Congress needs to clarify mission and oversight of Voice of America

President Donald Trump’s attack on the Voice of America, calling its content anti-American, has led to polarized battle lines that are common now on national issues. President Trump supporters say the US needs an unabashedly pro-American voice to rally world publics to its side. VOA backers say President Trump is trampling on the network’s legally protected editorial independence. This continuing debate — complicated by fears that President Trump wants to make the broadcasters into his personal cheerleaders — has led to the two-year delay in confirming Trump nominee Michael Pack as CEO of the networks’ parent federal agency, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The debate has centered around whether the job of the five networks — VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle Eastern Broadcasting Networks and Radio-TV Martí — is fundamentally to be an objective source of news, or an instrument to advance US policy.

Congress should rule swiftly one way or another on the Pack nomination, but also seize the opportunity to further define and protect the broadcasters’ mission. This will help guarantee the networks’ efficiency and editorial credibility — irrespective of who becomes CEO now and in the future.

[Thomas Kent, a senior fellow of the Jamestown Foundation, was president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty until 2018. He teaches about information ethics and the geopolitics of news at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute.]