Note to staff
VOA director welcomes USAGM response to inspector general report
By Michael Abramowitz, VOA director
Published
Dear Colleagues,
I wanted to share with you the State Department Inspector General’s new report, entitled Evaluation of the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Approach to Reducing Operations. The OIG report carefully outlines the harmful impact that USAGM’s illegal actions to shut down Voice of America have had on U.S. national interests around the world.
It states: “The reduction in operations diminished USAGM’s capacity to fulfill its core statutory mission of informing, engaging, and connecting people worldwide in support of freedom and democracy.”
It is essential that the government accelerate its efforts to bring back VOA, which has been a strong and important tool for American influence around the world. I was heartened that, in its response to the IG report, USAGM indicated that it concurred with the key recommendations for addressing the deficiencies identified by the report, including its statement that it will “define its goals to focus on leadership priorities, set outcomes, and measure results.”
Respectfully,
Mike