Radio Liberty

There are inebriated people everywhere. You cannot say they are drunk, insofar as they are not lying under a fence, but there are a lot of people under the influence."

There are inebriated people everywhere. You cannot say they are drunk, insofar as they are not lying under a fence, but there are a lot of people under the influence."

A fierce behind-the-scenes battle is going on in Washington over the State Department authorization bill that effectively merges Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty into the Voice of America. While that shortsighted move currently seems to enjoy majority support in Congress, it is not too late for reason to prevail.Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were born during the early days of the Cold War as "surrogate" stations broadcasting uncensored local news to Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union.

THE BOXY GRAY Russian van had the temperament of a mule, and now that we were on the very rim of Afghanistan, it refused to budge. Andrei Babitsky, who is famous for reasons other than his driving, was at the wheel, grinding gears in a fury. He wasn't trying to coax this van up the ramp and off the ferry and into Afghanistan -- he was trying to beat it into submission. The van, braying in protest, inched against its will up the ramp that lay on the mud that was Afghanistan. Then, it balked and bucked and slid triumphantly back down.

Once again the most successful international information-broadcasting programs ever run by the U.S. government are facing extinction. The Clinton administration is planning to phase out Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty this year.From their founding in 1949 and 1951, Radio Free Europe (which broadcasts to Eastern Europe) and Radio Liberty (which broadcasts to the Soviet Union) have had a precarious, controversial, gloriously successful existence -- and made some powerful enemies.The diplomats of the State Department have always found them a nuisance and an interference with the department's management of foreign policy.

Is it possible that Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are a kind of information-age ''cure for polio'' whose disease has now passed into history?Is it plausible that these two extraordinary Munich-based American radios, having helped decisively to destroy communism, should now themselves be destroyed, like some good guard dog that has done its faithful duty and is no longer necessary?That was the recommendation last week of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy -- and, of all the foolish post-Cold War suggestions being bandied about these days, this surely heads the growing list.

MOSCOW -- Supporters of two Central Asian journalists who have been arrested here launched a campaign yesterday to try to block their extradition to Turkmenistan.The two men are critics of the Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who has smashed his opposition at home, spread his portrait everywhere (even on coins and bills), and renamed himself "Turkmenbashi," or Father of All Turkmen.Like many dissidents fleeing oppression in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the two journalists, Murad Esenov and Khalmurad Soyunov, had come to Moscow to continue their work.

Jerusalem.--Mikhail Gorbachev is out of power. This should remind us that the most important development in recent history -- the rapid erosion of Soviet totalitarianism -- is only a process, not an event. Unlike an event, a process can be slowed, or stopped or (at least temporarily) reversed.The threat of a return of a new form of the old Soviet system is big-league stuff. Remember: These are the folks who, until very recently, owned six countries in Eastern Europe, rented dozens of others around the world, pushed for global communist revolution, deprived their citizens of elemental freedoms, financed international terrorism and, by the way, regularly reminded us that they had nuclear missiles pointed our way.Even a temporary reversion to such a situation is potentially cataclysmic.

The Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Marti and Asian Democracy Radio are not household names among American audiences. Yet U.S. taxpayers finance those huge global broadcasting operations which have become steadily more complex and expensive since their inauguration during World War II.Since the Soviet Union collapsed, it has been crystal clear the U.S. government's costly Cold War radio operation must be overhauled. But how? Each of those stations jealously protects its turf, organizing partisans to fight any streamlining.

MOSCOW -- Treating a Radio Liberty reporter in Chechnya as if he were a hostage, Russian authorities unexpectedly announced yesterday that they were ridding themselves of one of the country's most intrepid journalists by turning him over to Chechen rebels in a prisoner exchange. Andrei Babitsky, whose reporting had infuriated the leaders of Russia's military operation in Chechnya, had been held in detention since his arrest there two weeks ago, and he was supposed to be on his way to Moscow yesterday.

MOSCOW -- It has been nearly two weeks since Russian authorities announced that they had handed over a captive Radio Liberty reporter to Chechen rebels, and now, amid the international outcry and skepticism that have followed, they say they want him after all. The whereabouts of Andrei Babitsky, who was shown on a Federal Security Service videotape being delivered Feb. 4 into the custody of a masked man described as a Chechen fighter, are unknown....

MOSCOW -- Treating a Radio Liberty reporter in Chechnya as if he were a hostage, Russian authorities unexpectedly announced yesterday that they were ridding themselves of one of the country's most intrepid journalists by turning him over to Chechen rebels in a prisoner exchange. Andrei Babitsky, whose reporting had infuriated the leaders of Russia's military operation in Chechnya, had been held in detention since his arrest there two weeks ago, and he was supposed to be on his way to Moscow yesterday.

MOSCOW -- As Russian troops completed their encirclement of Chechnya's capital yesterday, new accounts from survivors bolstered charges that Russian soldiers had killed about 40 civilians Friday in an attack on a convoy of refugees.Russian military officials continued to deny the reports, which first appeared on the semiofficial Itar-Tass news service, calling them disinformation.Radio Liberty, the U.S. broadcast service, quoted witnesses who said the soldiers opened fire on the white-flagged convoy of seven automobiles and a bus Friday morning as the vehicles paused at a military checkpoint south of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

PRAGUE -- Four years ago, Czechs invited an old friend that had helped them through darker days to share their capital. Today, some here are wondering whether new plans by their guest won't lead to hard times ahead.Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was the friend -- the source of Western news and information for listeners in communist countries during the Cold War. What didn't occur to Czechs when they welcomed the stations to Prague was that among the new targets of the U.S.-sponsored broadcasts would be Iran and Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- It is late afternoon, but in the studios of Radio Free Asia, Jenny Choi is reading the 7 a.m. news -- to North Korea.Speaking softly in Korean, she and a co-anchor report on long-running Korean negotiations and a forthcoming visit by a U.S. envoy, and discuss the mysterious deaths of 71 cattle shipped to the famine-stricken nation. Every story is about North Korea."Today we have so much news," program director Jaehoon Ahn says.Never mind that the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang sometimes jams Radio Free Asia's twice-daily broadcasts.

MOSCOW -- Supporters of two Central Asian journalists who have been arrested here launched a campaign yesterday to try to block their extradition to Turkmenistan.The two men are critics of the Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who has smashed his opposition at home, spread his portrait everywhere (even on coins and bills), and renamed himself "Turkmenbashi," or Father of All Turkmen.Like many dissidents fleeing oppression in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the two journalists, Murad Esenov and Khalmurad Soyunov, had come to Moscow to continue their work.

Washington. -- Consider an idea whose time may be here: Radio Free China. It could play a key role in finishing up the great unfinished business of our time.Legislation has been introduced. Senate co-sponsors include, imagine this, liberal Joe Biden and conservative Jesse Helms. One commission is already studying the idea, a second is likely.The concept has been kicking around for decades. It involves ''surrogate radio.''America does two kinds of international radio broadcasting. Our national service, Voice of America, broadcasts globally in 44 languages.

A fierce behind-the-scenes battle is going on in Washington over the State Department authorization bill that effectively merges Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty into the Voice of America. While that shortsighted move currently seems to enjoy majority support in Congress, it is not too late for reason to prevail.Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were born during the early days of the Cold War as "surrogate" stations broadcasting uncensored local news to Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union.

The future of the Voice of America (VOA) and of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is still undecided. The public interest is to have a single effective, representative and affordable institution that speaks to foreign audiences on behalf of the American people.It appears that high-level horse-trading now has resulted in a plan to divvy up language services broadcasting to target audiences in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, some remaining alive with RFE/RL, others with the VOA.Congress has yet to decide on the proposal, but cutting up the baby is not a viable option.