Government-sponsored international broadcasting is an increasingly high-profile topic, not least because it crosses both metaphorical and physical boundaries between journalism and foreign policy. 

The House is moving to overhaul the handful of taxpayer-funded media organizations, but critics say the changes would turn the Voice of America into a tool for pro-western propaganda. Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed a bill to make “dramatic reforms” to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees the government-backed outlets.

A minor protest in Anhui Province has grabbed the central government's attention in China. According to Radio Free Asia, on August 10, two thousand protestors laid siege to government offices in Xuancheng City in Anhui’s Jixi County, in the Jingzhou Township. The crowds overturned cars, smashed the windows of a government office, and assaulted government officials. Reports on this incident went relatively unnoticed, partially because the Central Propaganda Department (also known as the Publicity Department) got ahead of the story by issuing a stern warning to state media outlets.

Cambodia has overturned a much-criticized order banning local radio stations from broadcasting foreign programs ahead of general elections. The Ministry of Information said in a statement late Saturday that it was reversing the June 25 directive following "requests" but did not elaborate.

The United States on Friday slammed a ban on foreign radio broadcasts by the Cambodian government in the run-up to next month's elections as a "serious infringement" on press freedom. The Cambodian information ministry had published a directive banning broadcasts of foreign-produced radio programs for 31 days before the July 28 vote, State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

The Cambodian government is putting an increasing amount of pressure on broadcasters, requiring complicated bureaucratic procedures for sponsors and other measures, Mam Sonando, the operator of one of Cambodia’s last independent stations, Beehive Radio, says.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) plan to merge the grantee-surrogate broadcasters into one large administrative structure is meeting with a strong opposition among both management and employees of Radio Free Asia (RFA) as a killer of effective journalism, efficient management and good labor relations.