U. S. Run Arabic TV Network Flop

$350,000,000 Boondoogle- Do You Know About Smith-Mundt Act?

Al-Hurra — “The Free One” in Arabic — is the centerpiece of a U.S. government media campaign to spread democracy in 22 countries in the Middle East. U. S. Taxpayers have spent $350 million so far on the alternative to pan-Arab news stations like Qatar-based Al-Jazeera and Dubai-based Al-Arabia. Al-Hurra was launched in 2004 and Paul Cochrane Worldpress.org contributing editor questioned then whether it was a good idea or one destined to fail. A big issue was that its top editor did not speak Arabic. The project is the brain child of Norman Joel Pattiz then a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.

But now less than five years after its launch it is being called an abject flop; failing to attract significant viewers and suspect by many as an American propaganda tool and likened to the pro-communist Soviet-era Pravda (Truth).

According to an article in Monday’s Washington Post it is now impossible for Al-Hurra to broadcast live, and staffers have to use a studio controlled by the Egyptian secret police, who have warned guests not to say anything controversial on the air.

Cochrane’s report in 2004 was foreboding, “Can they expect the Arabs to watch them if they don’t show Palestinians being killed, and don’t portray Israelis as oppressors?” said Nabil Dajani, professor of communications at the American University of Beirut. “The U.S. has a lost cause here in the Middle East unless they change their policy on Palestine. I think Al-Hurra is doomed,” and it now turns out he was right.

The website for the Springfield, Virginia based Al-Hurra TV network was still up Monday morning with schedules posted through June 29^th. In 2007 Al-Hurra was accused by American lawmakers on broadcasting terrorist messages including airing a lengthy live broadcast of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, a live interview with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya and yet another with an al-Qaida operative.

Radio Sawa is an Arabic language radio station, also funded by the United States government. Neither Al-Hurra or Sawa can be broadcast in the U. S. The US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Public Law 402), popularly referred to as the Smith-Mundt Act, specifies the terms in which the United States government can engage in ‘public diplomacy‘, also known as propaganda. The act was passed by Congress and signed into law by president Harry S. Truman on January 27, 1948. Also covered under the Smith-Mundt Act are: Voice of America, a radio and TV network broadcasting worldwide, outside of the US; Radio Farda, a radio station targeted at Iran; Radio Free Asia, a radio network broadcasting in Asia; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a radio network based in Europe and the Middle East; Radio Martí and TV Martí, a radio and TV network broadcasting in Cuba Voice of America transcripts can not be released under Freedom of Information Act request because of the prohibition of distributing government sponsored information inside the United States