Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

II. Regime Countermeasures against Western Broadcasters

i. regime Perceptions of Western Broadcasters i4 J&P.indb 355 2010.07.05. 7:55 i4 J&P.indb 356 2010.07.05. 7:55 357 Bulgaria document no. 1: 1977. interior ministry analysis of foreign Propaganda against Bulgaria This document provides a detailed content analysis of the programs of individual Western broadcasters. It indicates particular sensitivity to broadcasts on Helsinki-related human rights issues, to the use of recent defectors with inside knowledge, and to RFE’s focus on domestic issues. [excerpt] in 1977 the hostile propaganda against the People’s republic of Bulgaria remained almost unchanged in terms of quantity. the broadcasts in the Bulgarian language continued from 10 radio stations from the capitalist countries and 5 from the sfrY [socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia], albania and China, with a total duration of about 20 hours per day. a certain increase of anti-soviet propaganda can be observed in the press in england, austria, greece and turkey. similar materials, though sporadically, have appeared also in printed publications in italy, france, the usa, turkey, China, albania, mexico, Belgium and other countries. […] By using the documents from Helsinki as “law” and “legal basis” for the involvement in the internal affairs of the fraternal countries, our ideological adversaries have undertaken an unprecedented total campaign for “human rights” and for “free exchange of people, ideas and information.” the ultimate goal of this extremely strong and large-scale propaganda i4 J&P.indb 357 2010.07.05. 7:55 358 pressure is the implementation of Brzezinski’s doctrine of “symmetry” in détente or, in other words, the creation of a legal opposition in the countries of the socialist community and the impositions of the norms of bourgeois viewpoints and law. in their capacity as “independent sources of objective information” the subversive liberty and free europe radio stations are exerting huge efforts to assert the role of the usa as “the arbiter of good and evil and the moral policeman of the world,” as the United States News and World Report magazine wrote complacently in march. after this general description of the organization, content and direction of the hostile propaganda, let us see what the relative segmentation of the various radio stations is with regard to the treatment of the most exploited topics—anti-sovietism, “human rights” and “anti-Communism.” the BBC radio station has been the most active in the preparation and broadcasting of materials of anti-soviet character of a constantly increasing number. at the end of the year, the broadcasts on this topic reached 36% in the various programs. the fact that BBC is an official governmental radio station did not prevent its employees from resorting to the services of P. semerdjiev with the series of comments “Who was traycho Kostov?” and of the “fresh reinforcements” consisting of Vladimir and natalia Kostov, through the broadcasting of the interviews with them. Human rights and anti-Communism formed 26% and 18% of their broadcasts, respectively. the Voice of america radio station has commemorated the first anniversary of the coming to office of the Carter administration with a record of the materials on human rights throughout the fourth quarter, amounting to 36%. the range of the reasons used for the purposes of this “moralizing mission” was extremely broad—beginning with the dissidents and finishing with the salt ii talks. a certain decrease in propaganda noise about human rights in the broadcasting of the radio station was observed during the second quarter, when as a result of the constructive, but firm opposition of the ussr and the progressive and rationally thinking forces all over the world, a certain sobriety appeared in the activities of the Carter administration. this drop was compensated by the considerable increase of the materials related to the holding of the Belgrade summit, in which human rights were treated in the programs of the Voice of america exclusively though the prism of anti-sovietism. in this way, soviet coverage has increased from zero at the beginning of the year, to 26% at its i4 J&P.indb 358 2010.07.05. 7:55 359 end. anti-Communism was exploited within the average limits of 12% per year, which is normal for the radio station. a relatively even distribution of the materials in terms of content and direction can be observed in the broadcasts of deutsche Welle. the exception was only for the first quarter, when in the general campaign against real socialism, the topic of human...