4 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, November 1, 1983 The Michigan Doiy hanges threaten Radio Free I By Stephen Mills Five days after the Korean jetliner tragedy, the official and widely read Soviet Communist Party daily Pravda made the first mention of Western charges that the Soviets shot down the plane, and most diplomats agreed that this was to counter foreign radio reports on the dispute. This was not the first time that the Soviet and East European media have had to alter their planned content to respond to Western broad- casts beamed into these areas through shor- twave. This has been a constant accomplish- ment of Western stations such as the American sponsored Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the British Broad- casting Corporation (BBC), and the West Ger- man Deutsche Welle since their inception. Some say that the attractiveness of Western radio is simply that it broadcasts the truth, or least some concoction which approaches it far closer than its Eastern counterparts. THAT JOB is harder than it sounds. Witness Radio Free Europe and its sister station Radio Liberty, based in Munich, West Germany. In contrast to Voice of America, whose mission it is to present the U.S. government position on world issues which the U.S. feels the world should know about, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFE-RL) maintain a unique but obscure type of independence from the ad- ministration and broadcast news which specifically addresses issues in the respective countries. Thus, when a Czech listens to the Czech Service of RFE-RL, he receives infor- nation on events in Czechoslovakia and of con- tern to Czechs. This has been RFE-RL's success story-telling people what is going on in their own countries and the world around them, and doing so with an admired objective journalistic $tyle. The stations had recovered quickly from the exposure of their CIA ties in 1972 which they subsequently broke, and staff morale rose to an all time high when part of the building in Munich blew up by a saboteur's bomb in 1981. But since last year, when Congress enacted a bill which abolished the independent board which oversaw RFE-RL, Inc.,and replaced it with the President's Board for International Broadcasting (BIB), many feared that the stations would be forced to become mouth- pieces of the Reagan administration. WHEN THE president's board replaced the RFE-RL leadership within a year with conser- vative and hard-line anti-Communists, rumors started to circulate that the radio's credibility would be undermined and that the Reagan ap- pointees would accomplish what the "jam- mers" in the Eastern Block had been trying to do for years: reduce listenership. But months passed with no major policy changes-only rumors among the staff that the stations were to become more propagandistic. In June of this year, the last top man of the former administration resigned-supposedly after months of in-house fighting with the new management. "There is no longer a place for me here the way things are going," said RFE Director James Brown, a respected expert on East European affairs, told journalists.' The London Times responded to his resignation with regret and a warning. "If the more extreme voices in Washington get their way, it will be bad for the radio and bad for the West. . . They beleive that the basic job of RFE is to attack communism and support American policies. The result is that they will lose audiences by destroying the fragile credibility which the radio has built up." THE MOST SERIOUS threat to RFE-RL's in- dependence may not be the new conservative American leadership of the two stations. A not insignificant number of East European and Russian immigrants working at the station, some of whom collaborated with the Nazis during World War II and afterwards were of- fered jobs by the U.S. government to work at RFE-RL, would like to see the It 9~*fl* ~ 1P Europe Despite RFE-RL's problems, proof of their continued success is witnessed by the East's constant jamming of the broadcasts and ate tacks in the government-sponsored press against the stations. The most recent action was in Poland where a military court handed down a death sentence in absentia against the director of the Polish Service of RFE-RL, Zd- zislaw Naider. for spving and espionage. WHILE THE year-old administration adamantly' denies that the stations are influenced by the Reagan administration's strong anti-Com= munist policies, those who doubt this assertion may do best by scrutinizing all of the levels at the stations-from the American management to the Soviet and East European immigrant 4 editors and broadcasters. Threats to RFE- RL's credibility could come from any side. When Reagan spoke at the Voice of America's fortieth anniversary ceremonies a year ago, he recalled his own experiences as an Iowa broadcaster decades ago. As a sports an- nouncer, he was responsible for broadcasting major league baseball games from telegraphed reports-not eye-witness accoun- ts. "Now, if the game was rather dull," he ex- plained, "you could say, 'It's a hard-hit ball down towards second base. The shortstop is going over after the ball and makes a wild stab, picks it up, turns and gets him out just in time. " Reagan felt that he had simply "attractively packaged" the event. If members of the BIB or, more importantly, the editors at RFE-RL take on this attitude and attempt to package the news in whatever fashion they deem attractive, they may defeat their cause. East European and Soviet listeners to Western radio get enough of that from their own media. Mills worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich from July, 1982 through August,: 1983. He is a doctoral student in the Depar- tment of Communication. stations promote uprisings, revolu- tions, and resistance to the governments in the East. Currently, the RFE-RL policy guidelines restrain broadcasters from encouraging defec- tions, inciting listeners to violent action, using material based on rumor or hearsay-to name a few. "These are rules fit for a nunnery," com- mented one programmer who wished to remain anonymous. Recent restructuring by George Bailey, the new head of Radio Liberty, may make it possible for such voices to get on the air-without anyone in management knowing about it. Bailey decided to abolish the American practice of editing the copy of material produced by the various non-Russian language services such as Ukranian and Georgian. Editors in these sections, who are among the most virulent anti-Communists in the radio, now have total authority over their own broadcasting material. The stations themselves, filled with immigrants from all over Eastern Europe and the Soviety Union, are a microcosm of a wide spectrum of first and second world culture and political thought, and the weakening of a checks and balances system will serve only to leave extreme voices in the stations unguarded. THE STATIONS have already experienced a couple Waterloos when bloopers slipped on to the air because of a lack of checking. Back in 1981, an investigation by the BIB found that several Radio Liberty broadcasts had been "anti-democratic, anti-Western, anti- Catholic" and, in some cases, echoed the Soviet line on territorial issues. One program contained the statement that the 1939 Soviet in- vasion of Poland "extended Russia's borders to their; natural limits." Another spoke of "fanatical Catholics" and critized Pope John Paul II for his support of the clergy in the Ukraine. ,., Stewart Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan MMMMWT771171 \T T I MI "On4k, Vol. XCIV-No. 48 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, M 48109 I WENT OUT LAST NIGHT~ AS A QS, MARINE IN LEBANOH AND ALL I GO0T WAS PENNIE$AS REALLY? I WENT OUT AS AN AMERIAN RANGER IN GRENADA AND I GOT GREAT STUFFP~ 4 ) Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board prc se ar ce sal oti Un ne Thi Un tia ar sit no Un lag sti wit ha fev of the Wi ce ce pl giv thr Un Faculty priorities skewed HE UNIVERSITY'S faculty is over- dollars from academic and service stating its case in a push to make programs and given it to the faculty. ofessors' salaries the University's Faculty salaries have been the highest cond highest budget priority. priority in the University's five-year The faculty's top salary committee, budget reallocation plan. med with reports showing a 7 per- The University has done nothing of nt discrepency between their the sort for students. The biggest break laries and those of professors at students have received was this year's her universities, recently told the 9.5 percent tuition increase, which is iversity regents that they should be well above the inflation rate. And if the ar the top of the budget priority list. state had not boosted aid payments eir aim is to be second in line for this year, students would not even have iiversity money, just behind essen- received that farcical reprieve. l costs like heat and lighting. Ignored by the University, this While competitive faculty salaries problem has started to drain the e essential for retaining the Univer- University's student diversity. The ef- y's quality, skyrocketing tuition bills fects are not yet startling, but are w pose a more serious threat to the definitely visable: Students at the iiversity. University have become slightly Although faculty salaries have wealthier, and slightly more suburban gged behind those of other in- over the last few years. tutions, they have at least kept up There is little evidence that t inflation. The facultyeas a whole professors are starting to leave the s not lost buying power in the last University for higher paying jobs. In w years. But the same cannot be said fact, Billy Frye, the vice president for students who have seen tuition top academic affairs and provost, recently e inflation rate by leaps and bounds. said the University was very suc- ith inflation hovering at about 5 per- cessful last year in recruiting nt a year, tuition has jumped 82 per- professors from other schools. nt since 1980. Faculty salaries should be a high The University has almost com- priority, but they have to be balanced etey ignored tuition problems, while against the cost of draining students to ving faculty consistant pay raises pay them. That cost is the damaging rough special University efforts. diversity of the student community. i It. Vr ., _. } d ..i- -- II, c --r ._....f qmmwmmmmmml 4 - 1 ~ . ~I ' r r -- ... _ . _./ --. ..._ .. ". &3 QT>tE MK.FiCyAN .DR+ Y 4 'LETTERS TO THE DAILY- Nuclear war and Ann Arbor bars In 'oth of the last two years the riversity has cut several million And that diversity is part of University faculty is. just as quality much a as the To the Daily: Many may have noticed, while walking past the corner of South University and Church, the scaled-down version of an F-111 fighter jet sitting in front of Charley's/The Count of An- tipasto. One hopes it has nuclear capability. This sight will certainly draw howls of, outrage from knee-jerk liberals, who will undoubtedly and naively insist that a build-up of nuclear weapons is a spiralling game where the only loser can be humankind. We, on the other hand, recognize and applaud this show of force for the brilliant strategic move that it is. Who would have guessed that the beer and drink prices charged by these bars, roundly criticized as only rapacious capitalist greed, have in fact merely reflected the true costs of maintaining a com- petitive edge in the volatile bar market of Ann Arbor? Little did acting like children about it. Af- ter all, prices have been unifor- mly high in Ann Arbor for years, in retail stores as well as bars; it would be fatuous to think that arms have not been stockpiled all over town-from Border's to Village Corner to the Blind Pig. The technology will not-disappear and it's a hard reality that every merchant. in this city, no matter how peace-loving, will have to be BLOOM COUNTY prepared to defend against less scrupulous entrepreneurs ready to take advantage of any chink in a competitor's nuclear armor. Which is why we have to join with Charley's in rejecting *as premature the cries for a so- called "mutually verifiable" nuclear freeze in Ann Arbor. How could we trust any shop or bar that refuses to follow the open-handed gesture of Charley's, that refuses, in other words, to slap its firepower out on the sidewalk for everyone to see? We realize these are tough positions to take.ABut these are tough times and Ann Arbor, ob- viously, is now a very tough town. -Jim Lammers Bob Southard October 25 by Berke Breathed A1 t tt { t ;' i f 1i'T 00- WY& .eA7H YW TRK6... eVMRY MO/E YOU MAKE... Il BE WWJfN&YOU. / Y i p .As wAH ~, Ly FW YU MAK... l p 3 O -3!I NoteA!ja ~ Ck\CJ I. A1NPTHf BOYS-'THANK fl)V PLW! WOX/LP uKE GROUIEPL MLI A WORJP WITH WR(.CLWV / )VV.1U 1( 4 .,~ I