From the CEO and Director
The Broadcasting Board of Governors works to keep Americans safe at home and around the world by providing unbiased, uncensored news and information to more than 100 countries and in 58 languages.
In this global media environment, consumed by misinformation campaigns and far-reaching censorship, we know that accurate and unbiased information is an important currency. Our role is to support the kinds of societies that, in the long run, support U.S. national interests. These are free, open, and democratic societies. We know that an informed population is a more stable one, and the BBG has played a critical role in supporting that stability by:
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– Countering disinformation, propaganda and extremist rhetoric
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– Providing alternative voices in media environments with few represented
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– Supplying access to independent information through the largest distribution portfolio in the world
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– Training the next generation of journalists to make press freedom sustainable
This web report provides just a snapshot of the impact and activities of the BBG and its five networks—Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—in 2017.
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In an effort to better communicate the evolving, global scope of our work, we changed the name of the agency to the United States Agency for Global Media, August 2018.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media is now a modern media organization, operating far beyond the traditional broadcast mediums of television and radio to include digital and mobile platforms. Our new name reflects our modernization and forward momentum while honoring our enduring mission to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. In 2017 we reached a weekly unduplicated measured audience of 278 million people, and at the time of this writing we estimate our audience to have grown to an approximate 339 million.
This growth is largely due to our remarkably talented storytellers across the networks, and also to our commitment to using whatever tools are necessary to disseminate content where it is needed most, ranging from shortwave radio and local affiliates to one of the most advanced censorship-breaking applications in the world.
Now more than ever, people around the world need access to the truth. No matter what we are called, we will continue to tell the truth, and illuminate the world like no other news organization in the world.
— John F. Lansing