International Broadcasting Bureau

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The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) supports the day-to-day operations of the Voice of America (VOA) and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti). It also provides transmission and technical support for all of the independent non-military broadcasting services funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

1 History
2 Director
- 2.1 Past Directors
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

On April 30, 1994, President Clinton signed the International Broadcasting Act (Public Law 103-236). The legislation established the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) within the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), and created a Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) with oversight authority over all non-military U.S. government international broadcasting.

The Voice of America, the oldest and best-known organization within the BBG, was the first broadcast news organization to offer continuously updated programming on the Internet.

When USIA was disbanded in October 1999, the IBB and BBG were established as independent federal government entities, with the IBB as an administrative vehicle under the BBG containing VOA, Radio and TV Marti, the Office of Engineering and Technical Services, and a number of support services.

Other international broadcasting services supervised by the BBG are constituted as private corporations and are not part of the IBB. These include Radio Sawa and Al Hurra television (Arabic), Radio Farda (Persian to Iran), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Radio Free Asia (RFA).

[edit] Director

The position of IBB Director is appointed by the President of the United States, with Senate confirmation [1]. The position has been vacant since January 2005 [2]

[edit] Past Directors

Previously, the directorship was held by Seth Cropsey (December 9, 2002—2004)[3].

Appointed by the BBG, Brian Conniff served as acting director from April 1999 to December 2002[4][5].

Joseph B. Bruns, 1994 - 1995, was the first director of IBB. Bruns previously had been Acting Associate Director of Broadcasting of USIA and Acting Director of VOA.