APDS Blogger: Jerry Edling

Faith-based Engagement as a Tool for Public Diplomacy

Ramin Mehmanparast, Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry meet with Daniel Sergio Lopez emphasizing the ever increasing importance of public diplomacy in foreign policy, particularly the role of the audiovisual media in that respect.

When Lord Patten went before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee last month to lay out his credentials as the new chairman of the BBC Trust, he deliberately alighted on a key issue for programme makers and viewers: whether the BBC has become too risk-averse in its commissioning.

Public Diplomacy -- according to the US State Department, "engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences" -- was coined in the mid-1960s by Dean Edmund Gullion of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy as a term meant to be more acceptable than propaganda.

While some streamlining of U.S. international broadcasting will be necessitated by the House Republicans’ proposed 10 percent cut in the BBG’s current $745 million budget, economies should clearly not be found by the wholesale elimination of key services.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors has chosen David Ensor to be the new director of the Voice of America. The former journalist, currently working for the State Department, will join VOA in June, replacing Danforth Austin.

But what to give the man who has everything? How about a $223 million contract to broadcast Australia Network, the government's overseas television station that reaches more than 34 million households in 44 countries throughout Asia, the Pacific and the Indian subcontinent.