Voice of America
International US-owned broadcaster From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
International US-owned broadcaster From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting state media network funded by the federal government of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest of the U.S. international broadcasters.[3][4][5] VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world.[6] Its targeted and primary audience is non-American outside the US borders. As of November 2022, its reporting reached 326 million adults per week across all platforms.[7] It is financed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media after approval by Congress.[8]
| |
| Abbreviation | VOA or VoA |
|---|---|
| Founded | February 1, 1942 |
| Type | International state-funded broadcaster |
| Headquarters | Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building |
| Location |
|
Director | Michael Abramowitz |
| Budget | US$267.5 million[1] (Fiscal year 2023) |
| Staff | 961[2] (2021) |
| Website | www |
VOA was established in 1942, and the VOA charter was signed into law in 1976 by U.S. President Gerald Ford.[9][10] It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government.[11] Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. As of 2022, VOA had a weekly worldwide audience of approximately 326 million (up from 237 million in 2016) and employed 961 staff with an annual budget of $267.5 million.[1][12][13]
The Voice of America website had five English-language broadcasts as of 2014 (worldwide, Learning English, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, and Tibet). Additionally, the VOA website has versions in 48 foreign languages.[14][1]
Radio programs are marked with an "R"; TV programs with a "T":
The number of languages varies according to the priorities of the United States government and the world situation.[15][16]
Before World War II, all American shortwave radio stations were in private hands.[17] Privately controlled shortwave networks included the National Broadcasting Company's International Network (or White Network), which broadcast in six languages, the Columbia Broadcasting System's Latin American international network, which consisted of 64 stations located in 18 countries, the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio, and General Electric which owned and operated WGEO and WGEA, both based in Schenectady, New York, and KGEI in San Francisco, all of which had shortwave transmitters.[18][19] Experimental programming began in the 1930s, but there were fewer than 12 transmitters in operation.[20]
In 1939, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission set the following policy, which was intended to enforce the US State Department's Good Neighbor Policy, but which some broadcasters felt was an attempt to direct censorship:[21]
A licensee of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.[22]
Around 1940, shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter Nazi propaganda.[20] Initially, the US Office of the Coordinator of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news.[17] The director of Latin American relations at the Columbia Broadcasting System was Edmund A. Chester, and he supervised the development of CBS's extensive "La Cadena de las Américas" radio network to improve broadcasting to South America during the 1940s.[23]
| External images | |
|---|---|
| "La Cadena de las Américas" – Edmund Chester CBS Radio Director in 1943 Here on Getty Images | |
| The"Viva America" program on CBS Radio including vocalist Nestor Mesta Chayres in 1946 Here on Getty images | |
| "Viva America" – CBS Radio and Alfredo Antonini, Conductor in 1946 Here on Getty Images |
Even before the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government's Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) had already begun providing war news and commentary to the commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis, through its Foreign Information Service (FIS) headed by playwright Robert E. Sherwood, who served as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech writer and information advisor.[24] Direct programming began a week after the United States' entry into World War II in December 1941, with the first broadcast from the San Francisco office of the FIS via General Electric's KGEI transmitting to the Philippines in English (other languages followed). The next step was to broadcast to Germany, which was called Stimmen aus Amerika ("Voices from America") and was transmitted on February 1, 1942. It was introduced by the “Battle Hymn of the Republic" and included the pledge: "Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war... The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth."[25] Roosevelt approved this broadcast, which then-Colonel William J. Donovan (COI) and Sherwood (FIS) had recommended to him. It was Sherwood who actually coined the term "The Voice of America" to describe the shortwave network that began its transmissions on February 1, from 270 Madison Avenue in New York City.
The Office of War Information, when organized in the middle of 1942, officially took over VOA's operations. VOA reached an agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation to share medium-wave transmitters in Great Britain, and expanded into Tunis in North Africa and Palermo and Bari, Italy, as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the American Broadcasting Station in Europe.[26] Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in California in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in Hawaii and, after recapture, the Philippines.[27]
By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages.[27] Programming was broadcast from production centers in New York and San Francisco, with more than 1,000 programs originating from New York. Programming consisted of music, news, commentary, and relays of U.S. domestic programming, in addition to specialized VOA programming.[28] About half of VOA's services, including the Arabic service, were discontinued in 1945.[29] In late 1945, VOA was transferred to the US Department of State.
Also included among the cultural diplomacy programming on the Columbia Broadcasting System was the musical show Viva America (1942–49) which featured the Pan American Orchestra and the artistry of several noted musicians from both North and South America, including Alfredo Antonini, Juan Arvizu, Eva Garza, Elsa Miranda, Nestor Mesta Chaires, Miguel Sandoval, John Serry Sr., and Terig Tucci.[30][31][32] By 1945, broadcasts of the show were carried by 114 stations on CBS's "La Cadena de las Américas" network in 20 Latin American nations. These broadcasts proved to be highly successful in supporting President Roosevelt's policy of Pan-Americanism throughout South America during World War II.[33]
The VOA ramped up its operations during the Cold War.[34] Foy Kohler, the director of VOA from 1949 to 1952, strongly believed that the VOA was serving its purpose, which he identified as aiding in the fight against communism.[35] He argued that the numbers of listeners they were getting such as 194,000 regular listeners in Sweden, and 2.1 million regular listeners in France, was an indication of a positive impact. As further evidence, he noted that the VOA received 30,000 letters a month from listeners all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of requests for broadcasting schedules.[36] There was an analysis done of some of those letters sent in 1952 and 1953 while Kohler was still director. The study found that letter writing could be an indicator of successful, actionable persuasion. It was also found that broadcasts in different countries were having different effects. In one country, regular listeners adopted and practiced American values presented by the broadcast. Age was also a factor: younger and older audiences tended to like different types of programs, no matter the country.[37] Kohler used all of this as evidence to claim that the VOA helped to grow and strengthen the free world. It also influenced the UN in their decision to condemn communist actions in Korea, and was a major factor in the decline of communism in the "free world, including key countries such as Italy and France.[35] In Italy, the VOA did not just bring an end to communism, but it caused the country to Americanize.[38] The VOA also had an impact behind the Iron Curtain. Practically all defectors during Kohler's time said that the VOA helped in their decision to defect.[39] Another indication of impact, according to Kohler, was the Soviet response. Kohler argued that the Soviets responded because the VOA was having an impact. Based on Soviet responses, it can be presumed that the most effective programs were ones that compared the lives of those behind and outside the Iron Curtain, questions on the practice of slave labor, as well as lies and errors in Stalin's version of Marxism.[35]
In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to the Soviet citizens in Russia under the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media, according to John B. Whitton's treatise, Cold War Propaganda.[40] The Soviet Union responded by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts on April 24, 1949.[40]
Charles W. Thayer headed VOA in 1948–49.[41] Over the next few years, the U.S. government debated the best role of Voice of America. The decision was made to use VOA broadcasts as a part of U.S. foreign policy to fight the propaganda of the Soviet Union and other countries. The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the Suez Crisis of 1956, and was six hours a day by 1958.[29] Between 1952 and 1960, Voice of America used a converted U.S. Coast Guard cutter Courier as a first mobile broadcasting ship.[42]
Control of VOA passed from the State Department to the U.S. Information Agency when the latter was established in 1953[29] to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China. From 1955 until 2003, VOA broadcast American jazz on the Voice of America Jazz Hour. Hosted for most of that period by Willis Conover, the program had 30 million listeners at its peak. A program aimed at South Africa in 1956 broadcast two hours nightly, and special programs such as The Newport Jazz Festival were also transmitted. This was done in association with tours by U.S. musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, sponsored by the State Department.[43] From August 1952 through May 1953, Billy Brown, a high school senior in Westchester County, New York, had a Monday night program in which he shared everyday happenings in Yorktown Heights, New York. Brown's program ended due to its popularity: his "chatty narratives" attracted so much fan mail, VOA couldn't afford the $500 a month in clerical and postage costs required to respond to listeners' letters.[44] During 1953, VOA personnel were subjected to McCarthyist policies, where VOA was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and Gerard David Schine of intentionally planning to build weak transmitting stations to sabotage VOA broadcasts. However, the charges were dropped after one month of court hearings in February and March 1953.[45]
Sometime around 1954, VOA's headquarters were moved from New York to Washington D.C. The arrival of cheap, low-cost transistors enabled the significant growth of shortwave radio listeners. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, VOA's broadcasts were deemed controversial, as Hungarian refugees and revolutionaries thought that VOA served as a medium and insinuated the possible arrival of the Western aid.[46]
Throughout the Cold War, many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored jamming of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956, Polish People's Republic stopped jamming VOA transmissions,[47] but People's Republic of Bulgaria continued to jam the signal through the 1970s. In 1966 Edward R. Murrow said that: "The Russians spend more money jamming the Voice of America than we have to spend for the entire program of the entire Agency. They spend about $125 million ($1,200,000,000 in current dollar terms) a year jamming it."[48] Chinese-language VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976.[49] However, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies.[50] The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts.[51] Cuba has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to Iran from its Russian-built transmission site at Bejucal.[52] David Jackson, former director of Voice of America, noted: "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."[53]
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Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, VOA covered some of the era's most important news, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech[54], the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, and Neil Armstrong's 1969 first walk on the Moon, which drew an audience estimated at between 615 and 750 million people. In 1973, due to the détente policies in the Cold War, Soviet jamming of the VOA ceased; it restarted in 1979.[55]
In the early 1980s, VOA began a $1.3 billion rebuilding program to improve broadcast with better technical capabilities. During the implementation of the Martial law in Poland between 1981 and 1983, VOA's Polish broadcasts expanded to seven hours daily. Throughout the 1980s, VOA focused on covering events from the 'American hinterland', such as 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail.[45] Also in the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba, Radio Martí and TV Martí. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba. In September 1980, VOA started broadcasting to Afghanistan in Dari and in Pashto in 1982.[57] In 1981, VOA opened a bureau in Beijing, China.[58] The next year, it began regular exchanges with Radio Peking.[58]
In 1985, VOA Europe was created as a special service in English that was relayed via satellite to AM, FM, and cable affiliates throughout Europe. With a contemporary format including live disc jockeys, the network presented top musical hits as well as VOA news and features of local interest (such as "EuroFax") 24 hours a day. VOA Europe was closed down without advance public notice in January 1997 as a cost-cutting measure.[59] It was followed by VOA Express, which from July 4, 1999, revamped into VOA Music Mix.[60] Since November 1, 2014, stations are offered VOA1 (which is a rebranding of VOA Music Mix).[61]
In 1989, Voice of America expanded its Mandarin and Cantonese programming to reach the millions of Chinese and inform the country about the pro-democracy movement within the country, including the demonstration in Tiananmen Square.[62] Starting in 1990, the U.S. consolidated its international broadcasting efforts, with the establishment of the Bureau of Broadcasting.[63]
With the breakup of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe, VOA added many additional language services to reach those areas. This decade was marked by the additions of services in Standard Tibetan, Kurdish (to Iran and Iraq), Serbo-Croatian (Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian), Macedonian, and Rwanda-Rundi.[64][65]
In 1993, the Clinton administration advised cutting funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as it believed post-Cold War information and influence was not needed in Europe. This plan was not well received, and US President Bill Clinton then proposed the compromise of the International Broadcasting Act, which he signed into law in 1994. This law established the International Broadcasting Bureau as a part of the United States Information Agency (USIA), and established the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) with oversight authority, which took control from the Board for International Broadcasters which previously had overseen funding for RFE/RL.[66] In 1998, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act was signed into law, and mandated that the BBG become an independent federal agency as of October 1, 1999. This act also abolished the USIA, and merged most of its functions into those of the State Department.[67]
In 1994, Voice of America became the first broadcast-news organization to offer continuously updated programs on the Internet.[68]
The Arabic Service was abolished in 2002 and replaced by a new radio service, called the Middle East Radio Network or Radio Sawa, with an initial budget of $22 million. Radio Sawa offered mostly Western and Middle Eastern popular songs with periodic brief news bulletins.
The Arabic Service expanded to television with Alhurra on February 14, 2004 (and later to various social media and websites).[69] On May 16, 2004, the US government's international English language TV service Worldnet, became part of VOA as "VOA TV".
Radio programs in Russian ended in July 2008.[70] In September 2008, VOA eliminated the Hindi-language service after 53 years.[70] Broadcasts in Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian, and Bosnian also ended.[71] These reductions were part of American efforts to concentrate more resources to broadcast to the Muslim world.[70][71] In September 2010, VOA began radio broadcasts in Sudan. As U.S. interests in South Sudan grew, there was a desire to provide people with free information.[72]
In 2013, VOA ended foreign-language transmissions on shortwave and medium wave to Albania, Georgia, Iran, and Latin America, as well as English-language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan.[73] This was done due to budget cuts.[73] On July 1, 2014, VOA cut most of its English-language transmissions to Asia,[74] as well as shortwave transmissions in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Khmer, Kurdish, Lao, and Uzbek.[74] The following month, the Greek service ended after 72 years on air.[75][76]
RFE/RL launched the Russian language Current Time TV, in October 2014.[77]
In January 2016, upon his arrival in Moscow, Russian authorities detained and then deported Jeff Shell, the Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees the Voice of America, despite his having a valid Russian visa.[78] Russian authorities did not explain their actions.[78]
Round-the-clock broadcasting of Current Time began on February 7, 2017.[79][80][81]
In December 2017, under a new directive from Russia's Kremlin after a new law was passed by the State Duma (Russia's lower house of parliament) and the upper house Federation Council and signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Voice of America was deemed a "foreign agent" under the Russian foreign agent law.[82][83] In June 2021, the Russian news agency TASS reported that Russia's state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor complained that the foreign agent Voice of America radio station challengingly refused to observe Russian law because it had not established a Russian legal entity.[84] Roskomnadzor also said that VOA was as a foreign agent "obliged to mark their content and provide information about all aspects of their activity, including a detailed description of contacts with the authorities."[84]
In March 2022, VOA and other news broadcasters, including the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Deutsche Welle were blocked in Russia,[85] as after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities increased censorship of independent journalism, anti-war protests, and dissenting voices.[86][87][88][89] Nevertheless, many Russians have used VPNs and other software to get around Russian government blocks.[90][91] As of March 2022, VOA broadcasts were reaching people in Russia and the region through TV, FM and medium wave radio, digital, and direct-to-home satellite.[89] In May 2023, Russia banned then-acting VOA chief Yolanda Lopez from ever entering the country.[92]
The current director, Michael Abramowitz, assumed the position in July 2024. He previously served as president of Freedom House and spent nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor for The Washington Post.[93]
In December 2024, president-elect Trump announced he would name former news anchor Kari Lake to be the director of VOA.[94] Under the International Broadcasting Act only the International Broadcasting Advisory Board has the authority to approve the appointment or removal of the VOA Director.[95][96]
Voice of America has been a part of several agencies. From its founding in 1942 to 1945, it was part of the Office of War Information, and then from 1945 to 1953 as a function of the State Department. VOA was placed under the U.S. Information Agency in 1953. When the USIA was abolished in 1999, VOA was placed under the BBG which is an autonomous U.S. government agency, with bipartisan membership. The Secretary of State has a seat on the BBG.[97] The BBG was established as a buffer to protect VOA and other U.S.-sponsored, non-military, international broadcasters from political interference. It replaced the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB) that oversaw the funding and operation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a branch of VOA.[66]
In 2021, Voice of America launched 52 Documentary, a series that publishes weekly films about human experiences.[98] The series is presented on the streaming app, VOA+, and YouTube. Films average 10–15 minutes and are translated with captions in several languages, including Russian, Persian, Mandarin, Urdu, and English. Euna Lee directs the program.[99]
From 1948 until its amendment in 2013, Voice of America was forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens, pursuant to § 501 of the Smith–Mundt Act.[100] The intent of the 1948 legislation was to protect the American public from propaganda by its own government and to avoid any competition with private American companies.[101] The act was amended via the passage of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013.[102] The amendment was intended to adapt the law to the Internet and to allow American citizens access to VOA content.[103]
Under the Eisenhower administration in 1959, VOA Director Henry Loomis commissioned a formal statement of principles to protect the integrity of VOA programming and define the organization's mission, and was issued by Director George V. Allen as a directive in 1960 and was endorsed in 1962 by USIA director Edward R. Murrow.[104] VOA's charter was signed into law by President Gerald Ford.[3]: 218
VOA's charter requires it to "present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively."[105]: 218 Academics including Téwodros W. Workneh have described this as a public diplomacy function.[105]: 218 VOA's charter also requires it to be "a reliable and authoritative source of news" which "shall be accurate, objective, and comprehensive".[105]: 218
The Voice of America Firewall was put in place with the 1976 VOA Charter and laws passed in 1994 and 2016 as a way of ensuring the integrity of VOA's journalism. This policy fights against propaganda and promotes unbiased and objective journalistic standards in the agency. The charter is one part of this firewall and the other laws assist in ensuring high standards of journalism.[106][107]
According to former VOA correspondent Alan Heil, the internal policy of VOA News is that any story broadcast must have two independently corroborating sources or have a staff correspondent witness an event.[108]
VOA Radiogram was an experimental Voice of America program that started in March 2013 and ended in June 2017, which transmitted digital text and images via shortwave radiograms.[109][110] There were 220 editions of the program, transmitted each weekend from the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station. The audio tones that comprised the bulk of each 30-minute program were transmitted via an analog transmitter, and could be decoded using a basic AM shortwave receiver with freely downloadable software of the Fldigi family. This software was available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD systems. Broadcasts could also be decoded using the free TIVAR app from the Google Play store using any Android device. The mode used most often on VOA Radiogram, for both text and images, was MFSK32, but other modes were also occasionally transmitted. The final edition of VOA Radiogram was transmitted during the weekend of June 17–18, 2017, a week before the retirement of the program producer from VOA. An offer to continue the broadcasts on a contract basis was declined, so a follow-on show called Shortwave Radiogram began transmission on June 25, 2017, from the WRMI transmitting site in Okeechobee, Florida.[111][112]
The Bethany Relay Station, operational from 1944 to 1994, was based on a 625-acre (2.53 km2) site in Union Township (now West Chester Township) in Butler County, Ohio, near Cincinnati.[114] Major transmitter upgrades first were undertaken around 1963, when shortwave and medium-wave transmitters were built, upgraded, or rebuilt.[45] The site is now a recreational park with a Voice of America museum. Other former sites include California (Dixon and Delano), Hawaii, Okinawa, Liberia (Monrovia), Costa Rica, Belize, and at least two in Greece (Kavala and Rhodos).
Between 1983 and 1990, VOA made significant upgrades to transmission facilities in Botswana (Selebi-Phikwe), Morocco, Thailand (Udon Thani), Kuwait, and São Tomé (Almas).[115] Some of them are shared with Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
VOA and USAGM continue to operate shortwave radio transmitters and antenna farms at International Broadcasting Bureau Greenville Transmitting Station (known as "Site B") in the United States, close to Greenville, North Carolina. They do not use FCC-issued call signs, since the FCC does not regulate communications by other federal government agencies. The International Broadcasting Bureau also operates transmission facilities on São Tomé and Tinang, Concepcion, Tarlac, Philippines for VOA.[116]
 | This article's "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality. (August 2022) |
On June 12, 2024, the House Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that there was "credible evidence of corruption" regarding the matter of Setareh Derakhshesh Sieg, the former director of Voice of America's Persian News Network (PNN).[118] Following a series of whistleblower complaints and an extensive internal investigation by civil servants, Sieg had been terminated in January 2021 for falsifying her education credentials, severe abuses of taxpayer dollars for personal benefit, and engaging in a pattern of favoritism that materially benefitted some employees and contractors at the expense of the public.[119] However, within hours after President Biden took office, Sieg was reinstated then transferred to a different role by then-acting VOA Director Yolanda Lopez and cleared of wrongdoing.[120] Lopez abruptly resigned in September 2023 as the Committee intensified its investigation.[121] In its June 2024 report, the Committee found that the original allegations had merit and were supported by substantial evidence.[122] Sieg remains employed at VOA.
On April 2, 2007, Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundullah, an Iranian Muslim Sunni Salafi militant group with possible links to al-Qaeda, appeared on Voice of America's Persian-language service. The interview was condemned by the Iranian government.[123][124] Jundullah was linked to attacks on both Iranian military and civilians.[125][126] Rigi was captured by the Iranian security services and executed in 2010 in Evin Prison in Tehran.[127][128]
In February 2013, a documentary released by China Central Television interviewed a Tibetan alleged self-immolator who failed to kill himself. The interviewee said he was motivated by Voice of America's broadcasts of commemorations of people who committed suicide in political self-immolation. VOA denied instigating self-immolations and demanded that the Chinese station retract its report.[129]
After the January 2017 inauguration of US President Donald Trump, tweets by Voice of America (one of which was later removed) seemed to support the widely criticized statements by White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the crowd size and biased media coverage. This raised concerns over possible attempts by Trump to politicize VOA.[130][131][132][133] This amplified already growing propaganda concerns over the provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, signed into law by Barack Obama, which gave the powers of the board of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which was relegated to an advisory role, to a CEO appointed by the president. Trump sent two of his political aides to the agency to aid its CEO during the transition to the Trump administration. Criticism was raised over Trump's choice of aides; Matthew Schuck was a staff writer for right-wing website The Daily Surge until 2015, while Matthew Ciepielowski was a field director at the conservative libertarian advocacy group Americans for Prosperity.[130] VOA officials responded with assurances that they would not become "Trump TV".[130] BBG head John F. Lansing told NPR that it would be illegal for the administration to tell VOA what to broadcast, while VOA director Amanda Bennett stressed that while "government-funded", the agency is not "government-run".[132]
On April 10, 2020, the White House published an article in its daily newsletter critical of VOA coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.[134] Emails revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request showed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) press official Michawn Rich had sent a memo to agency employees stating in part, "as a rule, do not send up [interview] requests for [VOA contributor] Greta Van Susteren or anyone affiliated with Voice of America", referencing the White House story.[135] On April 30, The Washington Post, referring to Steven L. Herman who covered the White House for VOA, reported Vice President Mike Pence's office "threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence's office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence's visit to the Mayo Clinic – a requirement Pence himself did not follow."[136]
On June 3, 2020, the US Senate confirmed Michael Pack, a conservative documentaries filmmaker and close ally of Steve Bannon, to serve as head of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.[137] Subsequently, Director Bennet and deputy director Sandy Sugawara resigned from VOA. CNN reported on June 16 that plans for a leadership shakeup at VOA were being discussed, including the possibility that controversial former White House aide Sebastian Gorka would be given a leadership role at VOA.[138] On June 17, the heads of VOA's Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Open Technology Fund were all fired, their boards were dissolved, and external communications from VOA employees were made to require approval from senior agency personnel in what one source described as an "unprecedented" move, while Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, like Pack a Bannon ally, was rumored to be in line to head the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.[139] Four former members of the advisory boards filed suit challenging Pack's standing to fire them.[140] On July 9, NPR reported VOA would not renew the work visas of dozens of non-resident reporters, many of whom could face repercussions in their home countries.[141] In late July, four contractors and the head of VOA's Urdu-language service were suspended after a video featuring extensive clips from a Muslim-American voter conference, including a campaign message from then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, was determined not to meet editorial standards and taken down.[142]
On August 12, 2020, USAGM chief financial officer Grant Turner and general counsel David Kligerman were removed from their positions and stripped of their security clearances, reportedly for their opposition to what Turner called "gross mismanagement", along with four other senior agency officials.[143] Politico reported on August 13 that Trump administration official and former shock jock Frank Wuco had been hired as a USAGM senior advisor, responsible for auditing the agency's office of policy and research.[144] As a radio host, Wuco issued insults and groundless claims against former US President Barack Obama, CIA Director John O. Brennan, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.[145] VOA's Twitter account during this period featured stories favorable to Vice President Mike Pence and White House advisor Ivanka Trump.[146]
In response to Pack's August 27 interview with The Federalist website, a group of VOA journalists sent a letter to VOA Acting Director Elez Biberaj complaining that Pack's "comments and decisions 'endanger the personal security of VOA reporters at home and abroad, as well as threatening to harm U.S. national security objectives.'"[147] VOA's response was that "it would not respond directly to the letter because it was 'improper' and 'failed to follow procedure.' Instead, the leadership of USAGM and VOA 'are handling the choice of complaint transmission as an administrative issue,' which suggested that the journalists could face sanctions for their letter," according to The Washington Post. In the same story, the Post reported that VOA Spanish-language service White House correspondent's Brigo Segovia's interview with an official about the administration's response to Pack's personnel and other moves had been censored and his own access to VOA's computer system restricted.[148]
On July 20, 2020, District of Columbia attorney general Karl A. Racine filed suit under the District's Nonprofit Corporations Act to reverse Pack's replacement of the Open Technology Fund (OTF) board.[149] Beginning in August 2020, OTF came under increasing pressure from Peck and USAGM leadership. According to Axios,[150][151] this was related to OTF's reluctance to extend grants to Falun Gong-related enterprises working on technology directed against China's Great Firewall; The New York Times noted Falun Gong and its Epoch Times media group frequently supported the Trump administration.[152] On August 18, USAGM announced it was setting up its own Office of Internet Freedom with less strict grant requirements and began soliciting OTF's grantees to apply to the new office.[153][154] On August 20, OTF sued USAGM in the US Court for Federal Claims for withholding nearly $20 million in previously agreed grant funds.[155] On October 15, summary judgment was granted nullifying Pack's attempt to replace the OTF board.[156]
On September 29, six senior USAGM officials filed a whistleblower complaint in which they alleged that Pack or one of his aides had ordered research conducted into the voting history of at least one agency employee, which would be a violation of laws protecting civil servants from undue political influence.[157] NPR reported that two Pack aides had compiled a report on VOA White House bureau chief Steven L. Herman's social media postings and other writings in an attempt to charge him with a conflict of interest, and that the agency released a conflict of interest policy stating in part that a "journalist who on Facebook 'likes' a comment or political cartoon that aggressively attacks or disparages the President must recuse themselves from covering the President."[158] A preliminary injunction issued on November 20 barred Pack "from making personnel decisions involving journalists at the networks; from directly communicating with editors and journalists employed by them; and from investigating any editors or news stories produced by them," and characterized the investigation of Herman as an "unconstitutional prior restraint" of his, his editors', and fellow journalists' free speech.[159]
Suspended officials from Voice of America sued the agency news outlet on October 8. They accused Pack of using Voice of America as a vehicle to promote the personal agenda of President Trump and of violating a statutory firewall intended to prevent political interference with the agency, and they sought their reinstatement.[160]
In June 2020, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign told Vox News that Biden would fire Pack if Biden won election.[161] In November 2020, US District Court Judge Beryl Howell found Pack violated the First Amendment rights of Voice of America journalists.[162]
In December 2020, The Washington Post reported that Pack was refusing to cooperate with President-elect Biden's transition team and, in an end run around the court order, had persuaded VOA Acting Director Biberaj to step down, replacing him with Robert Reilly, a former VOA director who had written critically of Muslims, gays, and lesbians.[163][164] On December 19, 33 days before President-elect Biden's inauguration, Pack named Ted Lipien, a former VOA veteran journalist who headed the Polish Service during the final struggle for democracy in Poland in the 1980s and a former acting associate director of VOA who, according to NPR, "became a sharp critic of USAGM, VOA and the other affiliated networks on a pair of blogs" and "of the three network presidents affected, the only one without established partisan ties," as head of RFE/RL, and Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a writer for Breitbart and The Washington Times who had claimed President Obama "hates America," as head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.[165][166][167][168] On December 30, NPR reported Pack was attempting to add contractual language that would make it impossible to fire the broadcasting board members he had installed for two years, after which they could only be fired "for cause." Reportedly the new contracts were withdrawn after inquiries from media and Congress.[169]
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On January 11, 2021, VOA interim director Reilly ordered veteran reporter Patsy Widakuswara off the White House beat. Earlier that day, Widakuswara had followed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo out of the building after his speech criticizing the VOA[170] and his VOA-sponsored interview with VOA Director Robert Reilly during which reporters were not allowed to ask questions.[171] Widakuswara asked Pompeo what he was doing to repair the international reputation of the U.S. and whether he regretted saying there would be a second Trump administration.[172][173] The theme of the preceding interview with VOA Director Robert Reilly was reportedly the dangers of censorship.[174] In response, dozens of VOA journalists, including Widakuswara, wrote and circulated a petition calling on Reilly and public affairs specialist Elizabeth Robbins to resign.[175] In a statement, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks and ranking member Michael McCaul said, "Absent a legitimate reason for this move, which has not been provided, we believe she should be reinstated".[171] Widakuswara was reinstated to the White House beat after President Biden requested the resignation of Michael Pack.[170]
On January 19, the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, representing fired USAGM employees and whistleblowers, sent a letter to the congressional foreign affairs committees, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and the Inspector General of the US Department of State. The letter said that Pack had hired the McGuireWoods law firm to investigate USAGM employees and the OTF at a cost of over $2 million in the last quarter of 2020, bypassing US government investigators including USAGM's own Office of Human Resources, and called for further investigation of what it termed a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.[176] The Washington Post later reported that a second law firm, Caplin & Drysdale, had also been granted a similar no-bid contract in possible violation of federal contracting regulations for a total cost of $4 million.[177]
Also on January 19, the last full day of the Trump presidency, Pack named a slate of five directors to head each of the three USAGM boards for RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks: conservative radio talk show host Blanquita Cullum, Liberty Counsel officer Johnathan Alexander, former White House staffer Amanda Milius, conservative writer Roger Simon, and Center for the National Interest Fellow Christian Whiton.[178]
The following day, Pack resigned at the request of the Biden administration.[179] On January 21, Shapiro resigned from the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Biden named veteran VOA journalist Kelu Chao to replace Pack. Chao in turn dismissed Riley and Robbins from VOA, naming Yolanda Lopez, another VOA veteran, as acting director; Lopez had also been reassigned in the wake of the Pompeo interview.[180] On January 22, the Biden administration fired Victoria Coates and her deputy Robert Greenway from the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, naming Kelley Sullivan as acting head.[181][182]
In December 2024, Donald Trump, as president-elect, announced Kari Lake would be his choice for VOA Director. Lake had lost elections for Arizona governor and senator, advanced false claims around both her and Trump's election losses and left her previous job with the Phoenix, Arizona affiliate of Fox News after controversies including spreading COVID-19 misinformation.[183] Though the president may make a nomination, under the International Broadcasting Act only the International Broadcasting Advisory Board has the authority to approve the appointment or removal of the VOA Director.[184][185]
On April 19, 2017, the VOA Mandarin Service interviewed Chinese real estate tycoon Guo Wengui in a live broadcast. The government of China warned VOA representatives not to interview Guo about his "unsubstantiated allegations".[186][187] The interview was scheduled by the team for 3 hours. After Guo alleged that he had evidence of corruption among the members of the Politburo Standing Committee of China, the highest political authority of China, the interview was abruptly cut off by VOA leadership, after one hour and 17 minutes. Guo's allegations involved Fu Zhenhua and Wang Qishan (a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, and the leader of the anti-graft movement).[188]
On August 27, four U.S. Congressmen requested that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) conduct an investigation into the interruption.[189] The OIG investigation concluded that the VOA leadership decision to curtail the Guo interview was based solely on journalistic best practices, rather than due to any pressure from the Chinese government.[190] Another investigation, by Mark Feldstein, Chair of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, concluded that "VOA’s senior management did its best to make decisions consistent with journalism’s best practices and industry standards,” and “was not improperly influenced by the Chinese government or anyone else. The failure [of the VOA Mandarin Service interview team] to comply with leadership's instructions during the Guo interview 'was a colossal and unprecedented violation of journalistic professionalism and broadcast industry standards.'"[190] The Feldstein report also noted that "There had been a grossly negligent approach" by the VOA Mandarin Service interview team to pre-interview vetting, and failure to "corroborate the authenticity of Guo's evidence or interview other sources," in violation of industry standards. The VOA Mandarin Service interview team apparently "demonstrated greater loyalty to its source than to its employer – at the expense of basic journalistic standards of accuracy, verification, and fairness," the Feldstein report concluded.[191][192]
It has been reported that a Voice of America relay station in Udon Thani Province, Thailand was used as a CIA black site referred to as "Cat's Eye" or "Detention Site Green".[193][194]
The Amharic Service was started in 1982.[195] From 1982 to 1986, the VOA service had a mix of staff consisting of former members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and US-educated staff without strong political involvement in the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution and the associated student movement of the revolutionary period. Reporting was mostly critical of the Derg led by Mengistu Haile Mariam.[195]
The 1986 to 1996 phase was according to Annette Sheckler, who became head of the VOA Horn of Africa Service in December 1998, opposed to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF)/Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which took control of Ethiopia in 1991. According to Sheckler, the reporting became more politicized due to the loss of qualified staff, the role of EPRP-supporting staff being opposed to the TPLF government, and the role of former Derg officials who were recruited to the Service. US ambassadors to Ethiopia Mark Bass, Irvin Hicks, and David Shinn objected to what they saw as a lack of balance in the Service. Sheckler believed the Chief of the Horn of Africa service's EPRP background was a factor in what she viewed as imbalanced reporting. Broadcasts in Tigrinya and Oromo were added in addition to Amhara.[195] Sheckler sees the 18-month period during 1996–98, with a new temporary service Chief, as having become "essentially ungovernable" with a "legacy of personal animosity, hostility and complete lack of professionalism".[195] Sheckler described the June 1998 phase of the Eritrean–Ethiopian War as exacerbating ethnic conflicts within the service. Sheckler wrote memos to VOA leadership describing her assessment of serious problems in the service, and was fired on November 20, 1998, officially for "a lack of professional journalistic ethics"; she describes the reason for her firing as "telling the truth".[195]
Peter Heinlein led the service from 2012 to 2014. In 2013, he wrote a complaint about his view of problems in the service. He saw a significant flaw being the confusion of roles in which translators, untrained in the principles and methods of journalism, took on the role of journalists.[196] The service was mostly seen as anti-Ethiopian government until 2018, when Negussie Mengesha, the head of the VOA Africa division for several years, met the newly appointed Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed.[196]
In May 2021, several former employees accused VOA's Amharic service, under the leadership of Negussie Mengesha, of being biased in favor of the government of Abiy Ahmed, including failing to report on atrocities committed during the Tigray War.[197] VOA journalist Jason Patinkin said that he had reported the problems "at every level of the VOA hierarchy". Patinkin resigned from the service, saying that VOA had "sided with the perpetrators both by commission and omission" of "potential crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and perhaps even genocide".[196]
In June 2021, Mail & Guardian reported on an investigation based on "hundreds of internal memos and interviews with about a dozen former and current members" of the VOA Horn of Africa service.[196] Mail & Guardian stated that during the Tigray War, the only major foreign news service that was not harassed by Ethiopian security services was VOA. VOA gave frequent coverage to the Mai Kadra massacre, mostly attributed to Tigrayan youth and documented by Amnesty International, while later focusing on the Ethiopian government's dismissal of Amnesty International's report on the Axum massacre rather than on the methods and content of the report itself. During 107 meetings of the Horn of Africa service from November 4, 2020, to April 30, 2021, during the Tigray War, most (81%) of the meetings did not have approvals by Tizita Belachew, head of the service, or by Solomon Abate, of stories on the war that included Tigrayan points of view; a majority of the stories only showed government or military officials' points of view; a fifth of the meetings had no reports on the war. Instructions emailed to staff stated that the terms "civil war" and "war" were forbidden in reporting on the Tigray War, with Scott Stearns writing on 14 November, according to Mail & Guardian, "There are to be no deviations from these instructions by any member of any Africa division language service on any platform."[196]
After Elon Musk acquired social media platform Twitter, in April 2023 National Public Radio's main Twitter account was briefly designated as "US state-affiliated media", a label typically reserved for foreign media outlets that directly represented the point of view of their respective governments, like Russia's RT and China's Xinhua.[198][199][200] A few days later, Twitter changed the designation of NPR's account from "state-affiliated" to "government-funded".[201] Twitter then added the label to other sources such as PBS, the BBC, and Voice of America, which all three objected to.[202] VOA criticized the decision, stating "the label gives the impression that VOA is not an independent outlet," and that "its editorial independence is protected by regulations and a firewall."[203]
After the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, an email was sent to Voice of America staff from the associate editor for news standards with guidance related to how to refer to the actions ("terrorist acts" or "acts of terror") and advice about how to refer to individual members of Hamas, i.e. to use the term "terrorist" only in direct quotes from sources.[204] At the time, VOA was not the only news outlet with journalists discussing how to objectively refer to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[204] Six Republican members of Congress signed a letter sent by Senator Bill Hagerty, which criticized and strongly objected to the editorial guidance about how to refer to individual members of Hamas.[204] USAGM chief executive Amanda Bennett sent a letter to the senators to clarify that the VOA email was guidance only, and "There is no policy prohibiting the use of the words 'terror,' 'terrorism,' or 'terrorist'" at VOA, and stating the news organizations within USAGM "counsel care and attention in the use of the words but do not place any restrictions on the appropriate use."[204] The controversy prompted Congress to reduce the budget of VOA's parent organization, USAGM.[205]
A study was done on Chinese students in America. It found that through the VOA, they disapproved of the actions of the Chinese government.[206] Another study was done on Chinese scholars in America, and found that the VOA had an effect on their political beliefs. Their political beliefs did not change in relation to China, though, as they did not tend to believe the VOA's reports on China.[207]
VOA's service in Iran had a negative impact on Kurds and Kurdistan according to the publication Kurdish Life in 2000. They claimed that the VOA exacerbated the conflict between the Talabani and the Barzani.[208] They further claimed that the VOA covered up wrongful imprisonments, wrongful arrests, and the building of extremist mosques. According to the same publication, Kurds were being turned into fanatics, and a new generation of terrorists was forming because of the VOA. They claimed the VOA was doing this to help PUK.[209]
The VOA's DEEWA Radio airs in Pakistan. Although in 2015 some listeners were suspicious that the program was promoting an American agenda, others said they were experiencing a positive effect. Some listeners felt that the programs were giving a voice to the voiceless, giving them a sense of empowerment.[210] In 2018, the Pakistani authorities blocked the website of VOA's Pashto and Urdu language radio service.[211][212]
In response to the request of the United States Department of Justice that RT register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Russia's Justice Ministry Konovalov labeled Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as foreign agents in December 2017.[213][214]
On June 30, 2022, the Turkish media watchdog, Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), blocked access to VOA's website amerikaninsesi.com in Turkey because VOA had not applied for the necessary licence, which would subject VOA to certain obligations.[215][216] The RTÜK regulation requires foreign news outlets that publish in Turkey to apply for publication licenses, mandates that at least half of the media organization be owned by a Turkish citizen, and would force VOA to remove content deemed inappropriate by RTÜK.[217] VOA Turkish subsequently broadcast over a different VOA website domain name, voaturkce.com, which in August 2023 was blocked as well.[218] VOA said that "Given VOA's status as a public service international broadcaster legally required to provide 'accurate, objective, and comprehensive' news coverage to its global audience, VOA cannot comply with any directive intended to enable censorship."[218] VOA Turkey, after it was blocked, shared instructions on its social media accounts as to how to use VPN to access its content.[219]
Voice of America is seen by some listeners as having a positive impact and serving as US diplomacy, while others, like University of Peshawar's lecturer Faizullah Jan, see it as American propaganda.[210][206][220]
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