Fy 2021 Budget Justification
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CONGRESSIONAL FY 2021 BUDGET JUSTIFICATION Table of Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Summary Charts ...............................................................................................................................9 Legislative Proposals ......................................................................................................................11 Voice of America (VOA) ................................................................................................................ 15 Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) .......................................................................................... 29 International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) ...............................................................................33 Office of Internet Freedom (OIF) .....................................................................................39 Technology, Services, and Innovation (TSI) ...........................................................................41 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) .......................................................................... 51 Radio Free Asia (RFA) ....................................................................................................................61 Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN) ................................................................. 71 Open Technology Fund (OTF) ....................................................................................................83 Broadcasting Capital Improvements (BCI) ............................................................................93 Performance Budget Information ............................................................................................ 99 Appendix A: Budget Charts ....................................................................................................... 151 Appendix B: Broadcast Hours ..................................................................................................167 Appendix C: Good Accounting Obligation in Government Act ................................... 171 Cover-top row: Current Time’s “Week in Review”; Floods in Iran, October 2019 (Sipa via AP Images); bottom row: RFA reports from Hong Kong during the Coronavirus crisis in February 2020; Juan Guaido, Interim President of Venezuela speaks at a rally to protest blackouts, and food and water shortages. (AP Photos) FY 2021 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION | Table of Contents i (page left intentionally blank) ii Executive Summary The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is in the midst of a significant multi-year transformation effort to improve its effectiveness and efficiency as a public service media organization, pursuing the goals of the reforms established in law by the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Operating under a single head of agency with enhanced authorities, the new CEO- led structure will steer the Agency on data-driven decision-making. As part of the transformation, USAGM has expanded research, investments in technology to reach audiences living under repressive regimes, and impactful programming aimed at confronting disinformation and propaganda by bringing more fact-based, accurate journalism to populations worldwide. Working across 61 languages and serving an unduplicated measured weekly audience of 350 million people, USAGM strives to maximize its impact in each unique market, adapting content and delivery methods to meet audiences on the platforms they prefer, whether that is radio, television, or digital/social media. In a world awash in disinformation and propaganda, the Agency recognizes the need to be dynamic and agile by repositioning its resources, refreshing staff skillsets and updating technology to remain competitive in the markets it operates globally. Since the enactment of the FY 2017 NDAA, USAGM has demonstrated agility in pursuing these on-going reforms to modernize the Agency, and has achieved important milestones with the resources invested in its operations, including: ■ Growth in USAGM’s measured weekly audience from 278 million people in FY 2017 to 350 million people at the end of FY 2019, a 26 percent increase. ■ Increased the percentage of weekly audience who report that USAGM’s content has helped them form opinions on important topics across USAGM’s four largest networks, reaching as high as 87 percent for consumers of Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) programming. ■ Expansion of the Agency’s 24/7 Russian-language global TV and digital network, Current Time, doubling the overall USAGM’s measured weekly audience to 7.9 million Russian adults. ■ Launching VOA 365, a new 24/7 Persian-language global network led by the Voice of America (VOA) in cooperation with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which builds on USAGM’s position as the number one international television and radio broadcaster in Iran1. 1 By weekly audience size, as measured by Gallup’s 2017 national survey. FY 2021 CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION | Executive Summary 1 ■ Conducting an end-to-end transformation of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) over the past two years, including significant changes to all television, radio, and digital programming and content delivered to Syria and the Levant, as well as the redeployment of approximately one-third of MBN’s television news broadcast production from the D.C. area to Dubai, allowing further alignment with the Middle East news cycle. ■ Development of a new global Mandarin-language strategy with the combined resources of VOA and RFA, which—like other USAGM approaches—will shift from a country-based model to a language-based content model, permitting the networks to provide digital and social media content for Mandarin- speakers in-country, as well as diaspora communities, overseas workers, and the growing cohort of Chinese citizens traveling around the world for business, leisure, and education. ■ Establishment of a new USAGM non-federal entity, the Open Technology Fund (OTF), dedicated to advancing internet freedom tools, technologies, and approaches to ensure that USAGM journalists and audiences can safely create, access, and share digital news and other information without fear of repressive censorship or surveillance. FY 2021 Request For FY 2021, USAGM is requesting $637.3 million to pursue its public service mission to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. The request prioritizes funding for regions of strategic importance to United States national security and foreign policy by leveraging technology and data, investing in a state-of-the-art media enterprise, and combating online censorship and repressive surveillance to make communicating in media-restrictive environments safer, as well as advancing the Agency’s multi-year transformation and modernization efforts to create exceptional content for the audiences that need it the most. 2 Influencing Regions of Strategic Importance to United States National Security USAGM’s five networks —Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—provide news and information on all media platforms and reached a weekly audience of 350 million people in 61 languages in over 100 countries in FY 2019, representing a 26 percent increase over the past two years. That growth is in large part a reflection of the credibility that audiences around the world place in the five networks’ programming. USAGM’s credibility forms the foundation of its influence and strengthens programming efforts to push back against false narratives and state-sponsored propaganda. This credibility is more important than ever as the United States faces serious and persistent threats from disinformation operations by Russia, China, Iran, other authoritarian governments, and violent extremist groups. Examples of USAGM’s efforts to counter false narratives by these adversaries and to promote freedom and democracy supported by this budget request are provided below. ■ BUILDING ON THE SUCCESS OF THE RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE CURRENT TIME NETWORK – Launched in 2017, the Current Time television and digital network provides Russian-speakers across Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and as far away as Israel, access to accurate, topical, and trustworthy information. Led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, Current Time serves as a reality check on the disinformation that drives conflict in the region. Current Time has doubled USAGM’s weekly audience to 7.9 million Russian-speaking adults. Current Time currently has more than two million followers across social media platforms and more than 800,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel. USAGM anticipates that these figures will continue to climb through investments in FY 2020 and beyond. ■ ENHANCING THE PROGRAMMING OF USAGM’S NEW 24/7 PERSIAN-LANGUAGE GLOBAL NETWORK, VOA365 – In Iran, where the government bans satellite dishes and restricts online access to international media, VOA365 has been able to evade censorship to deliver programming to Persian-speakers, covering the Iranian regime’s corruption and issues of inequality, which have sparked continuing widespread protests, and countering disinformation about United States policy and actions in the region. In collaboration with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, VOA365