Last week, an amendment buried deep in the text of the National Defense Authorization Act disbanded the bipartisan Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), putting in its place an executive directly appointed by the president of the United States. The idea of handing control of the agency to Donald Trump has left some in the media reeling: Politico wrote this week, “Trump is finally getting his Trump TV—financed by taxpayers to the tune of $800 million per year.” 

Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has entered into an agreement with Tajikistan’s Committee on TV and Radio for cooperation in the field of broadcasting. According to official sources, the two sides can exchange programmes in the fields of cultural, archaeology, history, food, festivals, education, science, entertainment, sports, news as areas of mutual interest.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Information announced Thursday the launch of a campaign to support and aid Aleppo and Syrians in need. The ministry has launched a one-week plan on Wednesday to broadcast programs on aiding Aleppo on Kuwait TV, Assistant Undersecretary for Television Affairs Majeed Al-Jazzaf told KUNA. 

A major overhaul atop U.S. federal radio and television broadcasting entities could be on the way. An amendment to a defense spending bill that passed Congress would change the leadership of those broadcasts by placing the five broadcast networks under the control of a CEO with expanded powers who is appointed by the president and requires U.S. Senate confirmation.

Russian-sponsored rants about America get airtime in America, while U.S.-underwritten attempts to fairly and honestly inform Russians are massively curtailed. That’s not an uneven playing field; that’s our adversary owning the field and using America’s own liberality to attack U.S. policies and discredit Western values. The new administration needs to push back.