Jamie Fly, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, is a former president and chief executive of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Authoritarians have long practiced the cynical art of manipulating information to stifle dissent and shape international perceptions of their regimes. But in the digital age, they are armed as never before, reaching into other countries to influence political discourse and spread conspiracy theories.

How should the United States counter these unrelenting, damaging campaigns by Russia, China, Iran and others? How should we reach out to global audiences inundated with disinformation and slick lies?

To some, such as Michael Pack, the Trump administration’s chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the apparent answer is more government control of federally funded, multimedia international broadcasters, which include the federal networks Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and the private entities overseen by the USAGM: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. The latter organizations are intended to function as sources of unbiased news in regions where the free press is beleaguered or nonexistent.

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