| Washington, D.C., August 3, 2000 – International audiences are tuning
into the Republican National Convention over the airwaves of the Voice
of America. News reports from Philadelphia are going out in all of
VOA’s 53 languages and for the first time ever, VOA is providing multi-media
coverage of the proceedings on radio, TV, and the Internet.
VOA’s 24-hour English-language service, VOA News Now, is providing two
hours of live prime-time coverage from the convention hall that is being
simultaneously broadcast on VOA’s radio frequencies, WORLDNET Television’s
satellite system, and streamed as video and audio on the Internet.
Thousands of radio, cable, and broadcast television outlets worldwide can
take the programming live from 0100 to 0300 UTC (9:00 – 11:00 p.m. Philadelphia
time). In addition to live coverage of major speeches, VOA is providing
live and taped reports from the convention center at least once per hour
24-hours a day. VOA News Now is also following a Kansas delegate
at the convention, providing a day-to-day glimpse of the politics and pageantry
of the events.
VOA’s international web site (www.voa.gov) features text reports, video,
and audio from VOA’s correspondents at the convention. A special
“VOA News Campaign 2000” page is giving web users around the world an insider’s
look at the quadrennial gathering of the Republican Party.
“The world is fascinated by American democracy in action,” said VOA
Director Sanford J. Ungar. “Our coverage of the political conventions
gives us an opportunity to show American institutions at work to our worldwide
audience in the medium or media of their choice.”
VOA’s convention coverage also includes live and taped correspondent
reports for VOA’s television programs in Mandarin, Indonesian, Korean,
Farsi (Persian), Russian, Ukrainian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Albanian.
Radio reports from the convention site are being provided in more than
a dozen languages, with all 53 languages covering aspects of the convention
in their programs.
VOA, which is prohibited by law from broadcasting within the United
States, will provide similar coverage for its international audience on
radio, TV and the Internet from the Democratic National Convention later
this month.
The Voice of America broadcasts news and information
in 53 languages to an estimated audience of 91 million people each week.
VOA began broadcasting in 1942 and is part of the International Broadcasting
Bureau, which became an autonomous U.S. Government civilian broadcast service
on October 1, 1999, under the authority of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. |
