by Ted Lipien in The Washington Examiner May 03, 2021 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where I served briefly as president and CEO until earlier this year, is under assault by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Through his agencies and obedient courts, he is blackmailing the media organization funded by U.S. taxpayers, issuing fines and threats of criminal prosecutions unless Radio Liberty agrees…
Photo of Vice U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush, and Polish Solidarity trade union leader Lech Wałęsa in Warsaw, Poland at the tomb of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko with the slain priest’s parents, Marianna and Władysław Popiełuszko and other family members, September 28, 1987. Photos and audio recordings from Warsaw by Ted Lipien, then Voice of America (VOA) Polish…
Photo of Vice U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush, and Polish Solidarity trade union leader Lech Wałęsa in Warsaw, Poland at the tomb of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko with the slain priest’s parents, Marianna and Władysław Popiełuszko and other family members, September 28, 1987. Photos and audio recordings from Warsaw by Ted Lipien, then Voice of America (VOA) Polish…
One of my commentaries on media censorship in Vladimir Putin’s Russia was first published in Digital Journal on September 16, 2009 as “Op-Ed: From Russia with Censorship.” Since then, both the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Liberty (known in Russia as Radio Svoboda) have improved their Russian coverage, but Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is now facing a defining…
Russian President Vladimir Putin is again increasing pressure on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), where I served briefly as president in December 2020-January 2021. I had worked also indirectly for RFE/RL from 1993 to 2003 in Munich Germany and at their current headquarters in Prague as International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB)-Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) regional Eurasia marketing director. Toward the…
Dear Friends: Some of you may have learned that I had a brief tenure as President of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Some of you may be also interested to know that just a few hours before the new Acting U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO, Ms. Kelu Chao, had an e-mail sent to me by an administrative…
“Jako były słuchacz programów sekcji polskiej Radia Wolna Europa w PRL-u uzyskałem dostęp do informacji, których reżimowa cenzura chciała nas pozbawić. RWE odmieniła bieg mojego życia i życia milionów ludzi. Dlatego czuję się zaszczycony, że powierzono mi zadanie kierowania tą legendarną instytucją w dalszym przełamywaniu cenzury i udzielaniu głosu niesłyszanym” – powiedział PAP Lipien.
“When I was a teenager in Communist Poland, I would listen to Radio Free Europe to find out what the government was not telling me,” said Mr. Lipien. “It had an enormous impact on my life, and on the lives of millions of others. I’m honored, and humbled, to be entrusted with helping this storied organization continue to break the hold of…
As I prepare to start my new job as President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/FL), an organization which contributed greatly to the peaceful fall of communism in East Central Europe and in the former Soviet Union and continues today to counter censorship, propaganda and disinformation with outstanding journalism, I’m re-reading books on U.S. international broadcasting history published…
By Ted Lipien I would like to thank Bill Coe for bringing Victor Suvorov’s book to my attention. Journalists reporting on Vladimir Putin’s latest attempt to re-write history with his propaganda and disinformation blaming the start of World War II on Poland–the first victim of the war and the first country to resist militarily Hitler’s Nazi Germany–should read The Chief…