US Being ‘Vastly’ Outspent by CCP in Global Information War: Media Agency Head

The Voice of America building stands in Washington on June 15, 2020. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

The U.S. agency responsible for broadcasting the “voice of freedom” to the world is being outspent by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), prompting a dire warning from the agency’s CEO.

Amanda Bennett, head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), urged senators to approve its $944 million funding request for 2024, saying: “If we miss this opportunity to make strategic investments now, we may run the risk of losing the global information war.”

USAGM’s networks—Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund—are supported by the federal government but operate under strict rules to maintain editorial independence.

Together, they reach an audience of 410 million weekly listeners.

Informing The World

“We should be alarmed about this [possibility] but still optimistic,” Bennett said during the May 3 subcommittee hearing.

“Alarmed because we’re being vastly outspent, but optimistic because we still have the competitive advantage.

“We have measurable data showing that our networks are outperforming the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and Russia in many key markets.”

The mission of USAGM is to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy, according to the agency’s website.

Increasingly, the CCP and states like Russia and Iran are pouring large amounts of money into disinformation campaigns that mask their true aims and prevent access to credible news reporting.

Although the USAGM is underfunded in its effort to tell the American story to the world, it is still favored by the majority of people in the developing world who value having a truthful source of information, according to Bennett.

Larger Share of Audience

Senators were supportive of USAGM’s mission but sought justification for the agency’s request for a 7 percent increase in funding.

“With malign actors like China and Russia, or Iran and Cuba, elevating their efforts to use disinformation and propaganda to co-opt the knowledge of their own people in their own country and around the world, the question is whether the peoples of the world can any longer tell fact from fiction, news from lies,” said subcommittee chairman Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.).

Ranking Member Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said, “Today’s hearing provides an opportunity to examine the USAGM’s operations, identify areas for improvement, and discuss strategies for countering the information warfare tactics of our adversaries.

“To put it bluntly, we cannot allow the United States to fall behind our adversaries in the information wars.”

While the agency is being outspent by China and other countries, Bennett said USAGM brands have so far maintained a larger share of the worldwide audience.

In Nigeria, Voice of America reaches a third of all adults while Russia’s state-controlled network reaches 1 percent and China Radio International reaches less than 3 percent, despite their larger budgets, according to Bennett.

In Latin America, Voice of America reaches 47 percent of adults each week in Bolivia, 24 percent in Colombia, 51 percent in the Dominican Republic, and 39 percent in Ecuador.

Russia’s state-sponsored radio reaches 5 percent or less of the population in those countries and China’s reaches 6 percent or less, Bennett said.

USAGM’s Open Technology Fund provides VPNs in China that give over 4 million active monthly users secure access to the agency’s content.

“You can say that it’s got an impact when the Ayatollah personally denounces us in his Twitter feed,” Bennett told the subcommittee.

She also pointed out that defectors from North Korea often say they listen to Radio Free Asia and Voice of America despite the grave danger of doing so.

Regarding the competition from what she called “malign influences” and “corrupt information,” Bennett said the agency’s strategy is to provide a better alternative.

“We don’t push back on their narrative. That’s not an effective thing. What we do is provide alternatives in places where there are no other alternatives,” she said.

Risk of Underfunding

Despite these successes, the agency struggles to provide reporters with the basic tools and infrastructure needed to do their work, Bennett said.

Improvement in morale and performance will require giving reporters good equipment, clearing away the red tape that often bogs down their efforts, and ensuring that they can get plane tickets to field assignments.

The safety of USAGM’s reporters around the world is also a growing concern according to Bennett.

“We are really working extremely hard to make sure that we have, state-of-the-art protection for journalists, and that includes equipment, physical protection, and protection in the buildings that they occupy,” she said.

That also includes training journalists on how to handle dangerous situations and being able to extract them from volatile areas.

Bennett voiced optimism that the budget request—a 7 percent increase from the previous year that would ensure the agency continues to win the global information war.

“We’re going to be able to get more journalists better technology, and basically reach more people. Reaching more people is what causes the impact,” Bennett said.