‘Radio Free Everywhere’ defeats the purpose of Voice of America

On Dec. 16, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu “expressed grief” over the death of Voice of America’s Kabiru Usman Fagge, “an enduring name across the Hausa-speaking world.” 

The Voice of Nigeria, the country’s international broadcasting service, called Fagge “a household name” among Hausa-speakers.

Do a news search for Voice of America (VOA) and you will soon discover several stories in the African press citing its coverage of Africa. African journalism has made strides, but VOA is still a big deal on the continent.

I was therefore dismayed by language in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that ordered the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent agency, to “submit a report … that details the financial and other resources that would be required to establish” a Radio Free Africa. It would be “modeled after Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia,” to provide “accurate, uncensored and reliable news and information to the region of Africa.” 

In other words, Radio Free Africa would broadcast to Africa, covering the same news that VOA has been covering for decades.

The NDAA also wants the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s report to look into the idea of “Radio Free Americas” to do what VOA’s Spanish service already does.

Where did these ideas come from? All I could find was an item from the Washington think tank American Security Project that notes that “Russian influence is creeping more broadly into Africa and Latin America,” and suggests the creation of Radio Free Africa and merging the Office of Cuba Broadcasting “into a broader Latin American news outlet.”

The story makes no mention of the Voice of America, which is already active in these target areas. Interestingly, the photo above the commentary is of the Cohen Building in Washington, D.C., where VOA broadcasts and digital products to Africa and the Americas are prepared. The caption identifies the building as the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s headquarters, ignoring that VOA occupies most of the square-block edifice.

The proposal to create Radio Free Africa and Radio Free Americas conjures déjà vu. 

In the 1990s, leaders of the Asian-American community raised the idea that European Americans have Radio Free Europe but there was no Radio Free Asia. And, so, Radio Free Asia was created, even though VOA was already broadcasting news about Asia to Asia, with considerable effect. VOA was renowned for its coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. 

Now, scarce transmitting, newsgathering, talent and budget resources are split between the two stations. Administrative and management bureaucracies are doubled. Furthermore, Radio Free Asia and VOA duplicate one another extensively. See a story about Asia on one station’s website, and chances are you will see the same topic covered by the other station. It took me about 10 minutes to find stories about China’s new defense minister at VOA and RFA, both on Dec. 29.

The theory is that VOA covers U.S. and world news, while the Radio Free station covers the target country. But look at VOA’s website and you will quickly see this is a bureaucratic fiction. VOA realizes its audience is mostly interested in their own countries, and it will not cede this audience. It could be ordered to restrict its coverage to Americana and general world news, with only the Radio Free stations reporting on the target country. But then the audience would be forced to access two American media outlets to get all the news.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia do great journalistic work. The American “Radio Free” concept, however, comes with marked deficiencies. While VOA (and BBC World Service) provides a “full service” news product, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia report only on the news of their target countries and immediate regions. They are, by definition,  incomplete news services. 

In 40 years of international broadcasting audience research, I have rarely encountered audiences that desired news about one part of the world to the exclusion of the rest of the world. If space aliens land in Manitoba, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia would be required by their “missions” not to report the story, unless they step outside their lanes.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia must fill their entire broadcast days and internet pages with targeted news. They do not want to repeat the hagiographic journalism of their dictatorial target countries, so they must fill their output with bad news about the target countries. All of this coverage can be factual, but the relentless choice of subject matter constitutes a bias that will not be lost on the audience’s perception

A full-service broadcaster, on the other hand, can smooth out negative news about the target country with negative news about the rest of the world, including the United States. Are coal-fired power plants causing pollution in China? Well, they are doing the same in some parts of America.

“Radio Free” in a media organization’s name could also be insulting to countries that are not quite authoritarian or are making at least some progress toward democracy. Africa and Latin America certainly have nations in this category. 

“Radio Free” denotes a media organization that is trying to bring about a certain change in line with U.S. foreign policy objectives. It is not an appropriate moniker for an independent news organization that provides audiences with the information they need to form their own opinions about politics and current events. Voice of America is not much better as a name for an international broadcaster, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Ultimately U.S. government-funded international broadcasting should be consolidated into one multi-media corporation — resulting in an organizational chart consisting of a single rectangle — and rebranded with a name befitting an independent journalistic organization. 

For now, at least, U.S. decision-makers should not allow inefficient international broadcasting to spread to two more continents.

Kim Andrew Elliott is a retired Voice of America audience research analyst and journalist who covered international media developments.