Targeted Inspection of the U.S. Agency for Global Media: Journalistic Standards and Principles

Summary of Review
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted the fieldwork for this targeted inspection from April 30 to June 5, 2020, ¹ to assess how the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its five broadcasting entities² complied with the statutory requirements of the U.S. International Broadcasting Act of 1994 that relate to journalistic professionalism, independence, and integrity. OIG focused its review on two core questions:

• Does USAGM and its five networks have in place effective policies and internal controls governing journalistic standards and ethics consistent with the requirements in the 1994 Act, including sufficient policies and procedures to monitor and address real or alleged content inaccuracies, bias, and ethics violations?
• Does USAGM and its five networks have established effective communication, training, and employee workplace practices and policies to ensure awareness of, and compliance with, journalistic standards and ethical principles?

The 1994 Act bars OIG from evaluating the philosophical or political perspectives of broadcasting content. ³ Therefore, OIG did not assess network journalistic content. In addition, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, OIG used Internet-based communication applications to conduct interviews and observe meetings.⁴

With respect to the first question, OIG found USAGM and its five networks developed guidance documents that turned the broad standards and principles of the 1994 Act into detailed, codified journalistic practices and ethical behaviors that could be communicated, trained, monitored, and enforced. All five networks conducted standards-guided reviews of journalistic content at multiple levels, from the basic daily editorial workflow to annual program reviews and spot content checks. Most network content received at least two levels of editorial oversight before being published or broadcast. USAGM’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) strengthened USAGM oversight of standards at the networks through more consistent and well-documented processes for annual program reviews of network content quality. However, OIG found that the Voice of America (VOA) only conducted program reviews for approximately half of its language services.

OIG found that prior to March 2020, USAGM lacked uniform policies and procedures across the five networks to improve its response to violations of journalistic standards. USAGM’s action to strengthen oversight was prompted by a violation of editorial standards at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) in 2018. After commissioning an external review, USAGM pressed reforms on OCB to improve journalistic standards. Those reforms were progressing but needed to be better communicated to the staff. With respect to the second question,

OIG found that USAGM and network leadership generally modeled journalistic standards and independence; they communicated the importance of such standards and independence and took their protection seriously. All networks except OCB clearly communicated the standards used to guide their journalistic work both internally and to the public. All networks conducted some training on journalistic standards and ethical conduct, but mostly on an ad hoc basis. The lack of professional development training plans made the initiatives more incident-driven than systematic.

This report includes four recommendations to improve USAGM and network adherence to journalistic standards and principles. USAGM concurred with all four recommendations, ⁵ and OIG considers the recommendations resolved (see Recommendations section of this report).

_{1 OIG concluded its fieldwork for the inspection prior to the tenure of CEO Michael Pack, who assumed his duties on June 9, 2020.
2 The five entities are Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
3 Section 6209a(b), Respect for journalistic integrity of broadcasters: “The Inspector General of the Department of State and the Foreign Service shall respect the journalistic integrity of all the broadcasters covered by this chapter and may not evaluate the philosophical or political perspectives reflected in the content of broadcasts.”
4 See Appendix A for details of OIG’s objectives, scope, and methodology for this inspection.
5 USAGM did not provide formal written comments on this report. OIG’s guidance to USAGM, when it was sent the draft report for review and comment, stated that if formal written comments are not submitted, OIG will conclude that the agency concurs with the recommendations. Although formal written comments were not submitted by USAGM, it did provide technical comments from three of the broadcast networks—VOA, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. OIG took these technical comments into consideration as it prepared the final report for publication.}