Rfe / rl: Stephen Korn's resignation Or Willing to Justify?

Not long ago, a radio message from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE / RL) appeared from Stephen Korn, head of RFE / RL, that he wanted to resign "for family reasons". As a member of BBG Victor Esch, "Stephen Korn's departure was necessary for the survival of Radio Liberty." He was not liked and most employees were afraid. " Earlier in the press there was information that Radio Liberty was violating human rights, even though it was being positioned as a human rights organization. The resignation of the head of Radio Liberty was confirmed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is the curator of all non-military international media sponsored by the US government.

The website of the US Foreign Affairs Council (BBG) previously reported that the organization is conducting a check on the Russian service of Radio Liberty in connection with the scandalous mass dismissal of employees. However, the Foreign Affairs Council has tried not to publicize the fact that the human rights organization The Czech Helsinki Committee has for a long time been trying to draw public attention to a serious problem. This is probably one of not many cases when one human rights organization sued another human rights organization for violating human rights. Widely publicized was the appeal to the court of the Czech Republic by former RFE / RL collaborators Snezhana Pelivan and Anna Karapetyan, who believe that their rights were violated. It turned out that employees of Radio Liberty, who are not citizens of the Czech Republic or the US, signed a contract saying that they are under US jurisdiction, since RFE / RL was established in America. However, as it turned out later, US labor law does not apply to non-citizens of the United States, although they work in an American company. It turns out that neither the Czech Republic nor the US can protect the rights of RFE / RL employees, as it is today in the case of Snezana Pelivan and Anna Karapetyan. Many times, for many years it was said about the discrimination of foreign workers RFE / RL, several times even held hearings in the Czech Parliament. Only thanks to the influential patrons of the organization all such accusations could be reduced to zero.

Some observers suggest that it is precisely the problems with human rights violations, which also include the recent reforms in the Moscow branch, that aroused the interest of the media, which led to a wide resonance in the society. This is not permissible for a legal organization. And for a divorce, it is possible and it was decided to resign the chapter RFE / RL. Today, the US government is trying to wash off the image of the human rights violator, being ardent defenders or, more accurately, positioning oneself as such. Therefore, it is not permissible for Radio Liberty, funded by the US government, to have a reputation that the US needs to get rid of.

Other observers and analysts suggest that the resignation is also associated with a deterioration in the reputation of the organization, but for other reasons. Reputation, according to observers, has deteriorated due to numerous publications of a custom nature on RFE / RL resources, as well as the use of unverified sources, which resulted in a number of publications describing events that do not have a place to be. Activists with a pronounced personal interest also often became involved in writing articles. All this was diluted by the comments of pseudo-specialists.

Today, Radio Liberty is actively covering all kinds of human rights violations, mainly in the post-Soviet space, often accusing the governments of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Russia of human rights violations. As one of the well-known human rights activists said: "Radio Liberty is one of the first human rights organizations to promote human rights and freedoms. However, few people know that the entire work of the organization is based on the violation of fundamental human rights. " RFE / RL, according to another human rights advocate, "has strong support from the US government, so all negative information is quickly suppressed, as are accusations against the organization."