An online competition is now open for what's being called the first-ever international showcase of short films about Islam and women. The films focus on women of all faiths and backgrounds who are living in Muslim-majority countries, as well as Muslim women living as minorities around the world.

Today China’s projection of “soft power” involves a $7 billion international radio and TV broadcasting campaign. In funding, languages reached, frequencies used, and hours on the air, it already outpaces the two other major international broadcasters: Voice of America (VOA) and the BBC World Service.

What is going on here? China, it turns out, wants to increase its soft power by having Xinhua compete with news organizations like CNN and the BBC and is hiring a large number of western journalists. In fact, the government is pouring money into this effort.

It was shot on a cheap camera by a man who goes by the pseudonym Kim Dong-cheol, a North Korean with a double life. In addition to his job as a driver for a company, Kim also works as a clandestine reporter for AsiaPress, a Japanese news agency that's taken advantage of the digital electronics revolution to get reports from inside North Korea.

Co-author: Andras Simonyi

Budapest, Hungary -- In the run-up to the NATO summit Nov. 19 in Lisbon, the transatlantic community must confront not just the burning issues it faces (from Afghanistan to Russia), but the way free nations can and should wield their power for global progress.

The Voice of Russia radio station is celebrating its birthday. 81 years ago today Moscow started broadcasting to other countries. All this time we have been telling people about life in Russia, giving them a vivid picture of everything that is happening in our country.

When officials from Radio Liberty invited me along for a press trip to Jalalabad to watch them distribute radios to the population, I jumped at the chance. After all the gloom and doom of previous weeks, I was desperate for a feel-good story...

The second item, reform of [Voice of America’s Persian News Network] PNN, underscores just how important U.S. international broadcasting continues to be in closed societies like Iran. According to [Amir Abbas] Fakhvarar, VOA’s Persian service is only one of two outside networks reaching Iranian audiences—the other being the BBC’s Persian service.