Of the various VOA services scheduled for cuts by the end of fiscal year 2008 (see previous post), only VOA Georgian would be eliminated altogether. The others would keep some internet and/or television presence.

If VOA Georgian had already been eliminated, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Georgian Service would still be on the air.

Audiences in the affected areas would want to hear, in rapidly descending order of interest: 1) accurate, timely, credible news about what is happening in their region, 2) world reaction to what is happening in their region, and 3) other news about the rest of the world.

For news about the region, RFE/RL definitely has the advantage over VOA. In theory, VOA does not even provide news about the regions to which it transmits. In fact, it does: otherwise VOA would not have an audience. I have no doubt that the doomed VOA Georgian Service is heroically gathering and reporting as much news about the region as it can.

For reaction about the conflict from Washington, this, in theory, would be VOA's job, and VOA Georgian is no doubt focusing on this. But, when VOA Georgian is gone, RFE/RL will be able to gather Washington reaction through its Washington studios. In fact, Matt Bryza, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, was interviewed by RFE/RL, as cited by America.gov, 8 August 2008.

VOA's coverage of Washington reaction would be through reportage, which enhances credibility, but also through the required editorial, exercises in propaganda that strain credibility. RFE/RL would report on Washington reaction only through reportage. So, arguably, RFE/RL may have the advantage in this aspect of content.

For world news, VOA, with its global network of bureaus, correspondents, and stringers, has the upper hand. When and if VOA Georgian is eliminated, RFE/RL Georgian might use the world newsgathering resources of VOA. However, as competing stations, U.S. government funded VOA probably would not provide such content to RFE/RL, and U.S. government funded RFE/RL might not be inclined to accept it. In any case, for world news, RFE/RL can rip and read AP and Reuters, and thus provide adequate coverage.

As for VOA Russian, its radio broadcasts have already been taken off the air. After its television content is eliminated in a few weeks, VOA Russian will be an internet-only service. (See previous post.) Internet coverage in the affected area, such as it was, might be spottier than usual. Jukka Kinkamo in Finland writes that "Russian targeted air campaign has damaged some C4I infrastructure of Georgia, including fiber optics ... Luckily VOA has the extended one hour Georgian language broadcast on shortwaves. Unfortunately the VOA Russian is not present on radio and I assume in South Ossetia where the Russian is widely spoken they do not have good enough web access or web access at all."

RFE/RL Russian, however, is still on shortwave, and in fact has added many of the VOA Russian shortwave times and frequencies to its own schedule.

Finally, it should be noted, the absence of a BBC Georgian Service increases the importance of U.S. international broadcasting in the South Ossetian conflict.

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