I had the pleasure and privilege to attend yesterday’s meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors as a member of the public. The session featured two fascinating presentations and discussions. First, Voice of America Director David Ensor gave an inspirational presentation on the mission, goals, accomplishments, and challenges facing the Voice of America.

Every two years China’s quest to boost the popularity of its brand is marked by a well- publicized media event: the Beijing Olympics 2008, EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, the Miss World contest 2012 in Ordos. Looking ahead, China plans to host the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and a global tourist summit in 2014.

For the past three decades, Brazilian “telenovelas” have helped Cubans forget their litany of woes for an hour a day. But today, dozens of South Korean soap operas are earning wide audiences. Following in the footsteps of South Korean films and K-pop, “doramas” — South Korean soaps dubbed into Spanish — first appeared on Cuban televisions earlier this year.

A Twitter conversation on Asian American feminism using the hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick quickly became a global discussion aimed at breaking silence around issues faced by Asian communities. Writer Suey Park launched the hashtag, which was used nearly 50,000 times in less than a day.

An oversight committee of the British Parliament sharply criticized top BBC executives and trustees, including the corporation’s former director general, Mark Thompson, now the president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, judging that their award of severance payments to departing managers appeared to be part of a culture of cronyism.

Rarely covered in the English-speaking press because of its past as a Portuguese colony, the behavior of the government in Angola is becoming increasingly troubling. Crony capitalism isn't rare on the African continent—or indeed anywhere else in the world—but Angola's iteration is particularly extreme. Following a civil war that ran on and off from the nation's independence from Portugal in 1975 all the way to 2002, Angola’s elite—overseen by 71-year old President José Eduardo dos Santos—has fed greedily at a trough of oil and gas.

People around the world see China as "confident", "belligerent" and "arrogant", state-run media says, in an unusually direct survey of attitudes towards the country. Only 13 per cent of respondents in the poll by the Global Times newspaper described China as "peaceful", a sign that Beijing's territorial spats with its Asian neighbours have taken a toll on its image.