Thursday, March 16 at 11:00 am EDT | 4:00 pm CET
Since the first broadcasts of Radio Liberation (known today as RFE/RL’s Russian Service) in March 1953, its journalists and editors have served the needs of their diverse, Russian-speaking audiences. The Russian people have long needed to find trustworthy sources of information and debate on topics the Kremlin sought to suppress, and for 70 years, RFE/RL has done just that.
Two recent books, by authors deeply involved with RFE/RL’s broadcasting to Russia during the Cold War, offer insight into that rich legacy and lessons they learned that apply to today’s information challenges.
Join RFE/RL for a discussion with Mark Pomar and Gene Parta, to hear more about their experiences and what they learned from RFE/RL’s decades of engagement with Russian speaking audiences.
Introductory Comments:
- Jamie Fly, President and CEO, RFE/RL
Panelists:
- Mark Pomar, Senior Fellow, Clements Center for National Security, University of Texas
- Gene Parta, Director, Soviet Area Audience and Opinion Research/Audience Research and Program Evaluation, RFE/RL (1981-2006)
Moderator:
- Irina Lagunina, Associate Standards Editor, RFE/RL; former Director, RFE/RL Russian Service
Mark Pomar, a veteran of RFE/RL, Voice of America, and the Board for International Broadcasting, is the author of “Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of The Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.” Gene Parta, the author of “Under The Radar: Tracking Western Radio Listeners in the Soviet Union,” developed many innovative approaches to the study of Soviet and Russian audiences over forty years of service with Radio Liberty’s, then RFE/RL’s, audience and opinion research programs.