June 12 marked the first anniversary of Iran’s disputed presidential election. PNN remembered the day with special programs, interactive webpages, and the re-broadcast of the powerful HBO documentary “For Neda.” Coverage included a special live TV program devoted to the events surrounding the disputed presidential election, with phone interviews from Iran, and PNN correspondent reports from Paris, Rome, Washington, Dubai and elsewhere. The service also re-established a special webpage devoted to Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who became a symbol of Iran's post-election protests when images of her dying moments were captured on mobile phones and shown around the world. In addition, PNN re-broadcast the hour-long HBO documentary For Neda, which it first aired June 2. HBO gave VOA the rights to broadcast the documentary to Iranian audiences ahead of the cable channel’s own debut of the film in the United States on June 14. PNN has made the film available on its website, along with many of the thousands of messages that poured in following Neda’s death. In spite of the Iranian government’s efforts to jam the VOA television signal to Iran, many messages came in from Iranians who managed to see the film on PNN. One viewer wrote, “It is so upsetting, I cried, but it was beautiful.” PNN television will broadcast the program again on June 20, the anniversary of Neda's death. In the week leading up to the anniversary, PNN’s Straight Talk program focused exclusively on the presidential vote and its aftermath with guests on the set and in Iran.

On the eve of the anniversary, the BBG issued a statement condemning Iran’s jamming and called on Iranian authorities to open the airwaves and respect the rights of its people to freedom of opinion and expression.

More VOA Highlights:
Monthly Traffic to VOANews.com Reaches All-time High
VOA’s World Cup Coverage Filled to the Brim
Violence Next Door Big Story for VOA Uzbek
Covering Europe’s EU Crisis
Affiliates Welcome Croatian Service Coverage of Gulf Disaster
VOA Journalist Witnesses Shooting of Thai General
Two VOA Reporters Win Burke Awards
VOA Turkish Interviews Passengers on Ship Raided by Israel Commandos
VOA’s French TV Has Live Co-Production in D.R. Congo
VOA Khmer Launches Washington Today on CTN
Tiananmen Student Leader Chai Ling Speaks with VOA
Russian Service Keeps Eye on Iran
After 34 years at the Smithsonian, VOA Mic Comes Home
Eurasia Division Jazzes It Up

Monthly Traffic to VOANews.com Reaches All-time High
VOANews.com traffic in May reached a record 10,594,706 visits, up 41 percent from the same month a year ago. The previous monthly record was set in June 2009, when interest in the Iranian elections helped push traffic to 10,489,799 visits. Many of the individual language services had significant increases during May, including English, Special English, Persian, Vietnamese, and Chinese. (Return to Table of Contents)

VOA’s World Cup Coverage Filled to the Brim
The first-ever World Cup in Africa has prompted VOA to put on quite a display of its own. It has added an online competition, a new webpage and special radio and television reports on the athletes and the venues. Sonny Young, the popular host of VOA’s Sonny Side of Sports, is in Johannesburg reporting on the games and the festive atmosphere surrounding them. In addition to his daily radio show, Sonny also has a special World Cup blog: http://blogs.voanews.com/sonny/. Meanwhile, Johannesburg reporters Scott Bobb and Delia Robertson have not missed out on the big story in their own backyard; they have been filing color pieces on the Cup. There also have reports from Jeff Swicord and Parke Brewer, both of whom travelled from Washington to South Africa to cover the story. And World Cup fever exists not only in South Africa, but in all of Africa, as listeners learned in reports from Peta Thorneycroft in Zimbabwe and Scott Stearns in Dakar, as well as by the sports crew in Washington.

For avid football fans, VOA English has launched an online bracket competition and winners are eligible for prizes, including a VOA MP3 player. Competitors can register and make their predictions at http://voaenglish.pooltracker.com/PB16.

For VOA’s Spanish-speaking audience, VOANoticias Managing Editor Iscar Blanco is covering the Cup on radio and television while keeping fans posted on www.voanoticias.com with original features, videos, photos, and reports. VOANoticias is inviting its fans to participate by writing their own accounts and experiences relating to the Cup. PNN is also keeping its Farsi-speaking audience informed about all the football action with coverage from sports reporter Ali Emadi.

VOA’s complete World Cup coverage can be found at:
www.voanews.com/worldcup. (Return to Table of Contents)

Violence Next Door Big Story for VOA Uzbek
VOA’s Uzbek Service is providing extensive coverage of the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, which began as a straightforward protest against the government and led to a bloody campaign to drive out ethnic Uzbeks. The Service’s stringers have been delivering reports from Osh and Jalal-Abad, main areas of conflict, as well as from the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border, where thousands of refugees are stranded and awaiting aid. In its daily programs and multimedia website the Service offers interviews with Uzbek and Kyrgyz from across the world, as well as from members of the international community. The all-out coverage has not gone unnoticed. The Service has been flooded with audience feedback and traffic to its website www.amerikaovozi.com has doubled. VOA’s Moscow correspondent Pete Fedynsky and stringer Jessica Golloher also covered the violence in Kyrgyzstan. (Return to Table of Contents)

Covering Europe’s EU Crisis
Eurasia Division language services provided original reporting on the European economic crisis. The Greek Service combined coverage of riots in Athens, which resulted in the deaths of three civilians, with U.S. reactions to the Greek crisis, including statements from President Obama. In addition, the Russian Service analyzed what effect the fall of the euro will have on the Russian economy. Meanwhile, the Balkan language services contributed stringer reports from Brussels and in-depth analyses of the EU-Balkans Summit in Sarajevo, where the possible effect of the economic crisis on EU integration was a major topic of discussion. Attendees included European foreign ministers and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. (Return to Table of Contents)

The Eurasia Division interviewed Steinberg a week after his visit to Sarajevo. Although he praised progress in much of the Balkans, he urged leaders in Bosnia to speed their reform efforts: "There are risks if Bosnia is left behind because the political leaders can't make the tough decisions they need to make to advance Bosnia both toward NATO and toward the EU." Commenting on the name dispute between Greece and Macedonia, Steinberg said that although Macedonia might have to compromise with Greece, which has refused to recognize its northern neighbor as "The Republic of Macedonia," the benefits of compromise -- including EU and NATO membership -- would be worth the costs. (Return to Table of Contents)

Affiliates Welcome Croatian Service Coverage of Gulf Disaster
The Eurasia Division provided original reporting on the oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The Croatian Service sent a reporter to the region and produced a TV series on Croatian-Americans in Louisiana and the effect the oil will have their fishing and tourism businesses. Seven special reports were prepared for the Service’s eight TV affiliates and an exclusive 12-minute story was prepared by the Service for TV Nova, a nationwide network in Croatia. The reporting was also used by the Bosnian Service, which has a significant Croatian-speaking audience. The Serbian Service enhanced the coverage by speaking with Washington-area experts on energy exploration and its associated problems. (Return to Table of Contents)

VOA Journalist Witnesses Shooting of Thai General
On May 13, as the anti-government protests in Thailand were raging, VOA Bangkok Correspondent Daniel Schearf witnessed the shooting of a Thai general who has sided with the so-called Red Shirt protesters. Schearf was just a short distance from Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol when a shot rang out and the general slumped to the ground with a head wound. Schearf believes the general was shot by a sniper. An Army spokesman was quoted earlier in the day saying snipers would be deployed and were prepared to fire live ammunition if necessary. The general, who survived the shooting, has been a strong critic of the Thai government and a key supporter of the protest movement, which is demanding the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. (Return to Table of Contents)

The insurrection in Thailand got so rough at one point that Central News had to temporarily shut down its Bangkok bureau, which was in the center of the violent confrontations. Editor Kate Dawson and others had to move to hotels to avoid the bloodshed. Dawson, Schearf and visiting VOA Jakarta bureau chief Brian Padden covered the story for radio, TV and the internet with help from stringers Ron Corben and Pros Laput. (Return to Table of Contents)

Two VOA Reporters Win Burke Awards
VOA reporters Sok Pov of the Khmer Service and Rahman Bunairee of Deewa Radio have been honored with David Burke Distinguished Journalism Awards for their daring and thought-provoking broadcasts from two of the world’s most dangerous and difficult regions. Sok Pov was cited for a series of reports that took him deep into the jungles of northern Cambodia for profiles of former Khmer Rouge leaders who face possible arrest for crimes against humanity in connection with the genocide that killed 1.5 million Cambodians in the 1970's. Sok was able to locate the former officials with the help of local chiefs who recognized his voice from VOA broadcasts.?Rahman Bunairee was honored for his reporting on the 2009 clashes between Pakistani troops and militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Bunairee fled to the United States after militants, apparently angered by his coverage, set off a bomb at his family home and issued threats against him. (Return to Table of Contents)

VOA Turkish Interviews Passengers on Ship Raided by Israel Commandos
On May 30, the day before Israeli commandos killed 11 people in a raid on a ship bound for Gaza, the VOA Turkish Service interviewed two Turkish activists aboard the ship, Zehra Ozturk and Murat Yilmaz. The ship, the Mavi Marmara, was part of a convoy of vessels that was attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Following the raid, the Turkish Service reached two other people who were aboard the Mavi Marmara, retired U.S. Ambassador Edward Peck and Swedish parliamentarian Mehmet Kaplan. Both men gave the Turkish Service their impressions of what happened during and after the commando raid. The Service rounded out its coverage with reaction from the U.S. Government as well as with responses from Israeli officials. The News Division also covered the story, with reports from Jerusalem correspondent Luis Ramirez and follow-ups on the diplomatic fallout from Elizabeth Arrott and Ed Yeranian in Cairo, Dorian Jones in Istanbul, as well as from Dan Robinson, Kent Klein and Ravi Khanna in Washington. (Return to Table of Contents)

VOA’s French TV Has Live Co-Production in D.R. Congo
The French Service’s Washington Forum TV program successfully carried out its first-ever live co-production with an affiliate on May 13. Lamia Gritli hosted a special program on relations between the United Nations and the Democratic Republic of Congo. D.R.C. government spokesman Lambert Mende was interviewed live from the Kinshasa studios of VOA affiliate Raga-TV. The half-hour program also included a scene-setter package by Raga TV. (Return to Table of Contents)

VOA Khmer Launches Washington Today on CTN
VOA Khmer launched a three-minute fully branded TV report for new affiliate CTN (Cambodia Television Network) in Cambodia. CTN is the largest national TV station in Cambodia. The report, called Washington Today, focuses on news events and politics in the U.S. Washington Today airs three times a week during CTN’s prime-time newscast, between 6:45-7:30 pm. (Return to Table of Contents)

Tiananmen Student Leader Chai Ling Speaks with VOA
VOA Mandarin interviewed former Tiananmen student leader Chai Ling on June 3 to discuss her memories of the reform movement, the June 4, 1989 crackdown and her escape from China. Now a successful businesswoman and a devout Christian, Chai said religion has spread throughout China in the last 20 years, with growing numbers of believers in Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and Falun Gong. She responded to 14 callers and eight e-mails during the live program. (Return to Table of Contents)

Russian Service Keeps Eye on Iran
The Russian Service is closely following the international community’s push for new sanctions against Iran, as well as Iran’s cooperation with Turkey and Brazil on enriching its uranium. The Service has published reports reflecting U.S. expert reaction to Russia’s support of sanctions and what that means for the overall effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Service has also reported on the recent cooling of relations between Russia and Iran. (Return to Table of Contents)

After 34 years at the Smithsonian, VOA Mic Comes Home
A vintage VOA microphone used during Cold War era broadcasts is back at the VOA headquarters, thanks to a sharp-eyed curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which borrowed the artifact three decades earlier. After an extended time on display, the VOA microphone sat for years in a storage cabinet at the museum together with other microphones, including one used by Amelia Earhart during a news conference and another of the type used by Orson Welles during his War of the Worlds broadcast. Adorned with the Voice of America nameplate, the Altec 639, first manufactured in the 1940s, was widely used by VOA broadcasters, including Willis Conover, host of Music USA Jazz Hour. The microphone was loaned to the Smithsonian in 1976 for its bicentennial exhibition, “A Nation of Nations,” and was placed in secure storage when the exhibition closed. Museum Associate Curator Hal Wallace recently took charge of the museum’s electricity collection and came across the microphone as part of a routine inventory. Wallace, who hand-carried the artifact to VOA, said it had been kept in storage because curators 30 years ago “probably hoped to use it again for other exhibitions.” The microphone will soon be part of a public display at VOA headquarters. (Return to Table of Contents)

Eurasia Division Jazzes It Up
May 29 was International Jazz Day, but one day wasn’t enough for the Eurasia Division language services, which provided original jazz-themed features throughout the month. A Ukrainian Service report from the New Orleans Jazz Fest was shared with the House. Additionally, the Russian Service spoke with Russian and American jazz lovers about how their lives and careers were affected by the work of VOA’s own Willis Conover. (Return to Table of Contents)