WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (AFP) - US officials rushed to the defense of a government-funded Arabic-language radio network Wednesday after a scathing analysis faulted the station for not achieving its mission to promote democracy and improve the image of the United States in the Middle East.
The officials said the criticism leveled at Radio Sawa, contained a draft report prepared by the State Department's inspector general, was inaccurate, misplaced and based on an erroneous interpretation of the two-year-old broadcaster's mandate.
They added that the draft report -- which has been vehemently attacked by Radio Sawa's administrators, the Broadcasting Board of Governors -- was being thoroughly revised to make it consistent with the network's founding legislation.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said questions had arisen "about the criteria that were being used in preparing the Radio Sawa report" which he said was "now being reviewed and revised to be consistent with the facts and the legal basis as it emerged."
He declined to comment on specifics in the draft report -- the existence of which was first reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday -- but said the US government's view of Radio Sawa "is very positive."
While refusing to criticize the draft, Boucher told reporters that the network was fulfilling its mandate to represent the United States in Arab nations adding: "We think they're doing that very well."
Other officials, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, were more blunt.
"The IG's office got this one wrong," said one State Department official familiar with the draft report.
A second official said the inspector general's office, which is responsible for preparing reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of US diplomacy, had mistakenly used the charter of the Voice of America (VOA) to rate Radio Sawa.
"The problem is that they evaluated Radio Sawa through the lens of the VOA charter," the official said. "Radio Sawa is a distinct entity and has a different mandate. The legislation is totally separate and the report is being revised to reflect that."
The official added that it was standard practice for the inspector general to submit a draft of its reports to the affected agency for comments before preparing its final analysis.
They confirmed that the draft report took Radio Sawa and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to task for failing to meet its mandate by not adequately measuring whether it was influencing hearts and minds in the Arab world.
"It is not a flattering portrait," the first official said.
Among other faults, the draft report concluded that in addition to not assessing its impact, Radio Sawa was preoccupied with building a youthful audience in the Middle East with pop music programming that it had "failed to present America to its audience," according to the Post.
Though the report credits Radio Sawa for attracting listeners, it said news and information programs represented only 25 percent of its broadcast and that the network's executives appeared reluctant to use it as a tool for public diplomacy, a position at odds with the VOA charter.
That charter says the broadcaster should present the policies of the United States "clearly and effectively" and to present "responsible discussions and opinion on these policies."
Members of the BBG, which oversees all US government-funding broadcasters including VOA and Radio Sawa, noted that Radio Sawa was not meant to be judged on the same criteria as VOA, which was founded in part to counter Soviet propaganda.
"They are different animals," one official said, noting that Radio Sawa was created after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States as part of broader efforts to counter rampant anti-US sentiment in the Arab world.
"To do that you need to build an audience, ideally a young one," the official said. "Radio Sawa has done that."
Radio Sawa was dismissed as a lightweight replacement for the Arabic-language broadcast of Voice of America when it went on the air in March 2002 but officials noted that recent surveys by media ratings firms showed that the network is a leading station in Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
In April, the BBG released a survey done by global media ratings giant AC Nielsen that showed that Radio Sawa had become the most listened to radio station in Morocco's two largest cities.