EDITORIAL
Top Trump ally Elon Musk now has global media support in his sights, and the world’s dictators – Min Aung Hlaing included – stand to benefit.
Until February 8, few outside the media industry had heard the name “Internews”.
But then Wikileaks discovered its existence, tweeting breathlessly that the United States Agency for International Development has “pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, ‘Internews Network’”.
Wikileaks seemingly dropped a bombshell: Internews had “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people in a single year and “training” more than 9,000 journalists. The tweet, viewed almost 8 million times, added that Internews “has also supported social media censorship initiatives”, an apparent reference to fact-checking and anti-disinformation work on platforms like Facebook.
The use of scare quotes around “worked with” and “training” inferred an ulterior motive on the part of Internews and its paymasters. It inevitably caught the eye of Mr Elon Musk. The mega-rich tycoon and appointee of President Donald Trump took time out from illegally shutting down USAID to make sure a further 25 million people were made aware that Internews was a “literal state propaganda network”. After all, it had taken money to “train journalists” and “tackle disinformation”.
What does Internews actually do? In Myanmar, it has indeed trained thousands of journalists. It has helped fund independent media outlets. It has helped to tackle disinformation. These should not be controversial or sinister. The resulting news coverage has helped inform readers inside and outside Myanmar about the military regime’s horrendous abuses as it clings determinedly to power.
Internews is not the only international NGO that works with Myanmar media. It may not necessarily be the best. We wouldn’t know: Frontier has not received a grant from Internews, despite applying several times.
But we have received a USAID grant before, prior to Myanmar’s 2020 election. Generally speaking, the agency is overly bureaucratic, with a love of logframes, planning and budgeting that places a heavy reporting burden on recipients (which is ironic given Musk’s allegations about waste and mismanagement at the agency).
Aside from the red tape, the “pass through” – the amount that an intermediary like Internews takes from a grant before doling out the rest to local organisations – is another oft-cited criticism. But the funding meant we could cover the 2020 election far more extensively than would otherwise have been possible.
There is no doubt that Internews, and USAID support more broadly, plays an important role in supporting independent journalism in Myanmar. That’s nothing really to be afraid of, unless you’re junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. He, like dictators everywhere, will no doubt be thrilled at the White House’s decision to freeze USAID support. With less independent reporting, the junta – now backed by Beijing – will have more chance to influence, if not control, the narrative. It’s hard to see how that is in US interests.
If anything, the attacks on USAID since Donald Trump’s inauguration last month have only underlined why we need journalists. Musk, the White House and their supporters have made countless baseless claims about its activities. The US$50 million for condoms in Gaza? Nope. $6 million for tourism in Egypt? Nope. Billions of dollars “STOLEN” from USAID and seemingly funneled to “FAKE NEWS MEDIA”, in what Trump called potentially “THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL”?
Thanks to professional journalists, we know all these claims – and many others about USAID – are simply false.
News organisations and the reporters they employ may not be perfect; we make mistakes more than we would like. But in a world awash with disinformation and misinformation, the truth matters more than ever.
