WASHINGTON — The director of the United States Agency for International Media (USAGM) said the agency she heads plays an important role in ensuring that global audiences have access to reliable and unbiased information while by resisting the media run by authoritarian regimes.
“We are at a turning point,” Amanda Bennett said in prepared testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee overseeing the State Department and other international affairs.
“Authoritarian regimes use malign influence, disinformation, propaganda, and manipulation of information to cut off the flow of information and discourage those seeking factual information about and around the world. The governments of China, Iran and Russia often work together to increase their harmful influence,” she continued.
USAGM estimates that 394 million people access the agency’s programs each week.
The federally-funded, congressional-supervised agency includes two federal entities (American media and Cuba Broadcast Office) and four non-profit organizations: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Network and the Open Technology Foundation. .
Bennett said USAGM was created specifically for this moment, and more than 4,000 media partners around the world are resisting the influence of state media.
In the year since the start of the Russian invasion, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and American media programs in Russian and Ukrainian have been viewed 8 billion times in the year since the start of the Russian invasion, according to USAGM, and one in four Iranians used Open Workarounds supported by the Technology Foundation to access information. .
“Now is the most important time for our agency since the Cold War and perhaps since World War II. USAGM must be able to always be competitive in today’s dangerous world of manipulation. information and huge investments from authoritarian regimes and other bad players,” Bennett said.
USAGM requested $944 million for 2024, up $59 million from this year. Some lawmakers question whether the agency is spending taxpayers’ money efficiently.
“We have a very open system,” Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin said, comparing USAGM networks to government-funded media. – We are very careful to protect the journalistic independence of your agency and we will continue to do so. But as politicians, we want to make sure that we deploy our resources and prioritize the areas of the world where we are most vulnerable.
In recent years, USAGM has undergone structural changes initiated by the Senate to address priorities and other issues and overcome technological barriers.
Earlier this year, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCall raised concerns about American media’s hiring practices and possible censorship.
“It is imperative that USAGM and the American media, as publicly funded organizations, adhere to strict principles of integrity and impartiality, preventing USAGM leadership from making editorial decisions,” McCall wrote in Bennett’s letter.
However, Jessica Brandt, policy director at the Brookings Institution’s AI and Emerging Technologies Initiative, noted that overseas audiences value USAGM stories for their authenticity.
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