The Voice of Mirza Xazar

Tue 13 April 2010 | 07:22 GMT

News.Az

By Alsou Taheri

Hillary Clinton Serves on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Board of Directors.

(PRAGUE) To gala reception in Prague Castle that on April 8th crowned the ceremony of signing the new Russian-American strategic arms reduction treaty by presidents Medvedev and Obama, Czech senator Jaromir Stetina was not invited. Maybe the Russians did not want to see there a well-known politician who permanently protests the trampling of human rights in Chechnya. However, quite a different scenario is thinkable too. The Deputy chairman of the Czech Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Defense and Security, a member of the Senate Commission on International Support for Democracy, senator Stetina in mid-February sharply criticized human rights violations at the Prague-based American RFE/RL. Perhaps he did not quite fit into celebratory crowd that included Hillary Clinton.

As the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is a full member of U.S. Federal Agency Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) that serves simultaneously as RFE/RL corporate Board of Directors. It is a very exclusive corporate board, for RFE/RL is financed by American Congress and all BBG members are assigned by the President of the United States personally with consent and approval of U.S. Senate. It is to American senators that Jaromir Stetina addressed his internationally widely published letter “Actions of Radio Free Europe Damage Czech Republic and the United States”. Personal copies of the letter were forwarded to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In his letter, Jaromir Stetina calls discrimination of RFE/RL foreign employees “ patiently indecent, unfair, cynical and hypocritical”.

The great majority of discrimination victims are Muslims. Broadcasters, editors, producers, technicians… RFE/RL broadcasts in 28 languages. Eighteen, as listed on RFE/RL website, are spoken predominantly by Muslim people: Albanian, Arabic, Avar, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Bosnian, Chechen, Circassian, Crimean Tatar, Dari, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Pashto, Persian, Tajik, Tatar, Turkmen, Uzbek.

Discrimination as a Matter of Policy

According to the “United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994”, BBG, which oversees all U.S. non-military broadcasters, “makes all major policy determinations governing the operations of RFE/RL” that “shall be consistent with the broad foreign policy objectives of the United States”. By law, it is precisely the function of the Secretary of State within BBG and RFE/RL to make sure that their policies are in consent with political intentions of the United States. The BBG’s Office of Human Resources “provides worldwide personnel management policies, programs, and services that enable the Agency to carry out its mission”. What are those personnel policies?

In his letter to American colleagues Czech senator Stetina wrote:
“RFE/RL hires its foreign employees on labor contracts, which explicitly deny them protections and guarantees automatically granted to any employee in this country by Czech labor laws. At the same time, as you are definitely aware, American laws, including Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1991 and District of Columbia Human Rights Act of 1977, are not applicable to foreigners working for American employers outside the United States – even if RFE/RL preprinted uniform contracts are composed with the reference to American laws. It is deceptive reference.

In fact, foreigners employed by RFE/RL are covered only by RFE/RL internal policies evidently formulated by BBG. By RFE/RL employment policies, its foreign personnel in Prague may be fired at any time, for any reason or without any stated reason whatsoever, without prior warning, without any preliminary disciplinary measures if deserved; and even without contractual severance pay for the years of service unless one signs the letter of consent with such employment termination and, also in writing, gives up the inalienable (at least, in Czech Republic) human and civil right to seek protection in the courts of law.
By such a mode, RFE/RL had disposed of quite a number of its foreign employees in Prague.”

To RFE/RL foreign employees also are not applicable, among others, such critically important American labor protection laws as Fair Labor Standards Act, Equal Pay Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Family and Medical Leave Act.

Senator Stetina never received any answer from his Washington addressees. Recently, by the “mode” described in the senator’s letter was fired an employee of RFE/RL Turkmen Service. Sacked in legal vacuum. Indeed, as wrote Armenian newspaper AZG (People),

“There is less foreign detainees placed in legal vacuum at the U.S. naval base on Guantanamo, Cuba, than foreign journalists deprived of legal protections by the U.S. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Czech Republic.”

Their Words are Beautiful. Their Deeds are…

President Obama’s appeal to the Muslim world delivered last June in Cairo can be quoted line by line as a spirit-lifting poem:
“I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: rule of law and the equal administration of justice; those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere”; “There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us”, “Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead.”
And BBG started to act, i. e. write boldly. Instead of changing its discriminative policies and actions, it designed and published its “Implementation Strategies” Build on BBG Reach and Impact Within the Muslim World. Let us quote BBG strategies one by one:

“Help audiences in authoritarian countries understand the principles and practices of democratic, free and just societies”. They understand. And not only the audiences in authoritarian countries. Hence, some expressive titles of the articles published in print and electronic media in English, Czech, Russian, Armenian, Serbo-Croatian, etc:
"Radio Liberty Betrays its Ideals", "Radio Free Europe – Guantanamo in Prague", "Equality With Precondition. Practice of Free Europe Contradicts Its Ideals", "U.S. Attorney General is Asked to Investigate Fraud at RFE/RL", "Doomsday of Radio Liberty. From Double Standards to Double Morals?” "A Sense of Betrayal", “ Czech Politician Accuses U.S. of Discrimination Against Foreign Journalists”, “On Air in Legal Vacuum”, “Czech MP Writes to U.S. Counterparts Over Work Conditions in RFE/RL”, and so on.
BBG: “Broaden cooperation within U.S. public diplomacy”. International media:
"New Administration Must Undo RFE/RL Anti-Diplomacy Abroad", "BBG, RFE/RL: Bring Public Diplomats Instead of Public Bureaucrats", "Don’t Feed Kremlin’s Public Diplomacy With U.S. Public Hypocrisy", "Public Disaster Instead of Public Diplomacy" …
BBG looks into the future: “Engage the world in conversation about America”. God save America and its reputation should U.S. institutions BBG and RFE/RL themselves become a topic of such conversation, for discussion will inevitably touch upon

The Culture of Lies

Suffice it to say that on BBG website one reads that this Agency is “an exiting place to work” -- a straightforward self-serving honest lie. In reality, BBG is, year to year, officially rated as the worst workplace within American government.

RFE/RL is more sophisticated. On RFE/RL web pages one would not find a single word about the ongoing lawsuits triggered by its no-rights-to-foreigners employment policies. One court case (plaintiff Snezana Pelivan, Croatian citizen) is pending in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Here the American bureaucrats managing RFE/RL contrived to get involved as a defendant the Czech Republic, RFE/RL host country. Another case (plaintiff Armenian citizen Anna Karapetian) is in the Czech Supreme Court. Instead, one could read there RFE/RL Mission Statement: “The first requirement of democracy is a well informed citizenry”, “RFE/RL provides objective news” serving as “a model for local media”. Fortunately, “local media” is less prone to lies-by-omission than its condescending tutor financed by American taxpayer. Again just a few international tell-tell headlines:
“Cases of Karapetian and Pelivan as Morality Check for Obama Administration. Radio Free Europe to Face European Court of Human Rights”, “Czech MP Questions Pelivan Case”, "Czech Sovereignty Ends at RFE/RL", "Free Europe With Its Own Laws in Colonial Czech Republic?", "From Human Rights Show to Human Rights Court", "Prague Spring of 2009 Leads to Strasbourg", ”News Flashes From Radio Free/Radio Liberty. The Face of America Abroad”, “Czech senator angry about Croat’s lawsuit”, etc.

Is Hillary Clinton, as the BBG and RFE official, to be blamed personally for BBG-RFE/RL shamefully discriminative policies? For instance, a pregnant Uzbek woman (or Afghan, Albanian Arab, Avar, Azerbaijani… and further on by alphabet) receives 16 weeks maternity leave prescribed by her employment contract with RFE/RL. Her female Czech colleague at RFE/RL gets 28 weeks, i.e. almost three months more, as provided by Czech law to anyone else in the Czech Republic. To whom the discriminated Uzbek woman shall complain? For her, by American law, U.S. courts are of no access as to the foreigner working for American company (RFE/RL) outside the United States. Czech courts are of no use to her because her discriminative contract with RFE/RL is not governed by Czech laws -- by RFE/RL decision.

Should she complain directly to Hillary Clinton? She could, but will she be heard? Some of her discriminated colleagues complained. They never got any answer. And the question remains: Is not the Secretary of State who time and again raises her voice in defense of women’s rights worldwide, personally responsible for doing nothing to eradicate glaring national inequality in American institutions where she has a decisive voice? Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign proclaimed:
“I’m going to send a message to the world that America is back – we’re not the arrogant power that we’ve been for the last several years. We want to be an admired country again in the world. There is a lot of work to be done.”
She was not elected a president but what prevents her to clean up the stables at BBG and RFE/RL, the American organizations directly to her entrusted as to the Secretary of State? In the meantime, respectable Czech newspaper quoted by senator Stetina in his letter to American senators stands correct:
“Prague headquarters of RFE/RL, which pretends to be a messenger of freedom, democracy and the rule of law, behaves as an employer in such a way as if the principles it heralds, are relevant “just” for the whole planet but not for what is going on inside that estimable organization itself.”

Simple Steps Instead of Pompous Words

The second time within one year Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton visited Prague in their official capacity. The President definitely lived up to his campaign promise -- to “Show the world the best face of America”. Prague also fulfilled its role of a perfect host and cheerfully said “cheese”, as was expected. There is even a good chance that now to the hospitable Czech Republic will be assigned an American ambassador. That largely ceremonial place is vacant exactly since the day of Obama’s inauguration.

After the fateful 9/11/2001, State Department has designated two most important American institutions in Prague to be protected with special care: the embassy and RFE/RL. In the nearest future, the Obama’s administration will restore the representative dignity to the embassy. Concerning RFE/RL, real dignity should be restored to that historically valuable American institution of trusted public diplomacy. To quote senator Stetina again:
“There are two simple steps dictated by common sense and by presumption of moral and political sensitivity:
Step 1. Harmful lawsuits should be stopped. RFE/RL should be instructed to make a peaceful offer to the plaintiffs, Snjezana Pelivan and Anna Karapetian, commensurate with human and professional injustice suffered by them already;
Step 2. Abandon RFE/RL discriminative employment policies.”
Those steps are not contained in BBG’s “Implementation Strategy”. But the presumption of moral and political sensitivity is absent there, either.

Alsou Taheri is Prague-based journalist working at RFE/RL.

source: http://www.news.az/articles/13149/print