After 72 years of operation, the Greek Service of the Voice of America announced it will end its broadcasts due to budget cuts. The Greek Service was one of the first services established abroad in the midst of WWII in 1942. The Greek Service since then has covered events and developments in the USA in relation to Greece and Cyprus. The broadcasting service also closely monitored and covered news regarding Greeks abroad and their support towards their country.
Many Americans are unaware of the Voice of America due to the fact that it was forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens until 2013 with the intent to protect Americans from propaganda actions by its own government. What few know is that the VOA helped deliver accurate news to German citizens during WWII and attempted to combat Nazi propaganda. The VOA also started broadcasting to Soviet citizens in Russian during the Cold War, in an attempt to fight off Soviet propaganda which responded by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts. Moreover, in countries with strict censorship, such as Iran or North Korea, VOA is often the only source of balanced news and information about the U.S., its policies, and its people. The Voice of America provides programming for broadcast on radio, TV and the internet outside of the U.S. in 45 languages with an audience of approximately 164 millions people every week. The VOA is supervised by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) which is run by nine board members including U.S. Secretary of State John Forbes Kerry.
In 1991, the Greek Service and Turkish Service of VOA received the Ipekci Peace and Friendship Prize for Communication “for their multifaceted and sincere cooperation in support of the Greek-Turkish rapprochement on an international level. The final broadcast of VOA in Greece will be on Tuesday morning, August 12, on SKAI TV.