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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.slovak-l
Date:         Sat, 23 Jan 1993 13:03:00 EST
From:         TOMAS BLAZEK & RENATA BLAZEKOVA <BLAZEK@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
Subject: Re:RFE Attempt for late explanation

> It is probably my fault, but I don't understand the sudden proliferation
> of RFE-related postings.
>
> I don't know if they are duplicates, forwarded messages, a new report,
> or what.   And I don't have the time to read each one carefully to determine
> if they are duplicate messages or parts of messages already posted.
>
> Will someone clear up this problem for me?
>
> Thank you.
>
> george bauer


  RFE/RL  (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) has been broadcasting
the news to Czecho-Slovakia for many years. I didn't know how widespread
they were until the reply of Mr.Lodeesen arrived (also here to this
group on Jan.21 ). There were always people among my friends in Bra-
tislava listening to their station but much less than for example to
the Voice of America.  Both these stations had been repeatedly damped
down on the C-S territory during the communist era and the listening to
them was officially considered as unwished-for. As I mentioned in one
of the previous messages all my friends had considered RFE besides being
anti-communist also as against Slovaks ( opposite to the Voice of America ).
I guess their importance in Slovakia is lower after the breakdown
of socialism, however, they may still have a large audience.

 Some months ago  they started to make publicly accessible their
Daily Report via the same listserv as e.g. Slovak-l.
Maybe there are more "Daily Report"s  related also
to China,... but I started to be interested only in the CIS/Eastern
Europe Daily Report. (CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States =
Russia + ...) The Daily Report is very recent and informative.
I think it would be very good to have relevant parts of it
regularly posted in this group.

After the first daily postings of the whole Daily Report by ...
sorry , I forgot, ...   Vladimir Benko offered to serve us all
by weekly postings of those parts of the Daily Report-s which
are relevant to Slovakia ( and Czech Republic, I think).
Thank you very much, Vladimir.

Since I was receiving the Daily Report-s earlier than they
appeared on this group I convinced myself that the reports
about Slovakia in the Daily Report are "strange".  Just
a few examples from last two months:

     There was a Slovak-Hungarian meeting in Bratislava on
28 Nov. discussing current tensions between two countries.
Reported by CTK ( Czech Press Agency).
     There were buggs found in the building of the U.S.Con-
sulate in Bratislava on 9-10 December. Reported by CTK
(Czech Press Agency) and federal TV.
     "Slovakia plans to privatize Gabcikovo ...", reported by
Reuters.
     Pretty long piece "Disagreement over Slovakia's foreign
policy " with the beginning "According to CTK..." CTK is for
Czech Press Agency.
     "Meciar on the Future of Slovakia, Hungarian minority".
Very carefully picked up to be as negative as possible. At
the end "Meciar's statements were reported by CTK".
CTK is for Czech Press Agency.


And so on . I could NEVER found the information about Slovakia
from Slovak press agency to see the official Slovak view.
This agency exists but ... never showed up.On the contrary
the messages - as you could see above - ... how to say,
simply they resemble Prague Lidove Noviny from approx. the
winter 1990.


That's why I wrote the letter to all addresses I found in the
Daily Report asking for explanation and improvement. I apologize
for posting this letter on this group BEFORE  sending a message
explaining it. I sent here the explanatory message AFTER
the copy of my letter to RFE/RL. Also I did not realize
many people could be quite unfamiliar with RFE. Sorry.

What followed was the response of Mr.Jon Lodeesen , posted by
him in this group (Jan. 21) and my next letter to him from
yesterday with the Subject: RFE/RL cont'd .
In his second response Mr. Lodeesen - in contradiction with
his offer in the first letter - does not reveal the names
and addresses of the right people where one can send his/her
observations. He writes that "there is a lack of Slovak
wire service" and "problem is they're receiving Slovak wire
service 24- and 48-hours later than CTK " . So as he writes
"they are sometimes forced to use the Slovak sources to
check after."
Mr.Lodeesen was "told by those involved , that everyone (in RFE, T.B.)
was considering the situation unsatisfactory and pointing it out
helps them make their case."

I don't know exactly what is meant by wire services , I don't
understand whether Slovak wire services are really absent
and if not, why some "wires" are earlier than others.
Also I had observed
     "sometimes forced to use ..."
as
      ALWAYS forced to use...
Anyway, the ending is promising so ...
                                   ... let US help them make the case.


Sorry for being so long. I tried to do my best.
Tomas Blazek
blazek@mps.ohio-state.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU