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US General Accounting Office Report Cites IREX Media Sustainability Index

February 2004

A newly released report by the US General Accounting Office (GAO) cites the IREX Media Sustainability Index (MSI) as a comprehensive tool for assessing media in transitioning countries. The report examined decisions by US international broadcasters to terminate certain language services. The report was conducted in response to concerns expressed by members of Congress over cuts to Radio Free Europe and Voice of America language services in Eastern Europe.

The GAO report concludes that the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the body overseeing US international broadcasting, does not utilize comprehensive analysis of the state of independent local media when determining the need for continued US international broadcasting. It recommended "that the Board modify its language service review process to include an assessment of whether the domestic media in target countries provides accurate, balanced, and comprehensive news and information to the national audience."

The report cited the MSI as a potential model for the BBG to employ to meet this need. "We found that the MSI, developed by IREX, is intended to provide a more in-depth measure of local media conditions that the Board's." It continues, "IREX designed a more comprehensive measure of whether a sustainable media - characterized by all of the factors that shape a modern independent media - existed in target areas to gauge a country's progress in media development."

IREX publishes the MSI annually with the support of USAID. For more information, visit www.irex.org/msi.