Crisis Response

BBG networks have demonstrable impact when they meet urgent audience needs in places in crisis. They do this by ensuring responsive, dynamic and strong local news coverage as well as U.S. and international reaction.


This is a strategic priority for U.S. international media. A few examples of major information surges in 2014 include responding to the spread of Russian disinformation toward Ukraine, the rise of Ebola, and the mass protests in Hong Kong.

Crisis Response

BBG networks have demonstrable impact when they meet urgent audience needs in places in crisis. They do this by ensuring responsive, dynamic and strong local news coverage as well as U.S. and international reaction.


This is a strategic priority for U.S. international media. A few examples of major information surges in 2014 include responding to the spread of Russian disinformation toward Ukraine, the rise of Ebola, and the mass protests in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

Young Chinese teenaged student protest leader speaks into an RFA microphone. He is wearing a black shirt and glasses.
RFA interviewing Alex Chow, leader of the influential Hong Kong Federation of Students. RFA

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the demonstrations calling for universal suffrage in Hong Kong was that they were led by a group of previously unknown teenagers, a demographic many dismissed and thought to be interested only in their mobile devices, video games and themselves. In early October, when Hong Kong legislators joined forces with the student demonstrators, the pro-democracy protests captured global attention and came to be known as the Umbrella Movement.

From the start, Radio Free Asia and VOA were on the ground, reporting on the rapid developments that included the police crackdowns—first with pepper spray and later with tear gas. Then came arrests and attempts to forcibly clear demonstration sites. At great personal risk, reporters from RFA and VOA persisted in interviewing demonstrators, the student leaders, activists, Hong Kong residents, police, officials, and business owners. The journalists also reported on the mainland Chinese perspective.

During the Hong Kong protests, VOA and RFA streamed live on the Telstar 18 satellite. They were the only source that viewers in mainland China could turn to for uncensored news as international broadcasters such as CNN and BBC were blacked out in China.

Audiences thanked RFA and VOA for being there, and for letting them know what was happening without Beijing’s filter.

Ebola

A man takes a photo as a group of people in protective clothing disinfect themselves and each other outside a home.
VOA reporter documents the activities of a health team in Sierra Leone.

When an Ebola outbreak in Guinea was confirmed in late March, VOA was one of the first with the story and followed it long after commercial broadcasters lost interest. VOA reporters and stringers traveled to the hardest-hit regions of West Africa and told the stories of Ebola victims, those who treat them, and those who bury them, as well as the stories of their orphaned children.

VOA reporting and online resources at ebola.voanews.com includes life-saving information about precautions necessary to avoid the disease as well as how to care for those who have it.

“In its effort to spread the word about Ebola, VOA launched
an unprecedented partnership with the BBC to share content.”

— David Ensor, Director, Voice of America

VOA launched a new 24/7 programming stream on FM stations in Monrovia, Liberia and Freetown, Sierra Leone—the heart of the Ebola outbreak—that features special15-minute Ebola updates five times a day. The program stream includes public service announcements prepared by VOA as well as the United States Centers for Disease Control and UNICEF. The broadcasts also included messages of encouragement and support from President Obama, former President Jimmy Carter and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

In November, VOA’s Straight Talk Africa held a town hall meeting on Ebola, presenting a wide-ranging discussion with a live studio audience and viewers online via social media.

Russian Misinformation

Female show host stands in front of screen, speaking to a camera.
On the set of Current Time, a joint production of VOA and RFE/RL.

In response to the Ukraine crises, and to increasing Russian aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere, VOA and RFE/RL engaged audiences across media, with expanded programming in multiple languages.

RFE/RL reporting helped counter the growing spread of Russian misinformation. In both Russian and Ukrainian, RFE/RL began a series called Lie of the Day, a daily analysis of media coverage in the region. For English-language audiences, RFE/RL’s Ukraine Unspun blog presents a clearer picture of the information war. RFE/RL reporting directly from cities in eastern Ukraine and Crimea exposed the true on-the-scene conditions.

VOA acted as the de facto “U.S. Bureau” for the Ukrainian TV market and regularly broke new ground covering U.S. policy toward the region. News programs included expert commentary and analysis regarding the Ukrainian people’s drive to integrate with the West, Russian President Putin’s determination to stop them by any means, and American and European efforts in support of Ukraine. VOA’s flagship nightly news program Chas-Time is seen on prime-time TV in Ukraine. In October, VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze was invited to co-moderate a series of seven parliamentary election debates on Ukraine’s First National TV.

VOA contributes special reports in prime-time broadcasts for Ukrainian affiliates including First National TV, ICTV, Channel 24, and it has doubled its TV audience since the invasion of Crimea.

Immediately after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March, RFE/RL created a website to cover developments in Crimea in three languages. In May, VOA started a daily program, called Studio Washington, for Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

In October, RFE/RL and VOA launched Current Time—a jointly produced, 30-minute news program aimed at Russian speakers living in countries neighboring Russia. Current Time offers a mix of live news, interviews, original features, and political satire to television audiences and online viewers.

Threats in the Region

Harassment, attempted intimidation and attacks on journalists spiked in Ukraine, and in Russia there was an increased vilification of independent media.

RFE/RL Ukrainian Service journalists Dmytro Barkar and Ihor Iskhakov were beaten and their equipment was destroyed by members of Ukraine’s Berkut riot police in January. Three others were beaten and harassed

in March while covering developments in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Other journalists were forced to leave due to beatings by pro-Russian activists, interrogations at border points, threats linked with their reporting, and pressure to inform on events to Russian secret services.

In addition, in March, Russian authorities cut off all remaining radio transmissions by U.S. international media in Russia. In a one- sentence letter, Dmitry Kiselev, the director of the information agency Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today), stated that “we are not going to cooperate” with the BBG’s request to continue a long-standing contract for broadcasting on Russian soil.

Learn more in Threats to Our Journalists.

Crisis Response Background Image Captions

  1. RFE/RL Ukrainian service correspondent Levko Stek on the front line of the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army near Debaltsero, Ukraine, September 2014. RFE/RL
  2. Umbrella Movement demonstrators gather in Admiralty, Hong Kong. RFA
  3. Vendors selling hand-washing tubs amidst Ebola outbreak, Monrovia, Liberia. VOA
  4. RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Mumin Shakirov interviewing civil activist Serge Sharov-Delone during the March for Freedom in Moscow, October 2014. RFE/RL
  5. Two RFE/RL Ukrainian Service journalists, correspondent Dmytro Barkar and cameraman Ihor Iskhakov, were beaten and detained by police while covering antigovernment protests on January 20, 2014. RFE/RL

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