TRANSCRIPT:
For countries around the world that suffer under autocracy or in media deserts, VOA has really provided that trusted information that citizens need to make informed decisions.
We know that VOA used to broadcast in over 40 languages, and you look in some of the regions of the world, across the continent of Africa, in East Asia, VOA was a critical source of information for populations. And this is a role that really is unreplicated.
The risk of restricting VOA is that you expand the information desert, you isolate communities, and also, frankly, you have America’s adversaries moving in to take advantage of that. It’s not that when VOA goes away, people stop listening to news. They turn to other sources of news. And a lot of those sources of news are biased against the United States. They offer false narratives and the information is not trustworthy.
That was VOA’s gold standard. It was trusted information. And with the loss of VOA, you have increasing news deserts around the world.
Voice of America is an incredible tool for the United States. And it’s not just the power it has today. It’s the power to shape generations to come. So, I think it’s incredibly important that the United States invest in VOA. It is an important component of U.S. national security.
Published
Trudeau is the Bradford M. Freeman managing director of global policy at the George W. Bush Institute. She is a former senior Foreign Service officer who served as the acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Global Public Affairs and held senior positions in Ukraine and Iraq, among others.