Voice of America Broadcasts in Tibet

* Re Jim Mann’s “After 5 Years of Political Wrangling, Radio Free Asia Becomes a Reality,” Sept. 30, and your Oct. 1 editorial:

It is true that, on average, 20% to 25% of Voice of America Tibetan’s two hours of daily programming is news about Tibet. But we don’t limit this coverage. It’s just hard to pry verifiable news out of the region, and we broadcast all we get. The proportion of Tibet-related material in our shows is, at times, much higher. This past week, for example, one-third was Tibet-related. (VOA Mandarin can get more news from China than we can from Tibet, and broadcasts four to five hours of China-related news and commentary daily.) Reckoning the proportion of our Tibetan programs devoted not just to Tibet, but to Asia, brings the number far higher--to two-thirds of this past week’s programming.

We handle editorials just as your newspaper does, by keeping them separate from news and features. The Tibetan Service runs eight three-minute editorials a week-- 24 minutes out of 14 hours of programming.

The bare fact that Radio Free Asia will air the views of critics of Asian regimes won’t make it different from VOA. This past week, as one example, Tibetans heard the Dalai Lama on VOA talk about the meeting he had with the Australian prime minister. We’ve always tried, through our news and features, to give a voice to those out of power, while still being careful not to turn over the microphone to a political agenda. Our watchwords are accuracy, comprehensiveness and balance.

JOHN BUESCHER

Chief, Tibetan Broadcast Service

Voice of America

Washington