President of RFE/RL dismissed
Baku, December 25 (AZERTAC). Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President and CEO Steven Korn has been dismissed from his post because of "fatal error" and "the collapse of the Moscow version." He will leave his post until February, 2013, according to “Kommersant” online newspaper (http://kommersant.ru/doc/2098002).
The decision to dismiss Korn was made in mid-December by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The BBG members said they were unhappy with Steven Korn’s activity, which has led to the total collapse of the radio station.
A former employee of "Radio Liberty" Mikhail Sokolov relates resignation of Steven Korn primarily to its non-professional policy at RFE/RL. "With the appointment of Masha Gessen as the director of Russian Service the station has lost two thirds of listeners. I hope that his strange and unfair decisions will be canceled," he said.
Steven Korn, former Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of CNN, has been named RFE/RL President and CEO by the board of directors of RFE/RL in June, 2011. In his new role, Korn oversaw RFE/RL’s broadcast operations to 21 countries, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Russia.
Korn took up his duties on July 11 and was based at RFE/RL's headquarters in Prague. Korn succeeded Jeffrey Gedmin, who stepped down in March, 2011, after four years as RFE/RL president.
Steven W. Korn earlier served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of CNN from 1996-2000, where he oversaw all operational, financial, technological, and other non-editorial functions for the CNN News Group on a global basis. In addition, he served on the supervisory board of German television news channel n-tv and on the board of CNN Plus, a Spanish language news service based in Madrid. Previously, Korn served as the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. (TBS), where he was responsible for all legal affairs of TBS and its subsidiaries worldwide. Following his 17 years at Turner Broadcasting, he assumed the role of publisher of the Daily Report, a legal newspaper, and GC South magazine, both located in Atlanta, Georgia.
Before joining Turner in 1983, he was an attorney specializing in civil litigation involving media, entertainment and telecommunications issues. From 2000-2007, Korn served on the Board of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) where he was Chairman of the Investment and Compensation committees and was a member of the Executive, Strategic Planning, Finance and Budget, Programming, and Presidential Search committees.
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