Millions of Iranians hunger not only for news, but for democracy. For the U.S. government’s international broadcasting complex, Iran is a place where a good communication strategy is a necessity; Tragically, America’s principal instrument, Voice of America’s Persian News Network (PNN), has simply not been up to the task.

Under the Obama Administration’s proposed FY 13 budget, the potential damage to...the Voice of America would be unprecedented...Such hemorrhaging must be halted if the free flow of information from America to the world is to be secured...for the Voice’s 140 million weekly listeners in 43 languages around the globe.

What’s the future of international broadcasting? Tony Maddox, the executive vice president of news organisation CNN International, thinks that despite changes in the world media environment, there will always be a role for traditional broadcasting.

Australia’s international policy portfolio has been left hanging after Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s surprise resignation from his post – announced from Mexico in the aftermath of the G20 meeting. Rudd’s resignation, a deliberate retaliation strike against the current Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the ruling Australian Labor Party for the unceremonious leadership coup they pulled off against him some 24 months ago, while fascinating to the political observer, is potentially devastating for Australia’s international image projection.

Arirang TV, an English-language network based in Seoul, is revamping its news and entertainment programs, in hopes of promoting Korea and its culture to a wider international audience. “In Korea, K-culture, which goes beyond K-pop, accounts for a huge part of its nation branding. Our program revamp this time is focusing on those two trends, K-culture and nation branding.”

With the fall of Hungary’s Western-style, pluralistic democracy, the time is right for the United States to reinstate Radio Free Europe’s Hungarian-language broadcasts. Hungarian would then join 28 other languages in which RFE transmits its programs on radio stations in countries of the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, South Asia and the Balkans.

Deep cuts in broadcasting are projected... President Obama’s proposed budget comports badly with the aspiration stated in the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) 2012–2016 Strategic Plan to become the “world’s leading international news agency” by 2016.