The new Broadcasting Board of Governors, announced on Friday by the Obama White House, have their work cut out for them.

Voice of America is finding itself in the news again, and not for reasons that should please the leadership of the institution. This time the spotlight has landed on VOA’s Persian News Network.

The seven scenes of the play will be broadcast by VOA’s Khmer Service on consecutive nights, beginning Sunday April 18 and re-broadcast on weekends in May. Breaking the Silence describes how cruel life was under the Khmer Rouge regime, the play encourages Cambodians affected by the regime to share stories about the past in an effort to heal.

The Voice of America ( VOA ) has launched special broadcasts to Sudan and created a content-rich website on elections more than a month before Sudanese are to vote in the country’s first free presidential contest since 1986.

Each time the Iranian Islamic dictatorship condemns the Voice of America by name for broadcasting news of anti-government demonstrations into that country, it can only mean more dollars for the VOA's Persian News Network — and VOA in general — at budget time on Capitol Hill.

Women in public diplomacy have long been confronted with a glass ceiling in Washington. It seems that their male counterparts in PD now see such a ceiling as well.