, Radio Free Europe broadcasting as well. Well learn how the Government Agencies broadcast americas message to the world. We want to introduce you to amanda bennett, who just today as started a new job. Ms. Bennett. What is the new job . I am director of voice of america. What does that mean . It means i get to work with a couple of thousands of the most talented and interesting journalists in the world which is really exciting. How did you get this job . They were looking for a new director and i have been in journalism my whole life. Ive been overseas. I have some international experience. I have run some organizations. I think we both thought it was a good fit. That we could really do well by each other. Youve been executive editor of bloomberg news. You were editor of the philadelphia enquirerer. You spent time at wall street journal you were an author. This is a government job. How will that be different. Its journalism. Its journalism and journalism is the same no matter who practices it. We have obligation bit charter to tell americas story. Were the voice of america after all. What that means we have a giant beat. I know how to cover a beat. Journalists know how to cover beats. But can you be critical of u. S. Policy in this boggs . The voa charter, and as far as i know it is always been governing ruling law of this organization that we will tell the truth, good news, bad news. Well be fair, well be honest well be credible. What attracted you to coming here . A couple of things. One, as i say, there is an Amazing Group of journalists here who report and write both from the United States and from their own countries in their own languages but also, i mean think about what is going on in the world right now. The mission of the voice of america which is to tell americas story in places where they cant hear americas story, i cant think of anything more important to do as journalist right now. When you were contemplating whether or not to take this job, what were some of the things you were thinking . Okay, i would like to do this, or i think we could do this better . Well, when you talk to people inside you hear there is an incredible hunger to get on the train, get even more on the trip because theyre on the train of all the fantastic different ways you have to communicate with people. Every News Organization in the world is struggling with making this happen. The opportunities are fantastic. Were broadcasting and were writing and reporting all over the world and the world is very quickly adopting all kinds of communicating. I think our ability to use those forms of communication are going to just multiply our ability to communicate with people. Amanda bennett in your view how does voa support democracy . How does it, how does it improve americas image in the world . Well i dont know if improve is the correct word. First off, the voice of america, when you report on the beat that is america, you let people know the good things, the bad things, you let people know the real things about this country but also there is another aspect of it that is really important. And that is, we are incredibly fortunate that we live in a country where we have constitutionally protected freedoms of the press. Where we can write and report things without fear of retribution and just by exhibiting and practicing those values, i think its a really powerful message to the people of the world about how important those kind of freedoms are, and what you can accomplish when you have those freedoms. Is director of voa a political position or a career position . It white house appointed position and reports to independent board of directors. Excuse me, reports to john lansing who reports to an independent board of directors. Did you need congressional approval. I did not. It is White House Position . Does it end when the president s term ends . No, it doesnt. No. It, john reports to the board. So the board is a continueing entity. Amanda bennett. The brand new director of voice of america. This is the voice of america hello, africa. Joining us from africa. John lansing, what is the broadcasting board of governors . Its a board of governors appointed by the president confirmed by the senate who oversee the five international u. S. Media entities known as voice of america where you are today, radio free asia, radio proeurope, raid profree liberty and office of cuba broadcasting. What is your job. Im the ceo of all that. If that is even possible. That is what i do. What is the coordination with the Different Networks . The coordination hasnt ever been bert when i came in back in september we formed the First International coordinating committee which takes the president s of all five Networks Directly and they report directly to me and they report on efficiencies, to operate more efficiently with federal tax dollars, perhaps more importantly to operate strategically so we have greater impact in important parts of the world where a free press is either limited or nonexistent. We in many cases are the only presence and impact that could be felt from a free press. What are some of the hot spots that youre concentrating on today . Well, russia, and russian periphery. China and periphery around china. All of the violent extremism that we tend to think of it is as the middle east. It is stateless problem. It can emerge almost anywhere as weve seen in europe recently. Cuba, and it ran iran. 775 million a year in budget . 750, right now. We hope to move it up. Is it enough. It is never enough for the job that we have. I think were doing a good job how were spending that money in service to a free press, engaging and connecting people around the world. But were up against competition. Russian media outspends u. S. International media significantly as does china, statesponsored media. Were also up against competition trying to stop our work, trying to at times shut down our satellite signals into these areas. Trying to cramp, crimp down on our internet distribution. So it is not only the money spent with a competitive media but also money that the, other competitors in the world use to try to stifle our work. John lansing, as someone who came out of the private enterprise world and worked in tv in that regard, what are some of the most effective platforms that you have here at bbg that you use . Well historically this all began with radio in the postworld war ii era but increasingly in the last five to, three to five years weve seen social media, digital mobile, social media platforms being the pose effective means for communicating in parts of the world where a free media is difficult to find. It also allows us to reach younger audiences, maybe future leaders that could help shape some of these countries that lack press freedoms in a positive way in the future. If you walk around this building here and independence avenue, we effectively have 42 newsrooms. Each up with a different language. We broadcast 24 7 in 42 different languages around the world. You will see work being done in certain parts of the world where it really requires radio, even shortwave radio because there is no access. Im thinking like north korea or the regions of china and tibet. Other parts of the world its a chance to leapfrog traditional media to next generation media. All across subsaharan africa, were seeing dramatic increase in use of mobile phones and media platforms. The not just allowing us to send a single message to an audience in that platform. What it allows us to create a conversation among one another in those areas and were the facilitator of that conversation. One of our goals, for instance in iraq and syria is to raise the voice of moderate muslims that are being stifled by all the extremism in that region. So the middle east Broadcasting Networks launched a very Innovative Program called, raise your voice, where its a facebook, managed facebook conversation around a single question that is supported by Tv Documentary and radio, callin show. People get on the facebook platform that we create and they talk with one another. They raise the voice of people that want do to something about the all the violent extremism and reap cutement of isis. So it is evolving from a world where were sending a signal to lots of people that originates in one place where were getting to a place where the platform that we provide allows people to talk to one another and have greater impact in their part of the world. Were in your building here just a couple blocks from capitol hill. Yep. Whats your connection, relationship, work, with congress . Frequently. Hardly a week goes by im not meeting with somebody on capitol hill. The Senate ForeignRelations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs committee are the authorizing committees. We have appropriators we deal with as well with our budget and they are very supportive. I have met with, ive only been on the job seven or eight months, i had the opportunity to meet with several of the senators and congresspeople who support our work and it gives us a chance to talk about how were evolving, how were changing how were coordinating, being more strategic, how were using taxpayer dollars to align ourselves with u. S. Foreign policy through the expression of objective journalism, and demonstrating the value of a objective free press to parts of the world that simply dont have it. Well, john lansing is the ceo of the broadcasting board of governors and the Mission Statement for this group is to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. Thank you for your time, sir. Thank you peter. Marina van duesen, what is current time . Current time is Television Program and uniqueness from the fact it is coproduced by two entities and voice of america and Radio Free Europe. So it is a transatlantic show. You know, we have anchors on both sides. We he have anchor in washington and anchor in prague and they talk to each other and between the two of them theyre trying to cover everything that might be interesting to the target audience and the target audience is russianspeaking audiences is. We would like to think all around the world but it is targeted to the neighboring countries, neighboring russia, former soviet union areas. Now independent countries for a long time as you know, but still having a very sizable russianspeaking population, who consume news, mostly delivered by russian statesponsored Television Programs. So, the view of the reality they get is a little skewed. So by targeting these people, plus current time besides satellite it goes online, on our side, on current time side. Were also available to anyone who speaks russian all over the world and also of course people that live in the russian federation. When you watch russia today the vrt network, whats your reaction . Very skillful and very expensively produced propaganda. And i would say a lot of professionals work there and produce highquality materials and maybe if you take each separate one of them by itself it would seem all right, a lot of times but putting, being put together in the stream it creates the whole alternative that is presented in the world to in english and spanish, i dont know what else, german maybe or arabic. Is current time, is it a news program . Does it accentuate the u. S. Point of view, how is that done . That is how we kind of separate our uniqueness sharing with Radio Free Europe and radio liberty. They have a Large Network of reporters all over europe and in russia and in where current time is being shown. We come from washington. They cover local events. We cover the u. S. Perspective. On the events that are taking place in the target area. Were in the middle of the president ial campaign here in the United States. What kind of reporting does current time do on that . Oh, we do magnificent reporting on u. S. Elections campaign. That is one of the main topics because it is such an exciting topic for russian audiences. As you know in russia they have had mr. Putin for the last how many years and, people, they are kind of, i feel like, kind of a little cynical on elections you know. Kind of no matter what you do, what they decide on top, thats what happens. Watching the u. S. Election campaign is extremely exciting. So we have reporters who go to primaries, who go to caucuses, who report from the streets, who are going to cover conventions. We run packages about Television Stories about republicans, democrats, young, old, i mean the whole, the whole american society, invigorating, participating, actually feeling like they have something to do with who the next president would be. So i think it is a very, very important topic for us. And we will have people going to, and people to live into current time from all over the country. Wherever they are, by using new technologies, to come live into current time and be there, be present and get that excitement and get that specific american angle on things. In the countries that were targeting and that we have our affiliates in, georgia, ukraine, baltics, moldova, were partnering with channels that actually run current time in their, you know, program setting. It goes on the air every day, say, 7 00 p. M. In ukraine. Joining us here on the communicators, whileer at the broadcasting board of governors, she is with the ukrainian language service. What do you do . We do everything. We produce the, we broadcast, we interview, we go live on air every possible way, and we are using all possible domain to do that. Television, social media different type of television broadcasting. We have a couple of tv shows. Different type of shows. News shows. Russian language shows. Even ukrainian service, because of war were trying to help the russianspeaking population of ukraine. How did you get here . I came here 10 years ago i came to the United States as political refugee from ukraine. I worked for political liberty for couple of years. Then voice of america wanted to expand their television. Since i had a lot of experience in television in ukraine. I was journalist, broadcaster, producer, i knew television very well, they invited me because i was interested in doing more television product. I came because my husband, crusader journalist in ukraine who created the first internet newspaper in ukraine, he was murdered in ukraine and during my fight against ukrainian government, i felt very, i mean i felt in danger at some point. And, had two small kids. And i decided that it is, it is not safe anymore to stay in ukraine. And the United States government gave me support and give me a chance for a new life here in the United States. Is your message getting through to the ukraine . And what is that message you want to share . My message is, actually, what i see, my mission is to inform as it says here, to build bridges between my country United States and my country, ukraine because both are mine and i feel very related to, to my nation, to ukrainians. At same time this country gave me new life. That i connect. I want to give them more understanding about the world around because we are broadcasting in ukraine. I see our message are heard and were basically serving here in ukraine, were serving as a studio for all ukrainian tv channels. None of the ukraine media have representation here in the United States. So basically they reach to us for help and we are covering all of the u. S. Stories, a lot of international stories. A lot of american politics stories for different television from the United States. So were playing a vital role for ukranian media. Not only informing but even giving them standards. Ukrainian media is still developing and there is a lot of dependency on oligarchs. Oligarchs are trying to use their Media Outlets as a tool in their hands. And what we do in, at voice of america, how we, we are showing them how to do, fair Unbiased Television or information. Your ceo described you as the tom brokaw in many ways of ukraine. Whats your reach . Youve been gone for 15 years. Whats your reach like now . Right now the last year we had research that we had seven Million Viewers for one of our television shows. So basically it is around 18 percent we have of, with other shows, we have 18 of ukrainian population. Our viewers are informed people who are educated, informed. They want to know more. Maria gonzalez is the director of the office of cuba broadcasting known more familiarly as radio and tv marti. When did that get started . The it was started 30 years ago. Why . It was started to provide news to people of cuba by shortwave radio. It is still the way we get into cuba more often. Out of three platforms, radio, digital and television, radio is the one still very useful. It is social media first. You go into cuba more often through social media because sites like ours are being blocked by the government of cuba so facebook is not. So where is your tv Production Facility and how does that end up on cuban satellite or cuban tv . Were basically in florida, miami, florida. It all started here in washington. It was a few years ago, quite a few years now, that it was moved to miami. And our signal, our television signal intended to get in to the lands by satellite. Because people have directv in cuba. People go buy the directv in the mainland, United States. They go back to cuba and they provide a service in the neighborhoods. So they snake the signal of directv and they have a lot of miami channels. And the last but most important thing we do, it is the thing that any cuban do, i dont know if youre familiar, there is thing called in cuba, that is how cubans get to see television. You burn into dvd all the programing from anywhere and distribute. Now that u. S. Policy towards cuba is changing, is the mission of the marti changing . No, i dont think the mission changes in any ways because cuba has not changed to the islands. All of that hasnt changed. So when you have a region where there is no freedom speech where there is no access to information and that hasnt changed at all since we started improving relations. How did the martis cover the president s visit . We have the Biggest Network of independent journalists in cuba. For the years that television has been going, radio marti has been in business, weve been creating and posturing journalism in, independent journalism but ironically when all the journalists went to register to cover obamas visit theyre not considered journalists. The government doesnt recognize independent journalists so they were declined again. What does marti mean . It comes from jose marti, one of the biggest leader and thinkers in cuba. Really wellknown in latin america. He has, he has great quotes but one of the one i use on my email address, the first, have it in spanish, so translating, the first duty of a man is to be able to think by himself. Satari, what do you here at voice of america. Im director of voice of america persian . Where do you broadcast to . We broadcast in iran and greater gulf region and persian populations of that region. How big is the persianspeaking population . Well our main audience is in iran. We have kazakhstan and kurdish areas. We refer to audiences, not only the audience. How long has the persian Language Division been around . Well the voa persian started during world war ii. So about, our brand has been known to iranians for 70 years now. It started as a radio news service. It was to cover the war but also help advance the allied interest among the persian population and persianspeaking population. The internet in iran is tightly controlled and heavily filtered. 10 of thousands of websites are blocked. Even most popular ones, social media, facebook, twitter, and we know that for a fact because our website is blocked. People have to go through Vpn Virtual Private Network to sir couple screen and get to our sir couple screen get to our website and make sure big brother is not watching. It is very restricted society, same as china as far as the internet is concerned. And Freedom House also ranks iran in their last annual report as the bottom of the list as far as freedom of the internet is concerned. And despite all the difficulties, all the shutdown of, the blocking, of all the sites, popular sites and so forth, our website last year just last year, in 2015, jumped 46 as far as views were concerned. Mainly that was thanks to the jcpoa, to the nuclear deal and heated political debate going on in this country. So we are moving forward with our internet despite all the difficulties iran is creating. Im sure it will continue. Youve been watching the communicators at the voice of america broadcasting board of governors facility here in washington, d. C. More of our tour next week. Cspan founding chairman Bob Rosen Krantz passed away last week at the age of 89. Not only was he one of the first Cable Operators to support the idea for cspan you about he continued to work on our behalf for almost 40 years