TRANSCRIPT:
For decades, audiences around the world have known that U.S. broadcasting, including Voice of America, is telling the facts as they are. And they know that in an age of disinformation, of propaganda from Russian and Chinese and other – Iranian – sources, that U.S. networks adhere to the truth. And that attracts audiences, it convinces publics of the information that’s being shared with them.
And if we turn those tools into propaganda outlets, we ultimately are going to lose audiences and lose the power of that message. Objective, independent journalism is the most effective way to expose the lies of authoritarians. It reveals corruption in many of these societies. It highlights the attacks on civil society by authoritarian leaders. Audiences understand and respect in places like Russia, Iran, China, the role of independent journalists to be truth tellers, to hold leaders accountable.
Right now it’s hard to see how the United States is actually competing. We’ve seen even in the military conflict with Iran, significant increases in Iranian propaganda, not just to their own citizens or to global audiences, but reaching into the United States, using social media in creative ways to try to undermine the administration’s messaging to the American people.
And in response, we don’t see much from U.S. international broadcasting because of the funding issues, because of the staffing issues. And so I think we’re essentially leaving this key domain of the battle to our adversaries. And I don’t think that’s in the U.S. national security interest. And I think it requires the full funding and the full support for U.S. international broadcasting.
I mean for the entire 80-year history of U.S. international broadcasting, this has been a set of tools that have been supported by Republicans and Democrats across the political spectrum. And so I’m still confident that there is bipartisan support for this mission.
Published
Fly is the CEO of Freedom House. He served as president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from 2019–2020 and 2021–2023. He has also worked for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, as a counselor for foreign and national security affairs to Marco Rubio when he was a U.S. senator (2013–2017), and for the Foreign Policy Initiative. During the George W. Bush administration, Fly served at the National Security Council and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.