[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 93 (Friday, June 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1257-E1258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY OF DAVID HOFFMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2001

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to request that 
the testimony given by David Hoffman, President of Internews in Arcata, 
CA, be submitted into the Congressional Record. Mr. Hoffman's valuable 
testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign 
Operations is as follows:

Testimony to the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, 
      and Related Programs by David Hoffman, President, Internews

       Electronic media are the most powerful force for social 
     change in the world today. As Americans, we live and breathe 
     in the information age. Media are central to our economy, our 
     culture, our political system and our everyday lives.
       But in many countries around the world, free media can by 
     no means be taken for granted. In Russia, President Putin has 
     prosecuted Victor Gusinsky, whose influential television 
     network has been critical of the government. In Ukraine, 
     Prime Minister Kuchma has been accused of ordering the murder 
     of a dissident journalist. In China, the government 
     selectively censors Internet web sites that challenge the 
     official version of events. In Iran, dozens of newspapers 
     have been banned and their editors thrown in jail. In 
     Zimbabwe, journalists have been beaten and jailed. In 
     Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, independent television stations 
     have been suppressed.
       And of course, former President Milosevic used state media 
     as a propaganda weapon to foment hatred and violence in the 
     Balkans. But with US government funds, Internews and other 
     NGOs were able to provide critical support to independent 
     broadcasters in Serbia that formed the nucleus of opposition 
     to the Milosevic regime. In Serbia and many countries around 
     the world, independent media have been on the front lines in 
     the fight for freedom and democracy.
       With significant funding from USAID, Internews helped 
     developed 1500 independent, non-governmental broadcasters in 
     23 countries. During the past ten years, we have also trained 
     16,000 media professionals.


                        IMPORTANCE OF OPEN MEDIA

       In all these countries we have learned that open media are 
     essential for holding free and fair elections, for exposing 
     corruption and human rights abuses, for allowing the free 
     exchange of ideas. American support of uncensored news 
     outlets, therefore, should be at the top of our foreign 
     policy agenda.
       America's goal should be the development of a global 
     ``electronic commons'' where everyone can participate in the 
     global marketplace of goods and ideas, where everyone has 
     access to multiple sources of information, where government 
     regulation of the media is kept to a minimum, where the poor, 
     minorities, women and every group that has been 
     disenfranchised in the past will have a voice.


               INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

       This Committee and this Congress can be proud of their 
     support for open media in the former Soviet Union, in the 
     Balkans and most recently in Indonesia. But there are large 
     areas of the world where open media have yet to take hold. In 
     Africa, in particular, independent media are just in their 
     infancy. We encourage the Committee to continue and expand 
     its support of open media in developing countries.
       We would like to share the key lessons that Internews has 
     learned in our nearly twenty years of experience in the field 
     of international media, and make one recommendation for the 
     Committee to consider this year.
       First, local indigenous media are the best counterweight to 
     repressive regimes everywhere. They should be supported as an 
     integral part of American foreign policy.
       Second, support for local broadcast media is the most 
     effective means for building open, civil societies and 
     healthy market economies in line with democratic ideals. This 
     support needs to be sustained for the long run until stable 
     economies and civil societies are in place.
       And third, in the developing world, locally-produced radio 
     programs and other media coverage are unparalleled in their 
     potential to effectively educate mass populations about 
     urgent social problems such as HIV/AIDS.
       We would urge the committee to give special attention to 
     this last point.


             ROLE OF MEDIA IN COMBATTING HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA

       At a time when the incidence of HIV/AIDS has reached 
     catastrophic proportions in Africa, there is an important 
     opportunity to harness the power of local media to reduce the 
     spread of this disease. Over 17 million Africans have died of 
     AIDS since the epidemic began in the late 1970s. In at least 
     eight sub-Saharan African nations, infection levels in the 
     general population are 15% or higher.
       Yet local news coverage of this epidemic is often seriously 
     flawed. African journalists do not usually specialize in one 
     particular area, so their knowledge of the issue may be 
     shallow and the language they use may inadvertently further 
     stigmatize victims of HIV/AIDS. As a recent Time magazine 
     cover story concluded, ``Ignorance is the crucial reason the 
     epidemic has run out of control.''
       By training local African journalists in how to cover this 
     issue effectively and responsibly, as Internews has done in 
     Russia and Ukraine, we can reduce the ignorance and fear that 
     exacerbate the suffering. One of the biggest challenges of 
     the AIDS pandemic is in reaching young audiences with needed 
     information before they become sexually active. By focusing a 
     media campaign on pre-pubescent African children, we can 
     begin to get ahead of the spread of this deadly virus.
       Internews therefore requests that this Committee recommend 
     funding in the amount of $2 million for Internews to 
     implement a media training program to combat the spread of 
     HIV/AIDS in Africa.
       As elected officials; you know better than most the 
     unequalled power of the media to inform and motivate the 
     public. In Africa and the developing world, nothing is more 
     effective than hearing local people on the radio speaking in 
     their local dialect. If we can educate those voices about the 
     true nature of the HIV virus, we can begin to change the 
     attitudes and practices that have allowed this disease to run 
     out of control.


                WOMEN AND MEDIA IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

       Women in the developing world have a special role to play 
     in changing public health practices and on a wide range of 
     social issues.
       In his book Development As Freedom, Nobel Prize winner 
     Amartya Sen illustrates how increased literacy, education, 
     job opportunities, property rights and political 
     representation for women directly translate into reduced 
     infant mortality rates, lower birth rates, cleaner water, 
     reduced crime and overall national economic growth.
       If we want to see the less developed countries emerge from 
     the morass of poverty, disease and chronic warfare, there is 
     nothing more important we can do than increase the political 
     and social influence of women. One way to increase the 
     influence of women in the developing world is to open up 
     opportunities for women in the media.
       Let us train a new generation of women journalists, 
     producers and media entrepreneurs in Africa. Let us develop 
     the capacity of women's NGOs to utilize the media to deliver 
     their messages. Let us help start new radio programs that 
     address the needs of women. For example, with a grant from 
     USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives, Internews helped 
     develop the first radio program in Indonesia specifically 
     targeted to a female audience. This type of assistance 
     delivered throughout Africa would have the power to transform 
     the continent. A democratic, open media in Africa is both a 
     moral and a political imperative.


                            ABOUT INTERNEWS

       Internews is an international non-profit 
     organization that supports open media worldwide. The company 
     fosters independent media in emerging democracies, produces 
     innovative television and radio programming and Internet 
     content, and uses the media to reduce conflict within and 
     between countries.
       Internews programs are based on the conviction that 
     vigorous and diverse mass media form an essential cornerstone 
     of a free and open society. Internews projects currently span 
     the former Soviet Union, Eastern and Western Europe, the 
     Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and the United States.
       Formed in 1982, Internews Network, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) 
     organization incorporated in California, with offices in 23 
     countries worldwide. The organization currently has offices 
     in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, 
     Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, 
     Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 
     Kosova, France, Belgium, Israel/Palestine, Indonesia, East 
     Timor, Thailand,

[[Page E1258]]

     Iran, Rwanda, Tanzania, and the United States.
       To support independent broadcast media, Intemews has done 
     the following (as of 12/31/00):
       Since 1992, Internews has trained over 16,000 media 
     professionals in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, the 
     Middle East, and Indonesia in broadcast journalism and 
     station management.
       The organization has worked with over 1500 non-governmental 
     TV and radio stations since 1992.
       Internews has also supported the development of 16 
     independent national television networks linking 
     nongovernmental TV stations in the former Soviet Union, the 
     former Yugoslavia, and the West Bank and Gaza.
       Internews has formed or helped support 19 national media 
     associations around the world.
       In 2000 Internews, working with local producers, created 
     approximately 740 hours of television and radio programming. 
     Internews' original programs reach a potential audience of 
     308 million viewers and listeners worldwide.
       In addition, since 1994 Internews' Open Skies program has 
     selected, acquired, versioned and distributed over 1000 hours 
     of high-quality international documentary programming to 
     independent television broadcasters in the former Soviet 
     Union and the former Yugoslavia.
       Just since 1995, the company has provided over $2 million 
     in television and radio production equipment to 
     nongovernmental media, in the form of grants or no-cost 
     equipment loans.
       Internews is primarily supported by grants. Funders include 
     the US Agency for International Development, the Open Society 
     Institute, the Government of the Netherlands, the European 
     Commission, the United States Information Agency, the 
     National Endowment for Democracy, the John D. and Catherine 
     T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller 
     Financial Services, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the Joyce 
     Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New 
     York, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Miriam and 
     Ira D. Wallach Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and 
     many others. The organization had a budget of $15 million in 
     2000.

     

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