Sunday, September 21

keep me out of country in the word


An interesting article was posted this week on Slate on Radio Free Europe, which, yes, does exist outside of an R.E.M. song. "RFE/RL provides uncensored news and information in countries where a free press is either banned by the government or not fully established." An interesting, and seemingly more effective take on foriegn policy: imagine that, educating the public through broadcast media in a non-partisan way by their own journalists; as opposed to sending troops. It seems only natural in this age of information to bolster this type of foriegn presence, and let people make their own decisions. Unfortunately, the government funds used to support RFE/RL have dwindled considerably, from $230 million to $75 million. That money pays for transmitters, salaries, security, and anti-jamming technology, as well as programming and Internet content in 28 languages ($75 million is also the cost of four apache helicopters.) I get the feeling the McCain/Palin ticket won't be supporting that either...

No comments: