If anyone has read the Daniel Pipes piece, here's our response. Thanks! The Voice of America (VOA) regularly provides guidance to our journalists on style and usage to enable writers to communicate with audiences clearly, precisely and consistently. It was in this context that Jennifer Janin wrote to the Urdu Service, reinforcing guidelines in the VOA News Stylebook, which is updated regularly. What Mr. Pipes' readers may not know is that VOA is governed by the VOA Charter, which became a law in July 12, 1976 was reiterated in the more recent U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994. It mandates the U.S. international broadcaster “will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.”
VOA reaches an estimated 134 million people around the world in 45 languages by radio, television and Internet. A major reason for our success is our credibility, which reflects our vigorous adherence to the Charter and VOA’s Journalistic
Code, calling for reliable and unbiased reporting.
Finally, Mr. Pipes' comments about Spozhmai Maiwandi are unacceptable.
Ms. Maiwandi, director of VOA's Southeast Asia Division, is a professional journalist, a loyal American citizen and a longtime, valued employee of the Voice of America.
Joan Mower
Director, public relations
MASH response to Ms. Mower's statement posted on MASH Blog:
ReplyDelete"VOA’s Journalistic Code, calling for reliable and unbiased reporting."
Is your "Journalistic Code" based on not calling a spade a spade? Isn't calling Islamic terrorist just a terrorist ruins credibility and shows utter lack of integrity?
"Mr. Pipes' comments about Spozhmai Maiwandi are unacceptable."
Which ones? The one about him "filing pro-Taliban reports" or the one about him "conducting an interview sympathetic to Mullah Omar"? Aren't journalists supposed to uncover ugly truth, not hide it? Or are you implying that Dr. Pipes' statements are factually incorrect? We're happy to present all reasonable points of view, but statements like "Mr. Pipes' comments about Spozhmai Maiwandi are unacceptable" because he is "a loyal American citizen" (which happened to be an opinion contradicted by aforementioned facts) just don't cut it.
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