People there are no longer what they used to be with an increasing number of North Koreans secretly tuning in to radio broadcasts late at night to listen to uncensored news from the outside world, according to North Korean defectors living in Seoul.

Move over Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Lay witness to yet another Arabic 24/7 television news channel to enter the high-stakes game of international broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).

After the United State’s invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 in response Al Qaeda’s attacks on September 11, leadership in Kabul switched over from the Taliban to an interim government whose head of state, Hamid Karzai, backed by the United States, remains president today of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The war has had a few successes and many failures.

Beyond the harsh rhetoric on who is to blame for 9/11, this appearance on BBC Persian has a few notable implications for U.S. public diplomacy apparatus in general and its policy towards Iran in particular.

In his exclusive interview with the BBC Persian Television, President Obama responded not only to the Iranian president's remarks at the UN General Assembly, but also to some of the concerns of Iranians and Afghans with regards to his administration's foreign policy. Beyond the harsh rhetoric on who is to blame for 9/11, this appearance on BBC Persian has a few notable implications for U.S. public diplomacy apparatus in general and its policy towards Iran in particular.

This week, Walter Isaacson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, gave some remarks (PDF, 41kb) at the celebration of sixty years of Radio Free Europe. Walter, with his long history in the media business and the author of biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Einstein.