May 18, 2013 Washington DC 6:29 PM

Media Relations / Press Releases

VOA Provides Election Coverage to Global Audience

Ayesha Tanzeem, Murtaza Solangi, and Mowahid Hussain Shah
Ayesha Tanzeem, Murtaza Solangi, and Mowahid Hussain Shah
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05.11.2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Voice of America is teaming up with radio and TV affiliate stations around the world to provide enhanced coverage of this year’s U.S. Presidential Election.

VOA’s Urdu Service produced a live pre-election TV special Monday for the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. The program was streamed on the Internet and simulcast by a network of 70 radio stations.  PBC Director General Murtaza Solangi, who co-hosted the program with VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem, said the broadcast was available to “every inch of Pakistan.”

VOA’s Spanish Service will deliver more than 20 “live shots” for TV stations across Latin America and more than 50 special radio reports for affiliates on Election Day.  In addition, the division’s regular TV programs will be devoted to election coverage, and the winner’s victory speech, and the concession speech by the loser, will be simultaneously translated.

VOA Director David Ensor says, “This election, we will use every platform available, from television to Twitter.  Coverage will be carefully tailored to audience preferences in all 43 of the languages in which we broadcast.  We have reporters in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Miami and will invite our audiences to interact with our shows and hosts, who will be live-tweeting results and streaming their programs on the Internet.” 

Every VOA language service broadcasting to Africa has scheduled special election coverage, and many have arranged live question-and-answer sessions between VOA reporters in Washington and affiliate stations on the continent.  VOA websites have also set up special online polls asking audiences who they would like to see win the presidential race.

VOA’s Persian Service is devoting most of its TV programs to live election coverage Tuesday, including a special two-hour broadcast with high-profile studio guests and live reports from around the United States.

The Mandarin service has a two-hour TV special with correspondents in several cities, and the Thai, Indonesian, Burmese and Cambodian services will offer live feeds to affiliate stations.  The Albanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Turkish, Dari, and Pashto services also have live TV specials. VOA Kurdish is expanding its broadcasts, and the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian services are planning additional live feeds to their affiliates.

VOA’s English language TV special will follow the election as the polls close with analysis and results, and VOA English language radio will broadcast live coverage on all worldwide frequencies.

“Audiences around the world, many in places under tight government restrictions, have come to rely on Voice of America to provide balanced and accurate news and information about critical events, and this election we are reaching out in a number of new ways to do just that,” VOA Director Ensor said.

For more information about this release contact Kyle King at the VOA Public Relations office in Washington at (202) 203-4959 or write kking@voanews.com.  Visit our Public Relations website at www.insidevoa.com or our main news site at www.voanews.com for more about all of our programs.

 

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