Polygraph.info, run by Voice of America, and Factograph.info, run by RFE/RL, address what has become a steady stream of misinformation relating to Russian relations with the United States, Europe, and former Soviet Republics. Journalists fact-check government and media statements for accuracy and provide context.  Many of these stories have been republished by other fact-checking sites.

VOA’s Afghan service debunked a story on the Russian government-run Sputnik news service, which claimed that radiation from a U.S. MOAB bomb dropped on ISIS caves in eastern Afghanistan had caused diseases in the area. An Afghan service stringer visited the bombed site and conducted interviews with local people, officials, and health-workers – all of whom flatly rejected the Sputnik report. VOA’s Polygraph.info also picked up the Afghan story.

America Live Coverage Desk Project

Millions of news consumers across Eurasia tuned in to VOA Russian for live, unfiltered coverage of events in America, primarily focusing on U.S.-Russian affairs and Russia’s malicious influence in the region. Through its digital platforms and the Current Time Network, the “America Live Coverage Desk Project” engaged highly active audiences with real-time analysis by U.S.-based experts and simultaneously translated presidential addresses, major policy pronouncements and speeches, debates, and congressional hearings. On social media platforms, more than 200,000 people watched VOA Russian’s comprehensive coverage of President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, and more than 100,000 engaged with the live program featuring his first address to the Congress.

At a time when Russian state-sponsored media are filled with anti-U.S. propaganda, the content produced by the Coverage Desk gave audiences an accurate portrayal of U.S. policymakers and events and provided thoughtful analysis and discussion.  The real-time engagement of so many viewers is a testament to the interest and need for such programming.

Media Literacy as an Antidote to Propaganda

Current Time’s Smotri v Oba (See Both Sides) program, produced by RFE/RL, juxtaposes footage from Western and Russian news programming to showcase how a single news story can be told in a variety of ways. The show compares reporting of key news stories from country to country, and channel to channel. In deconstructing fake news and disinformation, the program teaches viewers how to identify mistakes and manipulations, thus working to improve media literacy across the region. In one episode from June 2017, the program focused on Russia’s efforts to push disinformation about the European Union into Moldova, and exposed the anti-Western viewpoints blanketing Russian media coverage of the country.

What’s Alaska Really Like vs. What the Russian Government Says

VOA Russian produced a 10-part video series marking the 150th anniversary of the Alaska Purchase, when Russia sold Alaska to the United States. The series provided important insight into present-day life in Alaska – its economy, resources, and people – and offered a counterpoint to false narratives in Kremlin-sponsored media that Alaska was abandoned by U.S. authorities and that life in the area would be better had Alaska remained part of Russia. The Service produced stories on the four-decade-old Alaska pipeline; the economy of Homer, a town that proudly calls itself the “world capital of halibut fishing;” and about a group known as Russian Old Believers, who live in the village of Nikolaevsk on Kenai Peninsula. The series featured unique, original interviews and exquisite drone footage. Aired as part of the Current Time America TV program, the extended, 10-minute episodes were also digitally available via VOA Russian web and social media channels. They garnered more than 300,000 views on Facebook in just a few days. An English-language version of the series was also produced for the house.

Russian Orphans in the United States

VOA Russian produced a series focusing on the life of Russian orphans who were adopted by American families in the 1990s. The series launched around the fifth anniversary of the infamous Dima Yakovlev law, which banned American adoptions of Russian orphans. It featured interviews with adopted children who VOA’s Russian Service first filmed 15 years ago. They candidly spoke about the challenges they had to overcome, their achievements and hopes – providing a window into what life is really like in America, as opposed to a highly-negative Kremlin narrative. The series garnered more than 1 million video views on Facebook, had thousands of shares and reactions, and stirred lively debate on Facebook about Russian children adopted by Americans.
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RFE/RL’s Central Asia News wire, launched in 2015, continues to expand to ensure that resource-strapped local media outlets, long reliant on Russian media, have ready access to accurate, professionally reported news, free of charge, in four local languages and Russian, to interested media outlets in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The News Service has more than 1,200 subscribers, and its content is regularly published by 270 media outlets. It averages 1,100 citations weekly, and its stories are republished or re-posted on average over 5,500 times each month, including by nationwide broadcasters with audiences in the millions.

Current Time Asia correspondent Zhibek Bagalieva used her reporting to reveal a blatant example of “fake news” by Russian state media. The Bishkek-based reporter looked into a March 24 television report by Russia’s 1st Channel, which claimed that an ethnic Russian man had been held as a slave in a small Kyrgyz village for more than 16 years. The story was almost entirely fabricated, and the piece — which was widely shared by Central Asian news sites — showed how Russian media creates fake news aimed at stirring xenophobic fears about Russia’s border regions.

North Korea

Voice of America and Radio Free Asia collaborated to counter North Korean government propaganda by showing North Koreans the reality of life outside the DPRK. VOA’s Palisades program tells America’s story by profiling Korean-Americans living in a community in New Jersey, while RFA’s programs Bravo My Life and My New Life depict the lives of North Korean defectors.

In response to the growing bellicosity of North Korea towards the United States, VOA’s Korean Service launched an ambitious new initiative to reach the North Korean population through video programming. With a rich array of news shows and cultural features, the new broadcasts present an authoritative analysis of U.S. policies and an authentic look at America and its diversity through lives of the Korean-American community.

VOA’s new documentary series focuses on Korean-Americans living in Palisades Park, New Jersey  is designed to inform North Korean elites how Korean immigrants thrive in America, maintain their heritage and deal with challenges of daily life.  Published on YouTube and VOA Korean’s website, the series is intended for North Korean diplomats and workers abroad who have access to the internet.

All Mashaal reporting serves a CVE function, as the service reports on topics that local domestic press will not cover out of fear of violent retribution. These fears are not unfounded, as in 2017, no fewer than four Radio Mashaal journalists have been threatened, stalked, kidnapped for up to 72 hours, shot at, or otherwise harassed, both by the Taliban and by Pakistani intelligence agency officials.

For example, in May 2017, a Radio Mashaal investigation revealed that a well-known religious leader in Pakistan’s Balochistan province was openly soliciting charitable donations for the Afghan Taliban–seemingly at odds with Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy that calls for “choking financing for terrorism and terrorist organizations.” Mashaal published the story on its website; within hours, it was a trending topic across social media and sparked discussion across multiple time zones. Leading Pakistani television stations Geo TV and Dawn News cited Radio Mashaal’s coverage of the story during their respective prime time talk shows.

In addition to its direct challenges to Taliban propaganda, Radio Mashaal leads news coverage in the region and a platform for other moderate voices by reporting controversial, and even dangerous, stories first. For example, Mashaal made it easier for domestic media in Pakistan to report the case of Mashal Khan, a university student killed by a mob in northern Pakistan in April 2017 over alleged blasphemy, by being the first media outlet to speak with his father shortly after Khan’s funeral. Pakistani media are often reluctant to cover such stories, fearing reactions from extremists. But the impact of Mashaal’s interview on social networks–where it received more than 500,000 views–and coverage by other international media eventually provided enough cover for local media to cover the story as well. Mashaal also sought to expose the negative impact of such religious extremism on Pakistani society by publishing reaction from Khan’s mother to her son’s death and from Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousazfai, in addition to video reports on anti-extremism protests in the cities of Bannu, Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar.

Mashaal also has specific rubrics dedicated to non-violent conflict resolution, including Towards Peace, a twice-weekly radio show that teaches peaceful means of problem solving. Several organizations, including a school in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, have requested to use Mashaal’s programming.

Many of RFE/RL’s language services provide fact-based coverage of ISIS and the Taliban in the vernacular languages of RFE/RL’s audiences. For example, as part of its Behind The Scenes program, Current Time reporters visited such hotspots as post-coup attempt Turkey, the closed Azerbaijani city of Nardaran, and Turkish and Syrian border towns serving as bases for the opposition to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The program also visited cities throughout Afghanistan to examine the violence that continues to engulf the country four decades after the war began. The result is a rare look inside Afghanistan, and a vivid and disturbing portrait of a country where peace remains a distant prospect.

Iraq

Alhurra Launches Acclaimed Series Showing the Reality of ISIS

In 2017, Alhurra launched Exiting ISIS, a documentary series in which ISIS defectors provide first-hand accounts of what life was like as a member of the terrorist organization and why they left. The series revealed the extremist group’s entrenched culture of deception, intimidation, cruelty, drugs, and sexual abuse.

Through rare interviews, the 13-part series told the stories of former ISIS members who provide unique insights into life in the Islamic State.  They showed ISIS’s hypocrisy as it captivates its followers with the promise of a global Muslim caliphate.  Exiting ISIS documented why ISIS militants joined the armed group and ultimately decided to escape.  Defectors provided revelatory details about how foreign fighters were recruited; how they traveled to Iraq and Syria to join the fight; how women were forced to torture other woman who have transgressed by singing, listening to music, dressing with insufficient modesty, or leaving their homes without a male escort.

In each episode, Exiting ISIS provided insightful testimonials of deserters denouncing ISIS’s lies, its false promises, its cult of violence and death, and its widespread corruption and inequality. They believe that, in doing so, they will reveal the truth about ISIS and discourage future potential recruits from joining. It communicated the fear and terror felt by those trapped under ISIS rule.

VOA Somali produced a series of special reports about rehabilitating former al-Shabaab militants, shining a light on how extremist rhetoric on social media contributed to radicalizing young people. Somali lawmaker Abdishakur Yaqub Ibrahim told VOA that al-Shabaab leaders “are saying they will educate the children, but they are going to turn them into bombs.”

Somalia’s top religious leaders denounced a social media campaign by extremists from Egypt and Libya. “It’s a responsibility to our religion and to our people to tell them about this new group’s tenets which is to apostatize people,” Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad told VOA Somali. He described the efforts as an aggression against our religion and the Somali people. The Director of a reintegration center, Abdirashid Ibrahim Mohamed, said “Normally, when these youngsters defect from al-Shabaab, they already know that what they were involved in is wrong, and they come to us to save themselves.”

Redressing misinformation

End of “Wet Foot / Dry Foot” Policy in Cuba

On January 13, 2017 all Office of Cuba Broadcasting services provided coverage of the breaking news related to the changes on the “Wet Foot/Dry Foot” policy of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. The policy had allowed anyone who fled Cuba and entered the United States by land or sea to pursue residency a year later. Newscasts were dedicated to the policy change announcement and included analysis from lawyers as well as reaction from Cubans and Congressional leaders.

The official declaration on the position of the United States Government on illegal immigration was placed in hot rotation during promotional breaks in programming. Original Marti content was shared with VOA Central News and the Voice of America Latin America Division. A VOA LatAm reporter in Mexico worked with the Martis to cover the last Cuban to enter the U.S. under the “Wet Foot/Dry Foot” policy. OCB also provided extensive coverage of Cubans stuck in transit in Latin America and in airports in the U.S. In August, OCB had special coverage on Cubans stranded in Panama with final order of deportation from the Panamanian government. Marti reporters traveled to Panama and interviewed Cuban immigrants, government officials and representatives of the Catholic Church. Video material was used across all platforms as well as in local Miami media, such as Telemundo 51 and Channel 23-Univision.

VOA Spanish Influences Venezuela Crisis Coverage

VOA Spanish provided much-needed accurate and timely news of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Venezuela, helping to shape local and regional coverage. As protests multiplied, VOA expanded on the ground coverage, airtime, and staff devoted to the story. VOA worked with 99 media partners in Venezuela, providing hundreds of television and radio packages as well as extensive social media coverage. Content included information about political repression, economic turmoil and growing humanitarian crises, as well as how events were being received in the United States, including in Congress, and the Venezuelan diaspora. VOA also provided coverage for hundreds of affiliate stations throughout the rest of Latin America, where audiences have a stake in following the Venezuelan story.

VOA facilitated coordination among local reporters and media and put a spotlight on the despair and hopes of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who fled the country. On a bridge linking Venezuela and Colombia, VOA’s Celia Mendoza interviewed a young man who barely escaped with his life after being shot at by Venezuelan guards. Venezuela-Colombia Border Mendoza reported from Curaçao on the risks to Venezuelans crossing the dangerous waters to find refuge on the island.

In a series of Facebook Live reports, Mendoza spoke with a victim of human traffickers. The woman said she thought she was being hired as a waitress but instead was forced into prostitution.  Mendoza spoke to another woman who gave birth in Cucuta following a harrowing night leaving Tachira.  The two stories attracted more than 200,000 views.

Somali Town Hall on Measles and Vaccination Myths

VOA Somali held a town hall meeting to provide factual information about vaccines after a measles outbreak spread through Minnesota’s ethnic Somali community. The Minneapolis forum “Vaccine and Autism: Myths and Facts” brought together community leaders and four Minnesota health officials, two of whom have children with autism. Health experts addressed concerns that vaccinations cause autism. . Broadcast live on radio and television inside Somalia, the meeting was also picked up by the Star Tribune.

“This is long overdue,” Minneapolis resident Abdirahman Sheikh Mursal said at the meeting’s conclusion. “We have not seen anything as educational as VOA’s town hall meeting. You really raised the bar of our awareness.” This interactive town hall informed, as well as connected, the Somali diaspora with those still in Somalia, and raised awareness about myths associated with vaccines.

Telling America’s Story

For many audiences around the world, access to the truth about the United States and the daily lives of Americans can be hard to find. Often stories about the U.S. are presented through a political filter or are censored out completely.

Voice of America and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks provide access to information about what is happening in American culture, politics and discourse, to audiences around the world.

Showing democracy in action

VOA Live, Simultaneous Translation of President Trump’s First Address to Congress

All VOA language services covered President Trump’s first address to Congress and the Democratic response.  Many services provided simultaneous translation, giving audiences direct and unfiltered access to the speeches, along with comprehensive analysis.  The programming attracted strong audience engagement on social media.   

Among the coverage, VOA Russian produced a special edition of Current Time America, going live with a one hour-45-minute program. The event was streamed on Russian’s digital platforms. It was viewed more than 100,000 times on Facebook and attracted more than 1,000 comments.  VOA Persian aired a more than two hour live special that included correspondent reports from the White House and the Capitol Rotunda.  Guests included Hossein Khorram, co-chair of the American Mideast Coalition for Trump, and Professor Shirin Hunter of Georgetown University.  The full video of the President’s address, along with short video excerpts on Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram, garnered over 386,000 views.   

VOA Ukrainian was the only media outlet in Ukraine to carry the speech live with simultaneous translation on digital platforms. VOA also filed for leading TV channels in Ukraine.  The President’s address dominated morning newscasts in Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Georgia, where more than 35 affiliates relied on VOA for coverage.   

VOA’s Deewa service provided live streaming of the speech with simultaneous translation on Facebook.  Deewa interviewed prominent members of Congress offering reaction, including Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), and U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA).  VOA Afghan provided live coverage from the National Mall and discussed the speech and the democratic response with one of its top affiliates, Tolo TV, in Kabul.   

More than a dozen stations across Africa picked up English coverage while more than 30 television and radio stations in Latin America carried VOA Spanish’s simultaneous translation and linked to VOA Spanish Facebook Live.  VOA Indonesian provided live reports for TV affiliates, including CNN Indonesia, and for 20 radio affiliates. VOA Khmer aired the President’s speech live via Facebook, simultaneously translating important quotes.

VOA Persian became the primary destination for information about U.S. Presidential remarks, Congressional hearings, and foreign policy debates by providing simultaneous translation and live broadcasts of significant events throughout the year.  As the go-to source for access to U.S. officials’ speeches, news conferences, and other American perspectives, VOA attracted unprecedented levels of engagement with Iranians.   

Starting with President Trump’s inauguration, VOA produced over 60 live, breaking news, and long-format broadcasts.  Simultaneous translation in Farsi was provided on the service’s 24/7 satellite TV channel and on digital platforms. Full video and excerpts from President Trump’s address on his Iran strategy were viewed more than 1.2 million times on social media platforms alone.

Video from a National Security Summit with remarks by CIA Director Mike Pompeo and White House National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, were viewed 680,000 times on social media. National Security Summit – Persian  Live coverage of a 4-hour conference on Countering Violent Extremism also featured simultaneous translation of full remarks.  Among the speakers were Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), former Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon, former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta and former CIA Director General David Petraeus. Video from this conference was viewed more than 250,000 times on social platforms.

The service created a special web page with information about the Iranian regime that is strictly off-limits in Iran.  The service translated documents and video excerpts related to Congressional efforts to pass the “Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act.”  This legislation aimed to expose secret assets accumulated by the top 20 figures in the Iranian regime including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.