[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 207 (Friday, December 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S19236-S19237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              MARVIN STONE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Marvin L. Stone, the chairman and president 
of the International Media Fund, has issued a final report on a 5-year 
effort he headed to assist emerging journalists in the former Soviet 
Union in identifying their new role as skeptics, rather than employees, 
of the state.
  Mr. Stone and volunteers from the U.S. newspapers and media have 
taught, trained, and conducted workshops to give a boost to men and 
women who were struggling to nurture new independent media in the post-
Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
  It was not an easy task. Mr. Stone reports that IMF encountered a 
bloated, entrenched, corrupting bureaucracy in the wake of the 
Communist collapse. And this bureaucracy, Stone adds, continues to 
fight a rear guard attempt at redemption--and a return to power.
  The guiding principle brought to Central and Eastern Europe by Mr. 
Stone is the first amendment, a beacon that has kept America on course 
for more than 200 years. We can only hope that at some future date, it 
will be in the preamble of every constitution adopted by the countries 
of the old Eastern bloc.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the message from Chairman 
Stone be printed in the Congressional Record so that other Americans 
may learn of the work of this native Vermonter and the important 
contribution of IMF to sustain democracy in the post-cold-war world.
  I have relied on his advice and his dedication to public service for 
a generation. All Americans owe him thanks for all he does.
  There being no objection, the material was the ordered to be printed 
in the Record, as follows:

                       Message From the Chairman

                          (By Marvin L. Stone)

       Five years ago a few of us started a three-year project 
     whose goal was both simple and straightforward: to give a 
     boost to men and women who were struggling to nurture new 
     independent media in the post-Communist countries of Central 
     and Eastern Europe.
       It may cross the mind that we overstayed our leave by two 
     years. The fact is that we, and others in the field, 
     underestimated how difficult was the challenge. The 
     Communists left behind a bloated, entrenched, corrupting 
     bureaucracy. Even now it is obvious that these same 
     apparatchicks are fighting a rear guard attempt at 
     redemption--and a return to power.
       So, while we are wrapping up our five years before the job 
     is finished, we are eager to share our experiences with 
     others who will continue what we have started. Perhaps the 
     report on these pages will be of help.
       Largely, ours is a story of going in cold to work with a 
     skeptical bunch of journalists in countries as different as 
     Estonia is from Albania, as Poland is from Hungary.
       ``Why are you here?'' was always question Number One.
       It soon became known that although the International Media 
     Fund was financed largely by U.S. government dollars, it had 
     a fiercely independent Board of Directors and an army of 
     volunteer American editors, publishers, broadcasters and 
     academics willing to join in our effort. From the start is 
     was understood that the U.S. government would not interfere 
     with policy decisions of the Board.
       Surveys by our own staff soon indicated what we had already 
     sensed: that it was not going to be possible to try to build 
     the new media from the top down. The ideological roots of 
     anyone over 40 were too deeply implanted. So we decided to 
     build from the bottom up. Training was aimed at younger 
     newcomers starting to work in the field. We invited local 
     universities to let us help train 

[[Page S19237]]
     their youngsters, the opinion-molders of tomorrow. And we also helped 
     establish journalism resource centers to work with college-
     age students and professionals--and, yes, wannabees off the 
     street. At the same time, we did not neglect business 
     workshops, to help the new independent newspapers and 
     broadcast stations survive in the competitive marketplaces of 
     ideas and economics.
       We've tried to put some numbers together (including our 
     work over the last two years in Russia).
       By our reckoning:
       We conducted 29 workshops for about 1,300 broadcasters.
       We arranged 14 special broadcast survey and consultation 
     trips.
       We conducted 13 business workshops for some 650 newspaper 
     executives.
       We held 22 journalism and business workshops, jointly held 
     for about 1,000 broadcast and newspaper participants.
       We established 14 university radio and television training 
     facilities or stations.
       We helped start 16 university student publications.
       We worked with 19 Central and Eastern European 
     universities.
       And those figures do not include the participants at the 
     great many workshops and training courses held at the six 
     journalism resources centers supported by the Fund, or the 
     training equipment supplied by the Fund to those centers, or 
     the participation by Fund representatives as speakers or 
     discussion leaders in numerous media conferences arranged by 
     others in the U.S. and Europe.
       Our donations of technical equipment is equally impressive. 
     In fact, the Media Fund is leaving behind a substantial 
     presence--giant printing presses, computer units, radio 
     stations, television companies, journalism centers and 
     university courses, none of which existed five years ago.
       But beyond a check list is something more important. Our 
     hundred or so American volunteer professionals made a lasting 
     impression whenever they ventured--from Vladivostok in the 
     east to Prague in the west, from Tallinn in the north to 
     Tirana in the south, with Warsaw and Bratislva and Bucharest 
     and other cities in between. And our own small staff, of 
     course, made all this possible--a vigorous start to a job yet 
     to be completed. We are leaving the scene early only because 
     our primary source of funding no longer allows us the freedom 
     and flexibility to carry out the mission for which we were 
     created.
       The labor of these five years is our legacy from those of 
     us who have lived in a land with a free press to those 
     journalist sin other lands who wish to enshrine democracy in 
     the future.

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