceptable material. . . characterized as
anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic or even anti-western:" ??
When the two stations were established by the
Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1950s as
an antidote to Radio Moscow, their shrill
anti-Soviet propaganda gave them little more
credibility than the Kremlin's broadcasts.
So Congress took the two stations away from the
CIA and created an independent Board for
International Broadcasting to fund and supervise
them. The board's guidelines recommend avoidapce
of "emotionalism, vindictiveness, belligerency,
condescension, propagandistic argumentation,
unsupported criticism of the communist system,
incitement to revolt, programs based on rumors,
sweeping generalizations and gratuitous value -
judgments."
Unfortunately, the programs prepared by
refugees and other East Europeans often reflect
their prejudices. Here are some examples: ,
. ? In one broadcast, a staff memo says, "there are
implications that the Russians as a people are re-
sponsible for the evils of communist rule." The same
broadcast also offended Poles when it stated: "It is
not only the communist regime, but also a part of
the Polish population, including the Polish Catholic
clergy, which are responsible for the unenviable fate
of the Ukrainian minority in Poland."
? Last January, .the State Department felt obliged
to issue a formal apology and dissociate itself from a
broadcast that compared Poland's military dictator.
Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, to Adolf Hitler.
? A program last year "rationalized" a series of
Cossack pogroms against Jews in the Ukraine in
1919-1920 by noting that many Jews had joined the
Bolshevik cause. -
a Another broadcast suggested that Poles and Jews
were responsible for the triumph of communism.
? One Radio Liberty broadcast gave a "positive de-
scription of the Nazi unit Galizien, which was re-
sponsible for allowing Ukrainians to murder thou-
sands of Jews in Lvov.
? An "anatomical obscenity" was used to describe a ?
Polish government official, and vulgar expressions
were so frequent that the American consulate 'com-
plained to RFE-RL management.
? Footnote: Board member Ben Wattentiergcon- :
ceded that there might be problems with some of .
the broadcasts but added, "What's at issue here is
10 or 15 broadcasts out of countless thousands in a
two-year period. On the whole I believe the quality
of our programs is getting better and we have more .
controls over these radios than many other journal-
istic organizations." .
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950078-3