TRANSCRIPT:
The mission of VOA has always been to bring reliable journalism to the people who need it the most. And when you don’t have Voice of America out there in the world broadcasting to those millions of people around the world, it creates a void. And when that void is created, something rushes in to fill it. And right now, what we’re seeing rushing in to fill it is Chinese propaganda, Russian propaganda, fake news, rumors, or sometimes nothing at all. It’s just plunging people into darkness.
We understand the value of VOA around the world and the value it brings to freedom of the press. There’s perhaps no organization better positioned to understand the impact of VOA around the world, but more importantly, the impact of its elimination. So, we are seeing firsthand how the Kremlin or the Chinese Communist Party are gleefully celebrating the apparent death of VOA. That’s a real problem for anyone who cares about press freedom or for access to reliable information.
RSF is defending VOA not because, you know, its journalists are special — though we think they are — or because it’s a media organization that in and of itself is special — though we think it is. We’re defending VOA because of the rights of every citizen of the world to be able to access reliable information, and VOA is one of the ways we’re able to accomplish that.
Anytime you take away a source of information, that necessarily affects press freedom. And here when we’re talking about VOA, we’re talking about a media outlet that specifically caters to people who live in places where there is not a lot of press freedom, where there is not a lot of developed media. And this is an outlet that broadcasts to them in their language with means that they’re able to access, circumventing censorship, reaching directly into homes. There’s really no substitute for that kind of journalism.
Published
Weimers is the Executive Director of RSF USA, the North American branch of Reporters Without Borders (RSF). He originally joined RSF USA as its deputy director for advocacy after a career in political campaigns.