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Gov't Broadcasting Agencies Shields Materials From American Public



Title: Gov't Broadcasting Agencies Shields Materials From American Public
Government Broadcasting Operation Shields Its Publications From The American Press and Public
By Michael Ravnitzky, Attorney at Law,
MikeRav@ix.netcom.com

U.S. Government broadcasting agencies refuse to permit public scrutiny of their publications.  These agencies, formerly known as the Voice of America, deny access to the American public to the very materials those organizations broadcast to the rest of the world.  Surprisingly, these agencies fight any attempts at access by the press under the Freedom of Information Act.

For the first time, this article describes the existence and identity of the government¹s pre-written obituaries for hundreds of newsworthy and controversial figures, and provides instructions on how to get a copy of these interesting documents.

THE PLAYERS

The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) is an agency of the U.S. government.  It was established by the International Broadcasting Act of 1994 to consolidate U.S. nonmilitary broadcast services. The IBB is responsible to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the Senate. The bureau was formerly funded under the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) until Congress passed the Foreign Affairs Agencies Consolidation Act of 1998, which abolished the USIA.
 
The largest portion of the IBB is the Voice of America (VOA), established in 1942. The VOA provides news, features, music, and U.S. government policy statements to an audience estimated at over 85 million people per week.  VOA broadcasts on short- and medium-wave radio in more than 50 languages, and operates television programming and Internet services.

Another division of the IBB is Worldnet Television and Film Service, a satellite broadcasting facility established in 1983. The IBB's Office of Cuba Broadcasting operates the controversial Radio Marti, which started broadcasting in 1985, and TV Marti, which telecast its first program in 1990.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors also oversees the operations of two private, nonprofit corporations that are funded by the U.S. Congress:  Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which each week sends 700 hours of radio programming in two dozen languages toward the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; and Radio Free Asia, which broadcasts in eight Asian languages.

WHY ISN¹T THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE?

Does the American press have access to any of this massive amount of broadcast material, to ascertain what the U.S. government is disseminating overseas?  It seems that the answer is no.  The Broadcasting Board of Governors refuses to disclose to the press and the public the contents of news and information it sends out to the rest of the world.  It does so under a little known clause in its statutory operating charter that prevents broadcast of Voice of America-type material in the United States.  Congress has indicated that the purpose of this clause is to keep the federal government from broadcasting propaganda to United States citizens.

Citing this clause, the Broadcasting Board of Governors simply declines to make its materials available.  Even when the Board receives a specific Freedom of Information Act request from the public or the press, it declines to provide documents on the grounds of the b-3 exemption, which is intended to protect records which are specifically prohibited from disclosure by a statute other than FOIA.  The Board cites the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (22 USC. 1461), which it claims prohibits the BBG from releasing within the United States information about the U.S., its people, and its policies when the information has been prepared for audiences abroad.  Thus far, the federal courts have upheld challenges to this policy, deferring to administrative discretion and inviting Congress to clarify the matter.
 
ARE THERE ANY EXCEPTIONS?

The BBG admits to two small loopholes.  First, overseas individuals and press can request documents from the Board and its components using the Freedom of Information Act.  The requester must be outside of the United States.  However, it is unclear whether an overseas arm of an American press organization would be granted records access in this manner.

The other loophole is that the law appears to provide that upon request such information shall be made available at the BBG offices in Washington, DC, but for examination only (i.e. copying is not permitted).

Another partial exception is the availability of certain programs placed on the agency website, at www.ibb.gov.  

THE PRE-WRITTEN OBITUARIES

Like some other news organizations, the Broadcasting Board of Governors maintains a file of pre-written obituaries of world notable figures.  These obituaries are compiled and maintained in both textual (transcript) and also in pre-recorded audio format.  (Obviously such details as the date and manner of death are omitted until required.)

The BBG has recently denied access to copies of many of these obituaries, citing the b-3 and b-6 (personal privacy) exemptions, but for some reason has released two of these obituaries (Boris Yeltsin and Fidel Castro) in response to a FOIA request.  The case number of that request was 00-1047F1, the request for which was submitted on April 4, 2000 and the response sent on May 2, 2000.  In an odd development of questionable legality, the Board is now refusing to release even these two obituaries to other requesters despite the statutory requirement that requires release to all requesters if a document has already been released to one requester.  The FOIA Counselors at the Justice Department¹s Office of Information and Privacy have no explanation for the Board¹s selective release to one requestor but not to other requesters, which they confirm is contrary to the FOIA laws.

Release of the Yeltsin and Castro obituaries demonstrates that release of these obituaries is free from any foreseeable harm.  More important, the disclosure of such factual information about the public life of a high-visibility figure as might appear in an obituary is not a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" of the type discussed in the b-6 FOIA exemption such as personnel and medical records.  Even if there were portions that the Government felt were unreleasable, it would still be required under the FOIA law to release "all segregable releasable portions", in other words, all parts that did not fall squarely under one of the exemptions.

The existence and contents of the obituaries of world figures identified below not only illustrates how an agency of the United States Government addresses controversial topics in domestic and foreign relations but also helps to explain to the public the operations of these taxpayer-funded government agencies.  Despite this clear value to the public, the Board refuses to release these records.  When asked about the status of these records last month, the FOIA Manager at the Board stated: "why don¹t you do your own research on these people in the encyclopedia?"  Nevertheless, the primary reason for press interest in these obituaries, which is to assess the government¹s stance on the life and accomplishments of these individuals, which sheds light on the operations of government, the primary reason for the Freedom of Information Act and of the existence of a free and independent press.

If you are interested in obtaining copies or audio tapes, or both, for the pre-written obituaries (sometimes referred to as "profiles" or "draft obituaries" cited below, you may send a letter, requesting a copy of, or access to the specific records described, to:  

The Broadcasting Board of Governors
Attn:  Ms. Lola Secora, Freedom of Information Act Manager
Office of Administration
Cohen Building, Room 3360
330 Independence Avenue S.W.
Washington, DC  20547  USA

Their phone number is 202-619-5499.

In the letter, you should identify if you are a private individual or a representative of the press, and you should include a statement that indicates that you are willing to pay, if necessary, reasonable costs associated with the request.  It is unlikely that there would actually be any fees assessed.  Each obituary transcript is several pages ­ the Yeltsin and Castro obituaries, for example, are about a dozen pages each.

You can also request a list of all of the pre-written obituaries, which includes additional information such as the date the pre-written obituary or profile was written, some description about the individual, and whether audio tape is available for that obituary.

Idi Amin
Kofi Annan
Corazon Aquino
Yasser Arafat
Kamuzu Banda
Bhutto
P.W. Botha
James Brady
George H. W. Bush
Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Fernando Cardoso
James Earl Carter
Fidel Castro
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert Dole
Louis Farrakhan
John Glenn
Grass - Germany
Alan Greenspan
Alec Guiness (now deceased)
Jesse Helms
Chaim Herzog
Ladybird Johnson
Ted Kennedy
King Michael of Romania
Ed Koch
Kumaratunga
John McCain
Eugene McCarthy
Ralph Nader
Nujoma
Obuchi
Cardinal O¹Connor (now deceased)
Colin Powell
Nancy Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Helmut Schmidt
John Paul Stevens
Suharto
Strom Thurmond
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Von Weizsaecker
Lech Walesa
Shah Mohammed Zahir

Jean Claude Duvalier
Fujimori
Sonia Gandhi
Mikhail Gorbachev
Hun Sen
Lee Iacocca
Henry Kissenger
Helmut Kohl
Nelson Mandela
Daniel Arap Moi
Robert Mugabe
Bravo Obando
Yuri Orlov
Daniel Ortega
Eden Pastora
Aristides Pereira
Pinochet
Pope John Paul
Prince Charles
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Rene
Edward Seaga
Sharif
Anatoly Shcharansky
Eduard Shevardnadze
Prince Sihanouk
Ndabaningi Sithole
Ian Smith
Aleksandr Solzehenitsyn
Sann Son ­ Thailand
Suharto
Helen Suzman
Kakuei Tanaka
Margaret Thatcher
Andimba toivo
Atal bihari vajpayee
Joao bernardo Viera
Kurt Waldheim
Caspar Weinberger
Byron Whizzer White
Boris Yeltsin

Assad
Yelena Bonner
William Brennan
Warren Burger ­ (deceased)
Anna Chennault
Valery giscard D¹Estaing
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia
Gerald Ford
General Vo Nguyen giap
Gonzalez
George Habash
Alexander M. Haig
Katharine Hepburn
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Kenneth Kaunda
George F. Kennan
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Klerk
Oskar LaFontaine
Kuan Yew Lee
Lorin Maazel
Mike Mansfield
Haile Mengistumengistu
Mihajlo Mihajlov
Hosni Mubarak
Yasuhiro Nakaxone
General Ne Win
Milton Obote
Van Dong Pham
Tinsulanonda Prem
Prince Bernhard
Queen Beatrix
Queen Juliana
Elizabeth Taylor
Cyrus Vance

Oliver Tambo
Velopillai Probhakaran
Hans Dietrich Gensher
Dos Santos
Janas Savimbi
Billy Graham
Vaclav Havel
King Juan Carlos
Kinel
Prince Philip of Britain
Queen Elizabeth
Donald Trump

UNITED STATES AND UNITED NATIONS

Madeleine Albright
Buzz Aldrin
Lamar Alexander
Mario andretti
Dick Armey
Neil Armstrong
Bruce Babbitt
James Baker
Marion Barry
Reginald Bartholomew
William Bennett
Lloyd Bentsen
Nicholas Brady
Carol Mosely Braunh
Stephen Breyer
Gro Brundtland
Patrick Buchanan
Micheld Camdssus
Dick Cheney
Warren Christopher
Henry Cisneros
Barber Conable
Alan Cranston
Mario Cuomo
Tom Dashle
Ron Dellums
David Dinkins
Bob Dole
Elizabeth Dole
Bob Dornan
Michael Dukakis
Rolf Ekeus
Michael Espy
Tom Foley
George Foreman
Mary Futrell
Robert Gates
Butros Ghali
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Al Gore
Marvelous Marvin Hagler
Tom Harkin
Jesse Helms
Richard Holbrooke
Susan Insley
Bo Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Franklyn Jenifer
Lynn Jennings
Earvin Magic Johnson
General Robert Johnston
Jackie Joyner Kersee
Jack Kemp
Senator Bob Kerrey
Toddy Kollek
Lyndon La Rouche
Anthony Lake
Richard Lamm
Mario Lemieux
Bob Livington
General Merrill McPeak
Kweisi Mfume
Sen. George Mitchell
Walter Mondale
Joe Montana
Honi Mubarak
Ralph Nader
Satish Nambiar
Peggy Noonan
Oliver North
Sen. Sam Nunn
Leon Panetta
H. Ross Perot
Giandomenico Picco
Thomas Pickering
Gen. Colin Powell
Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan
Dan Quayle
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman
Janet Reno
Bill Richardson
Robert Rubin
Nolan Ryan
Peter Sampas
Deion Sanders
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
Brent Scowcroft
John Shalikashvili
Richard Solomon
David Souter
Lyn St. James
Robert Strauss
John Sununu
Clarence Thomas
Helen Thomas, UPI reporter
Richard Thornburgh
Sen. Strom Thurmond
Nydia Valzquez
J.C. Watts
William Webster
Douglas Wilder
Pete Wilson
Jim Wright

AFRICA

Allan Boesak
Kabila
Moses Kiptaniu
Winnie Mandela
Thabo Mbeki
Jerry Rawlings
Mohammad Siad Barre
Charles Taylor

LATIN AMERICA

Sixto Duran Ballan
Itamar Franco
Carlos Menem
General Manuel Noriega
Daniel Ortega
Perez De Cuellar
Carlos Perez
Andres Rodriguez

MIDEAST ­ SOUTH ASIA

Him Ershad
Saddam Hussein
Ali Kafi
Teddy Kollek
Mestiri
Hosni Mubarak
Benjamin Netanyaho
Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan
Burhanuddin Rabbani
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman
Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah
Vajpayee
Ezer Weizman

EUROPE

Ramiz Alia
Pierre Beregovoy
Algirdas Brazauskas
Tansu Ciller
Vuk Draskovic
Fischer
Yegor Gaidar
Vaclav Havel
Ion Iliescue
Ryszard Kaczorowski
Alexander Korzhakov
Milan Kucan
Leonid Kuchma
Ashok Kumar
John Major
Robert Malval
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Milosevic
Putin
Rostropovich
Rugova
Rutskoy
Rudolf Scharping
Eduard Shevardnadze
George Soros
Margaret thatcher
Zhelyu Zhelev
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Gennady Zyuganov