... >> and you are watching the "the communicators" on c-span. we are at the broadcasting board of governors this week. this is an agency that houses voice of america and radio markey and radio free europe, middle east broadcasting and we will learn how these government agencies broadcast america's message to the world. we want to introduce you to amanda bennett who started a new

job. what is that job? >> guest: i am the director for the voice of america. >> host: what does that mean? >> guest: it means i get to work with a couple thousand of the most talented and interesting germ journalist in the world which is really exciting. >> host: how did you get the job? >> guest: i think we thought it was a good fit. >> host: you have been editor of the bloomberg news, the philadelphia inquire, jow spent time at the "wall street journal". this is a government job. how is it different? >> guest: it is journalism and that is the same no matter who practices it. we have the obligation by the charter to tell america's story. we are the voice of america after all. what that means is we have a giant beat.

i know how to cover a beat. journalist know how to cover beats. >> host: but can you be critical of u.s. policy in this position? >> guest: the voa charter and as far as i know it is always been the governing ruling law of this organization is that we will tell the truth. good news, bad news, we will be fair, we will be honest, and credible. >> host: what attracted you to coming here? >> guest: a couple of things. one was, as i say, there is an amazing group of journalists here who report and write both from the united states and their own countries in their own languages. but also, when you think about what is going on in the world. the mission of voice of america which is to tell america's story in places where they cannot hear america's story -- i cannot think of anything more important to do as a journalist right now. >> host: when you were

contemplating whether or not to take the job. what were you thinking i would like to do this or i could do this better. >> guest: when you talk to people inside you hear there is an incredible hunger to get on the train and get even more on the train because they are on the train of all of the fantastic different ways you have to communicate with people. every organization in the world is struggling with making this happen. the opportunities are fantastic. we are broadcasting and we are writing and reporting all over the world and the world is very quickly adopting all kinds of communication and our ability to use those forms of communication are multiplying our ability to communicate with people. >> host: how does voa support democracy in your view? how does it improve america's image in the world? i don't know if improve is the correct word.

>> guest: 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 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 retributioretri. and just by exhibiting and practicing those values it is a powerful message to the people of the world about how important those kinds of freedom are and what you can accomplish when you have those freedoms. >> host: is director of the voa a political position or career position? >> guest: it is a white house appointed position and reports

to an independent board of directors. >> host: did you meet congressional approval? >> guest: i did not. >> host: does it end when the president's term ends? >> guest: no, john reports to the board which is a continuing entity. >> host: amanda bennett is the brand new director of voice of america. >> john lansing, what is the broadcasting board of governors? >> it is appointed by the president, confirmed by the senate who oversee five entities. voice of america, radio free asia, radio flee europe, liberty, middle east broadcasting service and the office of cuba broadcasting. >> host: and wauz your job? guestgust i am the ceo of all that. if that is possible.

>> host: what is the coordination between the different networks? >> guest: it has never been better. when i came in in september we formed the international committee that takes the president of all five networks collectively and forms a group and they report directly to me. they coordinate on efficiency to operate more efficiently with federal tax dollars but also and perhaps more importantly operate strategically so we can have greater impact in parts of the world where free mess is limited or nan existence and we are the only presence and impact that could be felt from a free press. >> reporter: >> host: what are the hot somewhats you are focus on today? >> guest: russia, china and the areas around china, all of the violent extremism we think of as the middle east but it is a stateless problem as it can emerge almost anywhere as we have seen in europe recently.

cuba. and iran. >> host: 775 million a year in the budget. >> guest: 750 right now. we hope to move it up. >> host: is it enough? >> guest: it is never enough for the job that we have. i think we are doing a good job in how we are pending that money in service to a free press and engaging and connecting people around the world but we are up against competition. russian media outspends u.s. media significantly as does china state sponsored media and we are up against competition trying to stop our work and shutdown out satellite signals into these areas or trying to cramp down on our internet distribution. so it is not only the money spent with a competitive media but money also that other competitors in the world use to try tostifle our work. >> host: it ted lansing is something 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 vbg that you use? >> guest: historically this all began with radio in the post world war ii era. but in the last three to five years we have seen social media, digital mobile social media platforms being the most effectiveal means for communicating in parts of the world where free media is difficult to find. and it is 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 have 42 different newsrooms. we broadcast 24/7 in 42 different languages around the world.

you will see work being done in certain parts of the world that require radio because there is no access. i am thinking of like north korea or china or tibet. there are other parts of the world where there is a chance to leap frog to next generation media. kroos across all of sub-saharan africa we are seize an increase in mobile phones and social media platforms. it isn't just allowing us to send a single message but it allows us to create a conversation among one another in those areas and we are the facilitator of that conversation. in iraq and syria one of the goals is to raise the voice of modera moderate. the middle east broadcasting launched an innovative program called raise your voice where it is facebook managed conversation around a single question that is

supported by a tv documentary or radio show and people get on and talk with one another and raise the voice about people that want to do something about the violent extremism and crisis of isis. it is evolving from a signal in one place to where the platform is allowing people to talk to one another and have a greater impact. >> host: we just a couple blocks from capitol hill. what is your connection/relationship/work with congress? >> guest: frequently. hardly a week goes by when i am not meeting with somebody on capitol hill. the senate foreign relation committee and house. they are very supportive. since i have only been on the job 7-8 months i have had the

opportunity to meet with several people in congress, people who support our work, it gives us the chance to talk about how we are evoling, changing, coordinateing, being strategic and using taxpayer dollar to align with u.s. foreign palmacy through the expression of objective journalism -- policy -- and demonstrating the value of objective free press to parts of the world that simply just don't have it. >> host: john lansing is the ceo of the broadcasting board of governors and the mission statement for the isgroup is to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy. thanks for your time. >> thank you, peter. >> host: what is current time? >> it a -- it is a unique

television program. it is coproduced by two entities, voice of america and radio free europe. voice of america is head quartered in washington and radio liberty is head quartered in prague. so it is a transatlantic show. we have anchors on both sides. we have an anchor in washington and an anchor in prague and they talk to each other. between the two of them they are trying to cover everything that might be interesting to the target audience which is russian-speaking audiences we like to think all around the world but it is targeted to the neighboring countries. countries that are neighboring russia. they are still having very

sizable russian speaking population. news delivered by russian state sponsored television programs. so the view of the reality they get is a little skewed let's say. so by targeting these people, it goes online on our site, on the current times site, and also available to anyone who speaks russian all over the world and the people who live in the russian federation. >> host: when you watch russia today what is your reaction? >> guest: very skillfully and expensively produced propaganda. i would say a lot of professionals work there and produce high quality materials.

maybe if you take each separate one by itself it would seem all right. a lot of times. but the thing is when you put together it creates an alternative reality that is present today the world in english and spanish and i don't know what else. german maybe. arabic. >> host: is current time a news program? does it focus on the u.s. point of view? >> guest: that is how we separate our uniqueness in terms of sharing with free liberty. they are based in prague and have a large network of reporters all over europe and in russia and in the countries where current time is being shown. we come from washington. so they kind of -- they cover

local events. we cover u.s.' perspective on the events that are taking place in the target area. >> host: we are in the middle of presidential campaign here in the united states. what kind of reporting does current time do on that? >> guest: we do magnificent elections on u.s. campaign. that is one of the main topics. it is such an exciting topic for russian audiences. as you know in russia they had mr. putin for the last, what, how many years? and people there kind of -- i feel like are a little cynical on elections. no matter what you do it is what they decide that happens. and watching the u.s.' election campaign is extremely exciting. we have reporters who go to primaries, caucuses, who report from the street, are going to private conventions, we run, you

know, packages about television stories about republicans, democrats, young, old, i mean the whole american society that is invigorating, participating, actually feeling like they have something to do with who the next president will be. i think it is a very important topic for us. and we will have people going to -- and people go live into current time from all over the country. wherever they are, by using new technologies to current time, and be there and be present and get that excitement and get that specific american angle on things. in the countries that we are targeting and have our show in both ukraine, georgia, moldova, we are partnering with the

channels that actually run "current time". it goes on the air every day at say 7 p.m. in the ukraine. >> host: and now joining us here on the "the communicators" is the ukrainian language service. what do you do? >> hos >> guest: we produce, interview, broadcast, go live on the air in all possible ways and all possible domains. television, social media, zee a couple tv shows, different types of shows, news shows, russian-run show, even ukrainian because of the war and we are trying to accommodate russian

speaking population in ukraine. >> host: how did you get here? >> guest: i got here ten years ago. when i came at a the united states i was a political refuge from ukraine. i started working with liberty for a couple of years and then work of america wanted to expand their television. since i had a lot of experience with television in ukraine -- i was a journalist, reporter, broadcaster, producer, they invited me and i said yes, because i was interested to do more television. i came because my husband, a crusader journalist in ukraine who created the first internet newspaper in ukraine, he was murdered in ukraine 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 not safe anymore to stay in ukraine. and united states government gave me support and gave me a chance for a new life here in the united states. >> host: is your message getting through to the ukraine? what is that message if you want to share? >> guest: my message is actually what i see my mission is; it to inform and build the bridges between my country and the united states and my country and ukraine because both are mine. i feel very related to my nation, to ukrainians, and at the same time this country gave me a new life so i want to connect. i want to give them more understanding about the world

around meaning ukrainians because we are broadcasting to ukraine. and i see that our message our heard. we are serving the ukrainian se services for all ukrainian tv channels. none of the media has a representation here in the united states. so basically they reach to us were fr help and we are covering all of the u.s. stories, a lot of national stories, a lot of american politic stories for ukrainians on different television. we are playing a very vital role for ukrainian media and not only informing but more even getting them standards. ukrainian media is still developing and there is a lot of dependency on oligarchs and they are trying to use their media

outlets as a tool in their hands. and what we do at voice of america is we are showing them how to do fair, un-bias television or information. >> host: your ceo described you as the tom brocraw of ukraine. what is your reach? you have been gone for 15 years. what is your reach like right now? >> guest: last year we had a resource. so we had 7 million viewers for one of our television shows. so basically it is around 18%. people are educated and informed and want to know more. >> host: gonzalez is the

director of office of cuba broadcasting known more familiarly as radio and tv markey. when did that get started? >> guest: it first started 30 years ago. >> host: why? >> guest: because it was needed to provide information to the people of cuba. radio is still the one that is very, very useful. it is a social media market. you go into cuba more often through social media most often. >> host: where is your tv production and how does that end up on cuban satellite or tv?

>> guest: it started in washington. it was a few years ago that it was moved to miami. our signal is intended to get into the island through some affiliations because people have direct tv in cuba. some people go buy direct tv in the mainland and then they go back to cuba and provide a service. they sneak the signal of direct tv and have lots of channels. i don't know if you are familiar, but there is a thing how cuban's get to see television. you are burning the programming from anywhere and distribute. >> host: now that u.s. policy toward cuba is changing is the

mission changing? >> guest: i don't think the mission changes in any way because cuba has not changed in regard to the reasons why we are there. all of that hasn't changed. when you have a region where there is no freedom of speech or access to information and that hasn't changed at all. >> host: how did the covering of this happen? >> guest: we have the biggest network of independent journalists in cuba. for the years it has been in business, we have been creating and posturing journalism in independent journalism and ir ironically when all of the journalist went to rodchester to cover obama's vistt the

government doesn't recognize independent journalists so they were declined. >> host: what does marti mean? >> guest: it was one of the biggest leaders and thinkers in cuba. it means you think by yourself. >> host: what do you do here at voice of america? >> guest: i am the director of voice of america persia. >> host: where do you broadcast? >> guest: through iran and the persian population. >> host: how big is that region?

>> guest: our main audience is iran but we have afghanistan and kurdish as well. >> host: how long has the persian language division been around? >> guest: it started during world war ii so it has been known the too iranians for 17 years. it started as a radio news service to cover the war but also help advance the ali -- allied interests. the internet in iran is tightly controlled and it is heavily filtered. tens of thousands of web sites are blocked and even the most poplar ones, social media, twitter and facebook and so forth. and we know that because our website is blocked. people have to go through vpn. virtual private network to get

to our website just to make sure big brother is not watching and they should get to what we have. -- they can. according to freedom house it is a very restricted society. the 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 of the difficulties, the shutdown of the -- the blocking of the poplar sites and so forth, our website just last year jumped 46% percent as far as views were concerned and that was mainly thank do is the jcpoa and the nuclear deal. we are moving forward with our internet despite all of the difficulties iran is creating and i am sure it is going to continue. >> host: you have been watching the "the communicators" at the