President Barack Obama recently named Los Angeles businessman Sim Farar as a member of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, reports Bizjournal. The commission is charged with appraising US government activities intended to understand, inform and influence foreign public...

Lord Patten is adamant that the best way to appreciate the BBC is to go abroad. The last governor of Hong Kong and former European Commissioner said his love of the World Service made protecting it a priority, describing it as “an institution to be proud of”.

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Monday her nation hungers for justice and progress and the international community must help lift its workers' grim conditions.Myanmar's pro-democracy icon...said her nation once seemed the most likely success story in Southeast Asia but "has fallen behind almost all the other nations in the region."

Voice of Russia is launching its broadcast in the United States, airing two daily shows from its brand new state-of-the-art studio in downtown Washington, steps away from the White House.“This is a very important step for our radio company,” - Voice of Russia’s head Andrey Bystritskiy says.

The Voice of Russia (VOR) Radio announces two U.S. stations: 1430 AM New York and 1390 AM Washington, D.C. marking the first time VOR will produce programming and broadcast directly from the United States rather than broadcasting news from the Moscow-based radio program.

Unless Congress steps in, there is a real danger that a strategic asset of great value to the United States and to freedom-loving listeners around the world will be wasted. The battle for hearts and minds did not end with the Cold War (which broadcasting can help win, by the way). Far from it.

The Obama administration is embarking on a fundamental overhaul of Voice of America and other official broadcasters — one that seeks to adapt their traditional diplomatic missions to the era of Facebook and Twitter...the need for the United States to get its message across to an often hostile world is greater than ever.

I’ve been tracking elements of China’s complicated and ambitious policy of expanding its information sphere to a possibly waiting world. In late May, I heard Dr. Hu Zhengrong, one of China’s most distinguished ambassadors to the international academic world, give a talk on this “going out” policy to the International Communications Association in Boston.