Current languages
The Voice of America website had five English language broadcasts as of 2014 (worldwide, Learning English,History
American private shortwave broadcasting before World War II
Before World War II, all American shortwave stations were in private hands.Berg, Jerome S. ''On the Short Waves, 1923–1945: Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio.'' 1999, McFarland. , 105 Privately controlled shortwave networks included the NBC, National Broadcasting Company's International Network (or White Network), which broadcast in six languages, the CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System's Latin American international network, which consisted of 64 stations located in 18 countries, the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio, and General Electric which owned and operated WGEO (shortwave), WGEO and WGEA, both based in Schenectady, New York, and KGEI in San Francisco, all of which had shortwave transmitters. Experimental programming began in the 1930s, but there were fewer than 12 transmitters in operation. In 1939, the Federal Communications Commission set the following policy:A licensee of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.This policy was intended to enforce the State Department's Good Neighbor Policy, but some broadcasters felt that it was an attempt to direct censorship. Shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter Nazi propaganda around 1940. Initially, the Office of Coordination of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news. The director of Latin American relations at the Columbia Broadcasting System was Edmund A. Chester, and he supervised the development of CBS's extensive "La Cadena de las Americas" radio network to improve broadcasting to South America during the 1940s. Also included among the cultural diplomacy programming on the Columbia Broadcasting System was the musical show ''Viva America'' (1942-1949) which featured the Pan American Orchestra and the artistry of several noted musicians from both North and South America, including Alfredo Antonini, Juan Arvizu, Eva Garza, Elsa Miranda, Nestor Mesta Chayres, Nestor Mesta Chaires, Miguel Sandoval (composer), Miguel Sandoval, John Serry Sr., and Terig Tucci. By 1945, broadcasts of the show were carried by 114 stations on CBS's "La Cadena de las Americas" network in 20 Latin American nations. These broadcasts proved to be highly successful in supporting President Franklin Roosevelt's policy of Pan-Americanism throughout South America during World War II.
World War II
Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government's Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI, in Washington) had already begun providing war news and commentary to the commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis through its Foreign Information Service (FIS, in New York) headed by playwright Robert E. Sherwood, who served as president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Roosevelt's speech writer and information advisor. Direct programming began a week after the United States’ entry into World War II in December 1941, with the first broadcast from the San Francisco office of the FIS via General Electric's KGEI transmitting to the Philippines in English (other languages followed). The next step was to broadcast to Germany, which was called ''Stimmen aus Amerika'' ("Voices from America") and was transmitted on February 1, 1942. It was introduced by "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and included the pledge: "Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war... The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth." Roosevelt approved this broadcast, which then-Colonel William J. Donovan (COI) and Sherwood (FIS) had recommended to him. It was Sherwood who actually coined the term "The Voice of America" to describe the shortwave network that began its transmissions on February 1, from 270 Madison Avenue in New York City. The Office of War Information, when organized in the middle of 1942, officially took over VOA's operations. VOA reached an agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation to share medium-wave transmitters in Great Britain, Britain, and expanded into Tunis in North Africa and Palermo and Bari, Italy, as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the American Broadcasting Station in Europe. Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in California in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in Hawaii and, after recapture, the Philippines. By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages. Programming was broadcast from production centers in New York and San Francisco, with more than 1,000 programs originating from New York. Programming consisted of music, news, commentary, and relays of U.S. domestic programming, in addition to specialized VOA programming. About half of VOA's services, including the Arabic language, Arabic service, were discontinued in 1945. In late 1945, VOA was transferred to the Department of State.Cold War
The VOA ramped up its operations during the Cold War, which also increased its influence. Foy D. Kohler, Foy Kohler, the director of VOA during the Cold War, strongly believed that the VOA was serving its purpose, which he identified as aiding in the fight against communism. He argued that the numbers of listeners they were getting such as 194,000 regular listeners in Sweden, and 2.1 million regular listeners in France, was an indication of a positive impact. As further evidence, he noted that the VOA received 30,000 letters a month from listeners all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of requests for broadcasting schedules. There was an analysis done of some of those letters sent in 1952 and 1953 while Kohler was still director. The study found that letter writing could be an indicator of successful, actionable persuasion. It was also found that broadcasts in different countries were having different effects. In one country, regular listeners adopted and practiced American values presented by the broadcast. Age was also a factor: younger and older audiences tended to like different types of programs no matter the country. Kohler used all of this as evidence to claim that the VOA helped to grow and strengthen the free world. It also influenced the UN in their decision to condemn communist actions in Korea, and was a major factor in the decline of communism in the "free world, including key countries such as Italy and France. In Italy, the VOA did not just bring an end to communism, but it caused the country to Americanize. The VOA also had an impact behind the Iron Curtain. Practically all defectors during Kohler's time claimed the VOA helped in their decision to defect. Another indication of impact, according to Kohler, was the Soviet response. Kohler argued that the Soviets responded because the VOA was having an impact. Based on Soviet responses, it can be presumed that the most effective programs were ones that compared the lives of those behind and outside the iron curtain, questions on the practice of slave labor, as well as lies and errors in Joseph Stalin, Stalin's version of Marxism. In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to the Soviet Union, Soviet citizens in Russia under the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media, according to John B. Whitton's treatise, ''Cold War Propaganda''. The Soviet Union responded by initiating electronic radio jamming, jamming of VOA broadcasts on April 24, 1949. Charles W. Thayer headed VOA in 1948–49. Over the next few years, the U.S. government debated the best role of Voice of America. The decision was made to use VOA broadcasts as a part of its foreign policy to fight the propaganda of the Soviet Union and other countries. The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the Suez Crisis of 1956, and was six hours a day by 1958. Between 1952 and 1960, Voice of America used a converted United States Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard cutter ''USCGC Courier (WAGR-410), Courier'' as a first mobile Offshore radio, broadcasting ship. Control of VOA passed from the State Department to the U.S. Information Agency when the latter was established in 1953 to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China. From 1955 until 2003, VOA broadcast American jazz on the ''Voice of America Jazz Hour''. Hosted for most of that period by Willis Conover, the program had 30 million listeners at its peak. A program aimed at Union of South Africa, South Africa in 1956 broadcast two hours nightly, and special programs such as ''The Newport Jazz Festival'' were also transmitted. This was done in association with tours by U.S. musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, sponsored by the State Department. From August 1952 through May 1953, Billy Brown, a high school senior in Westchester County, New York, had a Monday night program in which he shared everyday happenings in Yorktown Heights, New York. Brown's program ended due to its popularity: his "chatty narratives" attracted so much fan mail, VOA couldn't afford the $500 a month in clerical and postage costs required to respond to listeners' letters. During 1953, VOA personnel were subjected to McCarthyism, McCarthyist policies, where VOA was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and G. David Schine, Gerard David Schine of intentionally planning to build weak transmitting stations to sabotage VOA broadcasts. However, the charges were dropped after one month of court hearings in February and March 1953. Somewhere around 1954, VOA's headquarters were moved from New York to Washington D.C. The arrival of cheap, low-cost transistors enabled the significant growth of shortwave radio listeners. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, VOA's broadcasts were deemed controversial, as Hungarian refugees and revolutionaries thought that VOA served as a medium and insinuated the possible arrival of the Western aid. Throughout the Cold War, many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored radio jamming, jamming of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956, Polish People's Republic stopped jamming VOA transmissions, but People's Republic of Bulgaria continued to jam the signal through the 1970s. Chinese language VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976. However, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies. The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts. Cuba has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to Iran from its Russian-built transmission site at Bejucal. David Jackson, former director of Voice of America, noted: "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful." Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, VOA covered some of the era's most important news, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech and Neil Armstrong's 1969 Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first walk on the Moon, which drew an audience estimated at between 615 and 750 million people. In 1973, due to the detente policies in the Cold War, Soviet jamming of the VOA ceased. In the early 1980s, VOA began a $1.3 billion rebuilding program to improve broadcast with better technical capabilities. During the implementation of the Martial law in Poland between 1981 and 1983, VOA's Polish broadcasts expanded to seven hours daily. Throughout the 1980s, VOA focused on covering events from the 'American hinterland', such as 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail. Also in the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba, Radio Martí and TV Martí. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba. In September 1980, VOA started broadcasting to Afghanistan in Dari language, Dari and inPost–Cold War
With the breakup of the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe, VOA added many additional language services to reach those areas. This decade was marked by the additions of Standard Tibetan,Cuts in services
The Arabic Service was abolished in 2002 and replaced by a new radio service, called the Middle East Radio Network or Radio Sawa, with an initial budget of $22 million. Radio Sawa offered mostly Western and Middle Eastern popular songs with periodic brief news bulletins. Today, the network has expanded to television with Alhurra and to various social media and websites. On May 16, 2004, Worldnet Television and Film Service, Worldnet, a satellite television service, was merged into the VOA network. Radio programs in Russian ended in July 2008. In September 2008, VOA eliminated the Hindi-language service after 53 years. Broadcasts in Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian and Bosnian also ended. These reductions were part of American efforts to concentrate more resources to broadcast to the Muslim world. In September 2010, VOA began its radio broadcasts in Sudan. As U.S. interests in South Sudan have grown, there is a desire to provide people with free information. In 2013, VOA ended foreign language transmissions on shortwave and medium wave to Albania, Georgia, Iran and Latin America, as well as English-language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan. The movement was done due to budget cuts. On July 1, 2014, VOA cut most of its shortwave transmissions in English to Asia. Shortwave broadcasts in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Khmer, Kurdish, Lao, and Uzbek were dropped too. On August 11, 2014, the Greek service ended after 72 years on air.List of languages
List of directors
* 1941–1942 Robert E. Sherwood (Foreign Information Service) # 1942–1943 John Houseman # 1943–1945 Louis G. Cowan # 1945–1946 John Ogilvie # 1948–1949 Charles W. Thayer # 1949–1952 Foy D. Kohler # 1952–1953 Alfred H. Morton # 1953–1954 Leonard Erikson # 1954–1956 John R. Poppele # 1956–1958 Robert E. Burton # 1958–1965 Henry Loomis # 1965–1967 John Chancellor # 1967–1968 John Charles Daly # 1969–1977 Kenneth R. Giddens # 1977–1979 R. Peter Straus # 1980–1981 Mary G. F. Bitterman # 1981–1982 James B. Conkling # 1982 John Hughes # 1982–1984 Kenneth Tomlinson # 1985 Gene Pell # 1986–1991 Dick Carlson # 1991–1993 Chase Untermeyer # 1994–1996 Geoffrey Cowan # 1997–1999 Evelyn S. Lieberman # 1999–2001 Sanford J. Ungar # 2001–2002 Robert R. Reilly # 2002–2006 David S. Jackson # 2006–2011 Danforth W. Austin # 2011–2015 David Ensor (journalist), David Ensor # 2016–2020 Amanda Bennett # 2020–2021 Robert R. Reilly # 2021–present (vacant)Agencies
Voice of America has been a part of several agencies. From its founding in 1942 to 1945, it was part of the Office of War Information, and then from 1945 to 1953 as a function of the State Department. VOA was placed under the U.S. Information Agency in 1953. When the USIA was abolished in 1999, VOA was placed under the BBG which is an autonomous U.S. government agency, with bipartisan membership. The Secretary of State has a seat on the BBG. The BBG was established as a buffer to protect VOA and other U.S.-sponsored, non-military, international broadcasters from political interference. It replaced the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB) that oversaw the funding and operation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a branch of VOA.Raghavan, Sudarsan V., Stephen S. Johnson, and Kristi K. Bahrenburg. "Sending cross-border static: on the fate of Radio Free Europe and the influence of international broadcasting," Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 47, 1993, access on March 25, 2011.52 Documentary
In 2021, Voice of America launched 52 Documentary, a series that publishes weekly films about human experiences. They publish on the streaming app, VOA+, and YouTube. Films average 10-15 minutes and are translated with captions in several languages, including Russian, Persian, Mandarin, Urdu, and English. Euna Lee directs the program.Laws
Smith–Mundt Act
From 1948 until its amendment in 2013, Voice of America was forbidden to broadcast directly to American citizens under § 501 of the Smith–Mundt Act. The act was amended as a result of the passing of the ''Smith-Mundt Modernization Act'' provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, National Defense Authorization Act for 2013. The intent of the legislation in 1948 was to protect the American public from propaganda actions by their own government and to have no competition with private American companies. The amendment had the intent of adapting to the Internet and allow American citizens to request access to VOA content.Internal policies
VOA charter
Under the Eisenhower administration in 1959, VOA Director Henry Loomis commissioned a formal statement of principles to protect the integrity of VOA programming and define the organization's mission, and was issued by Director George V. Allen as a directive in 1960 and was endorsed in 1962 by USIA director Edward R. Murrow. The principles were signed into law on July 12, 1976, by President Gerald Ford. It reads:The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Voice of America must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts. 1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive. 2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions. 3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.
"Firewall"
The Voice of America Firewall was put in place with the 1976 VOA Charter and laws passed in 1994 and 2016 as a way of ensuring the integrity of VOA's journalism. This policy fights against propaganda and promotes unbiased and objective journalistic standards in the agency. The charter is one part of this firewall and the other laws assist in ensuring high standards of journalism."Two-source rule"
According to former VOA correspondent Alan Heil, the internal policy of VOA News is that any story broadcast must have two independently corroborating sources or have a staff correspondent witness an event.Censorship
On 30 June 2022, VOA Turkish's () domain name "amerikaninsesi.com" was blocked in Turkey upon the request of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK). RTÜK had already ordered VOA in February 2022 to pay a license fee or to terminate their service in Turkey. In order to circumvent censorship, they moved to "voaturkce.com" domain name. ''VOA Radiogram''''VOA Radiogram''
was an experimental Voice of America program starting in March 2013 which transmitted digital text and images via Shortwave radio, shortwave Radiogram (message), radiograms. There were 220 editions of the program, transmitted each weekend from the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station. The audio tones that comprised the bulk of each 30 minute program were transmitted via an analog transmitter, and could be decoded using a basic Amplitude modulation, AM shortwave receiver with freely downloadable software of the Fldigi family. This software is available for Windows, Apple Computers, Apple (macOS), Linux, and FreeBSD systems.
Broadcasts can also be decoded using the fre
TIVAR app from the Google Play store
using any Android (operating system), Android device.
The mode used most often on ''VOA Radiogram'', for both text and images, was MFSK32, but other modes were also occasionally transmitted.
The final edition of ''VOA Radiogram'' was transmitted during the weekend of June 17–18, 2017, a week before the retirement of the program producer from VOA. An offer to continue the broadcasts on a contract basis was declined, so a follow-on show called ''Shortwave Radiogram'' began transmission on June 25, 2017, from the WRMI transmitting site in Okeechobee, Florida.
;''Shortwave Radiogram'' program schedule
Transmission facilities
The Voice of America Bethany Relay Station, Bethany Relay Station, operational from 1944 to 1994, was based on a site in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio, Union Township (now West Chester Township) in Butler County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. The site is now a recreational park with a lake, lodge, dog park, and Voice of America museum. Major transmitter upgrades first happened around 1963, when shortwave and medium-wave transmitters were built, upgraded or rebuilt. Other former sites include California (Dixon, California, Dixon and Delano, California, Delano), Hawaii, Okinawa, Liberia (Monrovia), Costa Rica, Belize, and at least two in Greece (Kavala (regional unit), Kavala and Rhodos). Between 1983 and 1990, VOA made significant upgrades to transmission facilities in Botswana (Selebi-Phikwe), Morocco, Thailand (Udon Thani Province, Udon Thani), Kuwait, and Sao Tome (Almas, São Tomé and Príncipe, Almas). Some of them are shared with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Currently, VOA and USAGM continue to operate shortwave radio transmitters and antenna farms at International Broadcasting Bureau Greenville Transmitting Station (known as "Site B") in the United States, close to Greenville, North Carolina. They do not use FCC-issued call signs, since the FCC does not regulate communications by other federal government agencies. (The FCC regulates broadcasting by private companies and other businesses, state governments, nonprofit organizations [NPOs] and non-government organizations [NGOs], and private individuals.) The IBB also operates transmission facilities on São Tomé and Tinang, Concepcion, Tarlac, Philippines for VOA.Controversies
Mullah Omar interview
In late September 2001, VOA aired a report that contained brief excerpts of an interview with then Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Mullah Omar Mohammad, along with segments from President Bush's post-9/11 speech to Congress, an expert in Islam from Georgetown University, and comments by the foreign minister of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. State Department officials including Richard Armitage (politician), Richard Armitage and others argued that the report amounted to giving terrorists a platform to express their views. In response, reporters and editors argued for the VOA's editorial independence from its governors. VOA received praise from press organizations for its protests, and the following year in 2002, it won the University of Oregon's Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism.Abdul Malik Rigi interview
On April 2, 2007, Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundallah (Iran), Jundullah, a militant group with possible links to al-Qaeda, appeared on Voice of America's Persian language service. The interview resulted in public condemnation by the Iranian-American community, as well as the Iranian government. Jundullah is a militant organization that has been linked to numerous attacks on civilians, such as the 2009 Zahedan bombing.Tibetan protester interview
In February 2013, a documentary released by China Central Television interviewed a self-immolation protests by Tibetans in China, Tibetan self-immolator who failed to kill himself. The interviewee said he was motivated by Voice of America's broadcasts of commemorations of people who committed suicide in political self-immolation. VOA denied any allegations of instigating self-immolations and demanded that the Chinese station retract its report.Trump presidency politicization efforts
After the Inauguration of Donald Trump, inauguration of President of the United States, US President Donald Trump, several tweets by Voice of America (one of which was later removed) seemed to support the widely criticized statements by White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the crowd size and biased media coverage. This first raised concerns over possible attempts by Trump to politicize the state-funded agency.Voice of America says it won't become Trump TVGuo Wengui interview
On April 19, 2017, VOA interviewed the Chinese real estate tycoon Guo Wengui in a live broadcast. The whole interview was scheduled for 3 hours. After Guo Wengui alleged to own evidence of corruption among the members of Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Politburo Standing Committee of China, the highest political authority of China, the interview was abruptly cut off, after only one hour and seventeen minutes of broadcasting. Guo's allegations involved Fu Zhenhua and Wang Qishan, the latter being a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the leader of the massive anti-graft movement. It was reported that the Government of China warned VOA's representatives not to interview Guo for his "unsubstantiated allegations". Four members of the U.S. Congress requested the Office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation into this interruption on August 27, 2017. The OIG investigation concluded that the decision to curtail the Guo interview was based solely on journalistic best practices rather than any pressure from the Chinese government. Another investigation, by Mark Feldstein, Chair of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park and a journalist with decades of experiences as an award-winning television investigative reporter, concluded that "The failure to comply with leadership's instructions during the Guo interview "was a colossal and unprecedented violation of journalistic professionalism and broadcast industry standards." The report also said that "There had been a grossly negligent approach" to pre-interview vetting and failure to "corroborate the authenticity of Guo's evidence or interview other sources" in violation of industry standards. The interview team apparently "demonstrated greater loyalty to its source than to its employer — at the expense of basic journalistic standards of accuracy, verification, and fairness," the Feldstein report concluded.Relay station used as a CIA black site
It has been reported that a Voice of America relay station in Udon Thani Province Thailand was used as a CIA black site referred to as "Cat's Eye" or "Detention Site Green".In different regions
DEEWA Radio's impact
DEEWA Radio, of the VOA, airs in Pakistan. Although some listeners are suspicious that the program is promoting an American agenda, others claim to be experiencing a positive effect. Some listeners feel that the programs are giving a voice to the voiceless, leading them to a sense of empowerment.Kurdistan and Iran
VOA's service in Iran has had a negative impact on Kurds and Kurdistan according to the publication, Kurdish Life. They claim that the VOA has exacerbated the conflict between the Talabani and the Barzani. They further claim that the VOA is covering up wrongful imprisonments, wrongful arrests, and the building of extremist mosques. According to the same publication, Kurds are being turned into fanatics, and a new generation of terrorists is forming because of the VOA. They claim the VOA is doing this to help PUK.Latin America
There is evidence to suggest that the people who listen to the Latin American service are being influenced, but not in the way the VOA wants. Instead of understanding and adopting the American way of life, listeners are parroting values and beliefs that do not mesh with their lives. However, others have adopted a negative view of America, because they think that the VOA is propaganda.China
A study was done on Chinese students in America. It found that through the VOA, they disapproved of the actions of the Chinese government. Another study was done on Chinese scholars in America, and found that the VOA had an effect on their political beliefs. Their political beliefs did not change in relation to China, though, as they did not tend to believe the VOA's reports on China.Russia
In response to the request of the United States Department of Justice that RT (TV network), RT register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Russia's Justice Ministry Aleksandr Konovalov (politician, born 1968), Konovalov labeled Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as Russian foreign agent law, foreign agents in December 2017.See also
* BBC World Service * China Media Group * Deutsche Welle * France 24 * Frank Shozo Baba * George Kao * List of world news channels * Radio propaganda * Radio Rebelde * Telesur * Voice of America Indonesia * Voice of RussiaReferences
Bibliography
* *External links
* * {{Authority control Voice of America, Shortwave radio stations in the United States Peabody Award winners International broadcasters Radio organizations in the United States Organizations established in 1942 Articles containing video clips United States government propaganda organizations Mass media companies based in Washington, D.C. Television channels and stations established in 1942 Democracy promotion Tibetan-language radio stations 1942 establishments in the United States Media listed in Russia as foreign agents