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Czech Helsinki Committee Writes to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Acting President Kevin Klose: Stop Discrimination of Radio’s Foreign
Staff in Prague and the Resulting Lawsuits
08 March, 2013 | 13:21
PRAHA. – In a sharply-worded letter to the Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty recently assigned Acting President Kevin Klose, Czech Helsinki
Committee urges him to end the discrimination of RFE/RL foreign
personnel in Prague and stop by peaceful resolutions the resulting
ongoing lawsuits.
The case of Armenian national, Anna Karapetian, mother of three minor
children, is in the Czech Supreme Court. Lawsuit brought by Croatian
citizen Snjezana Pelivan against Czech Republic, is pending in the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Snjezana Pelivan, former
employee of Radio Free Europe, is suing Czech Republic, the host
country to American RFE/RL, for failing to safeguard her rights to
non-discrimination and fair trial guarantied by European Convention
for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The letter to Kevin Klose is signed by the Czech Helsinki Committee
Chairperson Anna Sabatova. A former political prisoner in communist
Czechoslovakia, she shares the United Nations Human Rights Award with
Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter,
and such international organizations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International.
Snjezana Pelivan has requested Croatian government to support her
human rights claim against Czech Republic in Strasbourg. Zagreb
on-line newspaper, The Croatian Times , reported that Mrs. Karapetian
and Mrs. Pelivan consider also an appeal against the United States and
Czech Republic to the United Nations Human Rights Council in
Geneva. Several countries of 47 UN Council members belong to RFE/RL
broadcasting area.
>From its Prague headquarters, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
broadcasts to 21 countries – of the former Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 28 languages
RFE/RL proclaims its official mission:
“to promote democratic values and institutions,” “strengthen civil
societies by projecting democratic values,” “provide a model for local
media,” etc.
Hundreds of foreigners constitute the balk of RFE/RL editorial
personnel.
In its letter, Czech Helsinki Committee defined RFE/RL actions toward
its foreign employees as “deceptive,” representing “an act of fraud”:
“As a matter of course, RFE/RL provides its foreign personnel with
standardized employment agreements, stating: `Conditions of employment
are governed by the applicable laws of the United States, the laws of
the District of Columbia or the policies of the Company.’ This is
deliberately deceptive statement. In reality, American labor and civil
laws, by will of U.S. Congress, are not applicable to foreign
citizens. Being foreigners working for American employer abroad, they
are exempt from whatever protection is provided to Americans according
to U.S. labor regulations, civil and human rights laws.”
RFE/RL foreign employees, to whom American laws could not be legally
applied, are exempt also from protection of Czech labor
regulations. Placed deliberately in legal vacuum, they can be fired
according to RFE/RL internal Policy Manual: without cause, without
stated reason, without advance notice, without any preliminary
disciplinary measures, and even without severance compensation for
years of service if they refuse to accept an arbitrary termination and
give up in writing the right of appeal.
Czech Helsinki Committee notes:
” Discriminatory labor policies practiced by RFE/RL toward its foreign
employees came also to attention of the deputies of Czech Parliament
who brought it up in their inquiries.”
Prominent Czech Senator, writer and publicist Jaromir Stetina, who
personally protested violations of human rights in Cuba, Russia and
Belarus, branded RFE/RL’s treatment of its foreign employees as
“patently indecent, unfair, cynical and hypocritical.”
Writing to RFE/RL Acting President Kevin Klose, Czech Helsinki
Committee quotes the editorial article of conservative Czech
newspaper, Lidove noviny ,”Equality with preconditions”:
“Prague headquarters of RFE/RL, which pretends to be a messenger of
freedom, democracy and the rule of law, behaves as an employer in such
a way as if the principles it heralds, are relevant “just” for the
whole planet but not for what is going on inside that estimable
organization itself.”
The oldest Czech newspaper compares legal status of RFE/RL foreign
employees in Prague to that of “aborigines void of rights.”
Their plight is exemplified by the ongoing court cases of Snjezana
Pelivan and Anna Karapetian. Multilingual media echo accompanying
their lawsuits – in English, Russian, Czech, Armenian, Slovak,
Croatian, etc. – is disastrous for moral standing, international
political and public reputation of American RFE/RL:
“betrayal of ideals”, “hypocrisy,” “Guantanamo in Prague,” “violation
of human rights,” “lawlessness,” “double standards,” “moral disaster,”
“fraud,” “cynicism,” “public idiocy instead of public diplomacy#”
An instrument of American public diplomacy, Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty is financed by American Congress via Federal agency
Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in Washington. The Board
consists of eight members assigned by the President of the United
States and then confirmed by U.S. Senate. The Secretary of State,
presently John Kerry, sits on BBG ex officio. Simultaneously,
Broadcasting Board of Governors serves as the RFE/RL’s Board of
Directors.
RFE/RL is shaken by international scandals not only in Prague. In
Moscow, the Radio summarily and brutally fired last September over
thirty experienced employees, the core of its editorial personnel, in
pursuit of some new, larger audience. It failed miserably, triggering
instead an avalanche of devastating media publications and angry
protests from Russian opposition political and public figures,
including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mikhail Gorbachev and Lyudmila
Alexeeva, the legendary head of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
Scandal in Moscow has culminated in resignation last December of the
then RFE/RL President Steven Korn. He was replaced by the Acting
President Kevin Klose who arrived to Prague on February 4thwith a
clear mandate: to curtail the self-made calamities besieging RFE/RL as
the tool of American public diplomacy. Till now, however, the
situation remains the same, be it in Moscow or elsewhere.
On October 8, 2012, in its Open letter to American Congressional
Helsinki Commission, titled “Violations of Human Rights and Disregard
of Moral Principles by American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) in Prague Should Not Go On,” Czech Helsinki Committee, in
solidarity with Russian human rights activists, stated:
“We consider deplorable RFE/RL activities in Prague and presently in
Moscow to be the links of the same chain.”
Quoting that statement, Czech Helsinki Committee concludes its letter
to the current head of RFE/RL, Kevin Klose, with a call to act:
“Presently, the rescue of public image of the radio station is
entrusted to you, in Russia as well as in Prague. We would like to ask
you for promoting the ending of the court cases with Mrs. Karapetian
and Mrs. Pelivan with the amicable settlement and the change of
discriminatory labor policies damaging, in our opinion, the reputation
of RFE/RL.”
From: A. Papazian