The United States has formally announced changes to its external broadcasting strategy which analysts describe as among the most far-reaching ever implemented.
The plans, which were made public in the 2004 budget request submitted to the US Congress this week, will redirect the main thrust of US efforts away from Cold War-era targets such as eastern Europe towards the Middle East and Indonesia.
The project, which has been under discussion in Washington for several months, is being seen as an attempt to counter the wide influence of the Qatar-based Arabic TV channel, Al-Jazeera.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all non-military US international broadcasting, is seeking a rise of some 10% in its $500m funding, in order to add new TV and radio output to its new target areas.
The BBG said in a press release that the programming increases are aimed at bolstering efforts in what the US calls the war on terrorism.
New Arabic TV station
A key element of the new strategy envisages the launch of a new Middle East Television Network (METN) in Arabic at a cost of $30m. According to the press release, the new channel will broadcast "accurate news and the message of freedom and democracy".
A communications expert described the strategy as an effort to change hearts and minds in the Muslim world.
"Of course it is an attempt to restore the very bad image of America in that part of the world", Professor Laird Anderson said.
"If it is more of a straight news and public affairs programme, it will bring credibility," Anderson said, but warned: "If it becomes a shrill, 'Look at us, look at what we do,' a propaganda machine, it will fail."
The plan also envisages the doubling of Voice of America's (VOA) Indonesian radio programming to five hours daily, together with an increase in Indonesian TV programming to five hours a week.
Eastern Europe loses out
The big losers in the shake-up are the long-established US broadcaster, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and the eastern and central European services broadcast by Voice of America. Both face major budget reductions.
The cuts include:
VOA ends broadcasts in Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovene, Slovak and Romanian
RFE/RL ends broadcasts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Slovak, as well as Romanian to Romania and the South Slavic Service in Croatian.
Some 100 jobs are affected by the changes.
New challenge
BBG's Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson said the budget meant an end to most VOA and RFE/RL broadcasting to the democracies of Eastern Europe where free speech is practised and where the process of joining the NATO alliance is under way.
He said the attacks on 11 September 2001 had "changed the way we must approach international broadcasting".
"This institution's task now is to... go forward with the new war of ideas as we offer democracy, tolerance and self-government as the positive alternative to tyranny, fanaticism and terror," Mr Tomlinson said.
"An extraordinary challenge lies ahead."