Peter Marks, former ABC Technician and current ABC Alumni Board member.

US President Trump has signed an executive order seeking to defund, among other things, the Voice of America (VOA). Presumably this was motivated by a desire to save money.

International programs, in the form of shortwave broadcasts, fascinated me as a young person. My little radio easily picked up BBC, Radio Australia (RA), Radio Moscow, China Radio International, VOA and many others. (My parents were appalled when a card arrived from Moscow).

While it was clear, even to a young listener, that there was propaganda embedded in the choices and text of the programs, they also tended to give the listener a sense of life in the originating country and their view of the world.

Along with Voice of America, the Agency for Global Media, which Trump defunded, also produced Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. The budget was US$270 million, it had a staff of 2,000. Broadcasting in 49 languages, it was estimated to reach over 361 million people each week.

“Nature abhors a vacuum”, attributed to Aristotle, comes in to play at times like this. When Australia Network and later shortwave broadcasts by Radio Australia were cut in 2017, ending a service that began in 1939, it wasn’t long before China Radio International (CRI) moved in and started broadcasting on many of the frequencies that were regularly used by Radio Australia.

More insidious is that CRI (as it calls itself) broadcasts news in English and I have heard reports that Pacific Islanders are not aware of the origin of the professionally presented news they hear on long used RA frequencies including 7240, 9580, 9570, 6080, 11885 and 15425. The last two are 500KW stations by the way.

Shortwave is a niche communication mode today but I mourn its loss. In our region, China, Russia, India and Christian stations continue to invest heavily but RA has moved on to local FM relay stations and internet streaming or podcasts.

While most listeners are unlikely to either find religion or change their faith by listening to stations warning of eternal damnation, news bulletins on “CRI” very often slip in phrases such as “the peaceful reunification of Taiwan” as if it was a widely accepted transition that is about to occur.

Soft power is the ability to influence the behaviour or thinking of others through the power of attraction and ideas. The transmission of our country’s attitude to democracy, rule of law, multiculturalism, inclusion and free trade helps to ward off the - much more expensive - requirement for hard (military) power. There are many other benefits too including helping our trading partners to learn English and fostering business relationships.

I concede that AM shortwave broadcasting’s era has come to an end but new technology blending the benefits of digital radio with shortwave broadcasting, in the form of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), appears to be slowly gaining traction with lower cost, lower power consumption ,and receivers starting to ship.

It’s all too easy to slash things like the Voice of America. Others will inevitably step in to fill that vacuum. We should take this opportunity to increase rather than decrease our participation in the global media landscape.